Chinese Singer Goes Viral in Colombia with a Champeta Song

A Chinese singer recently gained widespread attention in Colombia with a surprising Champeta song. Featuring prominent figures in the Champeta music scene, Twister El Rey and the legendary music producer DJ Chawala, the song Wandao has already amassed over 560,000 views on YouTube. Highly popular along the Colombian Caribbean coast, Champeta is a regional genre that originated from Cartagena de Indias. Derived directly from Congolese rumba, Champeta emerged in the 1970s as a fusion of African sounds and Colombian-Caribbean rhythms, characterized by its very dynamic music and dance style.

Rao de China, a Chinese singer in Colombia

Rao Fu, also known as ‘Rao de China’, is a Chinese singer from Chengdu, in the Chinese Sichuan province. He began a career in Latin music in 2023, following an extensive amateur career as a hip hop artist from his teenage years. Despite only starting to learn Spanish in 2021, Rao can already sing in Spanish and has released several songs in the language, including a collaboration with Dominican rapper La Yumi, which has garnered 934,000 views on YouTube. In Wandao, Rao is singing in both Spanish and Mandarin Chinese as an homage to his double culture.

Rao de China is not the first international artist to embrace Colombian music. One of the most notable examples is Zion Hwang, a young South Korean influencer who pursued a career as a Colombian folk music singer and achieved phenomenal success. His hit song Culpa de Quien (Whose Fault), later performed alongside Jessie Uribe, one of the genre’s leaders, has accumulated over 5.5 million views on Youtube. This success extends beyond national borders, as Colombia has even exported one of its most popular musical genres, Vallenato, to China with the band Chinastia Vallenata, which blends Chinese traditional music with the Colombian genre.