Then become known internationally for that romantic reggaeton of “Una lady como tú” (2016) and “Culpables” (2018) and evolve until she navigates tropical rhythms with her hits “La Bachata” (2022) and “El Merengue” (2023) and her new album “Apambichao” (2026), Manuel Turizo He aims to stop being an artist who is pigeonholed into a specific genre. Now, the Colombian does not underestimate any rhythm and is willing to experiment with any type of music.
That openness or musical inclusion led to “La Bachata” reaching his hands, a song that changed his life and took him to unimaginable places, without even having been originally written for him, as revealed for the first time in an interview with LISTÍN DIARIO.
“They are one of those songs that all artists have, certain themes, that for more years of career, there are certain themes that become unforgettable in the career of an artist and La Bachata in my career throughout the years is going to be one of those themes that will always have to be talked about when talking about my work,” he admitted.
“Actually, I don’t know who the song was for. In reality, it was a song that I know the main idea came to a female artist before,” said the singer about the colleague who rejected the song that managed to be among the ten most listened to on Spotify globally and reached one billion views on that platform.
He said that the composer Andrés Jael Correa Ríos was the one who introduced him to the song and he immediately wanted to get involved in the creation process.
“When they showed me the main idea, it was in the voice of Ríos, a great friend of mine who was the composer who started this idea. When I heard it, my hair stood up and I said: ‘Ugh, wait, give me the track, we’re going to finish that right now, we’re going to finish that right now, come over here.’ And that same day, literally, we left it ready, we finished it, I recorded it, we left it finished, done,” he recalled.
THE CONNECTION
“It is not a different operation from the day-to-day work of creating music because you do not know which songs are going to be made that will connect the most with people, you simply in your day-to-day life creating music, every day you are connecting with things that you like, with things that you vibrate, you are living that one thousand percent. Maybe the same thing that you are connecting with will appear an absurd amount of people who will connect with that same thing simultaneously and that will have a very strong mark on your story,” he explained.
Purpose in music
Manuel Turizo, in his hometown, Montería, composed songs in his notebook during classes and at just 13 years old he began music. Regarding his purpose and what he wanted to achieve on this path, he confessed to this medium that he only wanted to make music.
Although he is sometimes called a “reggaeton player,” Turizo is a versatile artist who has managed to have several anthems outside of the urban genre, specifically in tropical music.
“I like, I think, all types of music, I like to do everything. Merengue in particular, what is it about as a genre that I like? It’s difficult to find a more energetic genre than merengue, happier, more joyful than merengue, that dances tastier as well,” he indicated.
“When I make music I’m not thinking about what I’m doing, I’m just thinking that I like what I’m doing, be it cumbia, be it reggaeton, be it a strange invention, be it a merengue, be it pop, a ballad, a bachata, whatever,” he added.
“It is not my ambition either to be the flag of any type of genre or to represent any type of genre, I make music, I simply make music, as in the evolution of making music I have come to make many types of genres,” he acknowledged.
This is also how his most recent album “Apambichao” arrived.which emerges as a variant of the Dominican merengue known as pambiche, characterized by a slower, lilting and intimate rhythm that is danced more closely than traditional merengue.
On the album, made up of a total of 15 songs available from April 9 on all digital platforms, Manuel Turizo joined Maluma for the single “Apambichao”, where they honor Colombian culture and Caribbean music. Among the collaborations, Xavi, Dei V, Luis Alfonso, Emilia, Dalmata and the late vallenato icon Diomedes Díaz also stand out.
