{"id":54593,"date":"2026-04-19T20:38:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T00:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/uruguay-street-music-group-goes-from-friends-jamming-to-international-fame\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T20:38:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T00:38:05","slug":"uruguay-street-music-group-goes-from-friends-jamming-to-international-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/uruguay-street-music-group-goes-from-friends-jamming-to-international-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Uruguay Street Music Group Goes from Friends Jamming to International Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay \u2014 Each Monday evening in Uruguay’s capital city, crowds of people circle around musicians in a public plaza, captivated by the rhythmic beats of drums, guitars and vocals that echo a musical tradition spanning centuries.<\/p>

What began as friends getting together to play music has transformed La Rueda de Candombe into one of Uruguay’s most celebrated musical phenomena, taking the group from neighborhood street performances all the way to France’s prestigious Cannes Film Festival.<\/p>

“What started as something among friends became visible without us intending it,” explained Uruguayan producer Caleb Amado, who helped establish La Rueda de Candombe.<\/p>

This past Sunday marked the season finale for Rueda de Candombe at Montevideo’s Plaza de Espa\u00f1a, where six musicians came together to celebrate candombe \u2014 an energetic musical style that defines this South American nation’s cultural identity and has earned recognition from UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.<\/p>

During autumn 2024, Amado and his companion Rolo Fern\u00e1ndez journeyed to Rio de Janeiro, exchanging Montevideo’s cooler weather for balmy evenings at some of Brazil’s most famous nightspots. During their visit, they experienced “rodas” \u2014 spontaneous musical gatherings where artists form circles around tables to perform while audiences stand and watch.<\/p>

Drawing inspiration from these Brazilian sessions, the duo returned to Uruguay and created La Rueda de Candombe alongside four additional musicians.<\/p>

Similar to their Brazilian counterparts, the ensemble performs seated around a table. However, their musical style remains uniquely Uruguayan: percussion, guitar and accordion create the distinctive rhythms of candombe, a genre with roots in African customs introduced to the area during the 1700s that now forms the core of Uruguay’s cultural identity. UNESCO has designated candombe as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.<\/p>

Initially, close to one hundred people crowded into Santa Catalina, a compact bar located on a peaceful Montevideo street corner, to listen to their performances. Over several months, expanding audiences forced the shows to move to the adjacent Plaza Espa\u00f1a. As their fame spread, tourist buses started appearing regularly.<\/p>

Even though Montevideo offers numerous public venues, including a 14-mile waterfront walkway, street performances occur much less frequently than in metropolitan areas such as Buenos Aires or Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>

Online platforms helped spread their reputation, attracting well-known performers. The ensemble has shared the stage with Uruguayan musician Jorge Drexler at Montevideo’s famous Centenario Stadium and produced a recording. In 2025, they received an invitation to showcase Uruguay at the Cannes Film Festival, which features cultural presentations alongside its cinema programming.<\/p>

From the 1700s onward, candombe has served as a cornerstone of Uruguayan culture. The genre originated at Plaza Espa\u00f1a \u2014 the historical port where enslaved Africans used drumbeats to preserve their spiritual practices.<\/p>

The musical form centers on three drum varieties \u2014 chico, repique and piano \u2014 and achieves its most spectacular expression during February’s carnival season, when numerous musical groups known as comparsas march through city streets.<\/p>

During the mid-1900s, candombe transformed by incorporating elements of jazz and contemporary music in a fusion called “candombe canci\u00f3n.” It became standard at social events \u2014 similar to current Rueda gatherings \u2014 while also functioning as a vehicle for cultural and political commentary throughout the 1960s and 1970s.<\/p>

With winter approaching, Amado and Fern\u00e1ndez intend to remain in Montevideo. The Rueda continues to grow, they report, while developing new initiatives, including performances at additional public plazas throughout the city.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of friends in Montevideo, Uruguay turned their casual music sessions into a cultural phenomenon. La Rueda de Candombe now draws hundreds of spectators weekly and has performed at major venues including the Cannes Film Festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":54592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[832],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1776645485318.jpg?fit=1000%2C666&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbtNqq-ecx","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28152,"url":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/argentina-and-uruguay-first-to-approve-historic-eu-south-america-trade-deal\/","url_meta":{"origin":54593,"position":0},"title":"Argentina and Uruguay First to Approve Historic EU-South America Trade Deal","author":"Admin","date":"February 26, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Two South American nations have become the first to formally approve a massive trade agreement with the European Union after 25 years of negotiations. 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