This cantadora is an emblematic figure of Caribbean and Magdalena River culture, recognized worldwide. Her new album is expected to garner numerous accolades and set bodies in motion in California, Colombia, and wherever she is called to ignite the celebration.
By Juan Pablo Plata.
Canto y Río was recorded with the highest fever that the Caribbean and riverine singer Martina Camargo’s body could endure, a testament to her commitment to her musical career and the messages she conveys to preserve biodiversity and the mestizo culture tied to the Magdalena River and the Colombian Caribbean, alongside the best of any region: humanity. The album was initially going to be titled Resistencia (Endurance). And that is precisely what Camargo has embodied throughout her 30-year artistic career. She recorded the album in two stages, dissatisfied with the first version due to a cold, and replaced the backing vocalists whose tone and pitch didn’t fit. Stephanie Jiménez Ballestas, María Camila Martínez, and her daughter Daniela Mier Camargo achieved a more melodic register under the meticulous and respectful guidance of folkloric tradition and the production of Freddy Henriquez and Manuel García-Orozco.
Martina is a spirited cantadora amidst these choirs, the tambora, and the currulao drum. She is the undisputed queen of Barranquilla’s Noche del Río. A sought-after collaborator for other artists’ albums, her voice captures the joys and sorrows she has witnessed since her birth in San Martín de Loba, Bolívar, Colombia, destined to be a juglara, a bard of the Magdalena River, thanks to her mother Ubaldina Centeno and the seed of dancer, singer, and composer Cayetano Camargo (Her father). Her power, relevance, and musical mestizaje are comparable to her peers and predecessors like La Niña, Emilia Herrera, Totó La Momposina, Graciela Salgado, Eulalia González, Petrona Martínez, Ceferina Banquez, and Etelvina Maldonado, her friend with whom she shared stages and life. Changes in her tambora ensemble were not whims, nor were the themes and titles of her songs in this and past albums, where she warned about the damages of industrial mining in her hometown with La mina de los lobanos. In 2018, at the request of the Ministry of Culture of Colombia, she performed a series of live shows in Manaure, Maicao, Santa Marta, and Carmen de Bolívar after replacing some vocalists and drummers who had left. This tour passed through the heartlands where tambora and bullerengue are born and die among the voices and lives of washerwomen, rice and corn grinders, and sand collectors. Her compositions are a logbook of the joyful and tragic events she has lived through. Her vocal cords sing to the musical and artisanal traditions of Bolívar, where clay water jugs (múcuras), wooden utensils, boats, and woven bags are crafted.
It all began for Martina in El Playón de Santa Rosa, in a light green setting by the Magdalena River, and at the first tambora festivals in San Martín de Loba. Her father later passed down the oral tradition of many songs that Martina has premiered across her albums. Cayetano Camargo, her father, once told her he wasn’t born to be a rich man’s laborer, despite early orphanhood putting him in tough situations under the care of his uncle, El Capi, who taught him farming and how to be a strong, ethical man. On one occasion, young Cayetano gave his uncle money from a corn harvest to buy a shirt, and family lore recounts that the shop clerk couldn’t believe he had earned the money honestly for such an expensive, beautiful shirt. Cayetano led street festivities during Christmas in San Martín de Loba, composing songs for the novenas on Carmen and Bolívar streets. Martina recalls: “In those streets, I did everything—bathed in the rain, danced, and sang tambora. There was a tambora dawn, and during the day, parades with emotional floats featuring characters, animals, and themes of free choice, like biblical ones: The Earthly Paradise.” From Cayetano Camargo comes the song La muletilla (Chandé) in this arduous, folkloric, and well-rounded album, which speaks of aging as a natural physical process that doesn’t dim joy and uses a crossbeam as a metaphor for support in later years. Women and traditional attire are celebrated in La Pollera, the war in Colombia appears in Me echaron del monte, and the songs Linda nuestra tierra, Tutumbú, and Plantas medicinales urge the preservation of plants, animals, humanity, and traditional culture, even through onomatopoeias mimicking fauna. The song El Kiki is inspired by the painter, photographer, and cultural promoter Manuel Antonio Mier López, Mané (R.I.P.), the father of her daughters. The kikí is a version of the hard, glossy corozo fruit, qualities Martina metaphorically uses to symbolize resilience and strength in facing life’s challenges, as strong as her Mané was.Many DJs are already lining up to request remixes of Canto y Río songs—as has happened with tracks like Guataquí, Me robaste el sueño, El niño inmaculado, and Las olas de la mar from previous albums—but only a few are chosen. Martina always listens to these electronic versions before signing royalty agreements with foreign artists who find her tambora compositions appealing. These remixes have garnered millions of streams and featured in compilations and festivals where beats and lights accompany the extraordinary singer voice. When not touring, composing, teaching dance and song, recording, or negotiating with DJs like David Novacek and Dennis Cruz, Martina’s days begin at 4 a.m. with exercise at a gym near her home in Cartagena de Indias. She then handles household chores while listening to her beloved música llanera, other bullerengue singers, or salsa brava. Currently, she’s reading Magdalena by Wade Davis while, alongside her father, daughters, vocalists, and drummers, she enriches the legendary, patrimonial dynasties of musicians like the Julio, Cassiani, and Batata families. Fans of bands like Bomba Estéreo, Pernett and the Caribbean Ravers, Malalma, or Sistema Solar will enjoy Canto y Río by a key predecessor like Martina.
This album will move bodies and souls worldwide, thanks to the teamwork of Karibona Records, led by David Lara Ramos, and Chaco World Music, produced by Manuel García-Orozco. It was recorded in Cartagena de Indias with drummers Janer Amarís Orozco and Gabriel Vega Arrieta. Jupa, Jupa! Grab your pollera and light the candle!
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