Music Voyager: Colombia: The New Medellin

Medellín is infamous as the home of drug baron Pablo Escobar, but Music Voyager discovers that the Medellín of today is a modern, thriving city nestled in a gorgeous mountain valley. We are given a tour of a local hip-hop school and community center that is helping provide a positive outlet for inner city youth, and enjoy a virtuoso freestyle display by local hip-hop collective Crew Peligroso. Reggaeton superstar J. Balvin invites us to his luxurious penthouse apartment for a private performance of one of his hit songs on his patio overlooking the city, followed by a visit to El Cielo, one of Colombia’s best and most inventive restaurants. After a visit to the headquarters and archives of Discos Fuentes, Colombia’s pioneering record label founded in 1934, and we pull off a skin-of-our-teeth nighttime street performance with Puerto Candelaria, a quirky band that brings creative jazz arrangements to retro Colombian cumbia.