Champeta

Song lyrics often display the rebellious attitude of Cartagena people of African descent, challenging social and economic exclusion or relating their dreams of change and progress.

[citation needed] The word champeta originally denoted a short, curved, monkey-killing knife of the same name used in the region at work, in the kitchen, and as an offensive weapon.

Socio-cultural researchers and sociologists have established that at some time before the 1920s the term champetudo started to be applied to residents of the more outlying districts of Cartagena, who tended to be poorer and of African descent.

Its first composers were people of African descent from Cartagena and Palenque de San Basilio, later joined by songwriters and entrepreneurs from Barranquilla and other parts of Colombia.

It consisted in a fusion of African rhythms (soukous, highlife, mbaqanga, juju) with those from the Antilles (ragga, compás haitiano, also influenced by music of Indigenous and Afro-Colombian origins (bullerengue, mapalé, zambapalo and chalupa).

Abril and Soto (2004) identify as "champeta stars" those artists who have transcended their local background and signed contracts with big national and international music companies.

Torres joined the first singers of the genre to form the group Anne Swing, which achieved international fame at the end of the 1980s, appearing in the United States Top 40.