Nidia Góngora

Nidia Góngora
Góngora performing with Quantic and His Combo Bárbaro in 2009
Background information
Born
Nidia Sofía Góngora Bonilla

1979 or 1980 (age 45–46)
Timbiquí, Colombia
Years active2001–present
Member of

Nidia Sofía Góngora Bonilla[a] (born 1979 or 1980) is a Colombian singer and songwriter. Góngora writes and sings in traditional styles of music from the Colombian Pacific. She has released several albums with her group Canalón de Timbiquí and as a solo artist, most recently Pacífico Maravilla in 2025.

Biography

Nidia Sofía Góngora Bonilla[1] was born in 1979 or 1980 in Timbiquí, in the Colombian department of Cauca.[2] She was born in the house of her grandparents, who named her after Nydia Quintero Turbay, at that time the First Lady of Colombia.[1] Góngora's mother Libia Oliva Bonilla was a well-known singer in Timbiquí.[3][4]

Góngora leads the band Canalón de Timbiquí, which she formed in 2001 as a "branch" of a group called Canalón that she had been a part of while at school in Timbiquí.[5][6] With Canalón de Timbiquí she has released four albums: Déjame Subí (2004), Una Sola Raza (2011), Arrullando (2016), and De Mar y Río (2019), which was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award for Best Folk Album.[4] Góngora founded the music school Fundación Escuela Canalón in Cali, which was the meeting place of the group De Mar y Río, who named themselves after the Canalón de Timbiquí album.[4][7]

Since 2011, Góngora has collaborated with English musician Will Holland, known professionally as Quantic. They have released two albums together, Curao (2017) and Almas Conectadas (2021).[8][9] Góngora and Holland are also both members of Ondatrópica, alongside Mario Galeano of Frente Cumbiero, which project has released two albums: Ondatrópica (2012) and Baile Bucanero (2017).[4] Góngora has also recorded with The Bongo Hop, Alé Kumá, and La Pacifican Power.[4]

In 2025, Góngora independently released the album Pacífico Maravilla.[10] The album includes a version of "Insistencia", a poem written and performed by Shirley Campbell Barr.[11] Góngora announced in January 2026 that she would be founding her own record label, Positivo Records, whose first two releases were Pacífico Maravilla and Llegó la Alborada, the debut album of Alborada de Timbiquí.[11][12]

Musical style

Góngora writes and sings songs in traditional styles from the Colombian Pacific.[4] She was introduced to the cantora tradition of the region by her mother, about which she says "the role of the cantoras is to be guardians and transmitters of a whole tradition, they are responsible for transmitting from generation to generation all the knowledge of ancestry, not only the topics related to music".[13]

Awards and recognition

In 2019, Góngora was named Afro-Colombian of the Year (Spanish: Afrocolombiana del Año) in the category of Music and the Arts by El Espectador and the Fundación Color de Colombia.[10] In 2023, a species of orchid was named Lepanthes nidiagongorana in her honour.[10]

Albums

  • Curao (2017), with Quantic
  • Almas Conectadas (2021), with Quantic
  • Pacífico Maravilla (2025)

With Canalón de Timbiquí

  • Déjame Subí (2004)
  • Una Sola Raza (2011)
  • Arrullando (2016)
  • De Mar y Río (2019)

With Ondatrópica

  • Ondatrópica (2012)
  • Baile Bucanero (2017)

Notes

  1. ^ In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Góngora and the second or maternal family name is Bonilla.

References

  1. ^ a b Luisa Piñeros (26 December 2019), "Personajes del año: Nidia Sofía Góngora Bonilla de Timbiquí" [People of the Year: Nidia Sofía Góngora Bonilla from Timbiquí], Radio Nacional de Colombia (in Spanish), retrieved 10 February 2026
  2. ^ Tom Horan (27 July 2017), "Nidia Góngora: the Afro-Colombian singer confronting macho music culture", The Guardian (interview), retrieved 10 February 2026
  3. ^ Sara Kapkin (22 August 2025), "Pacífico Maravilla, un viaje por la región en la voz de Nidia Góngora" [Pacífico Maravilla, a journey through the region in the voice of Nidia Góngora], El Colombiano (in Spanish), retrieved 10 February 2026
  4. ^ a b c d e f Jenny Cifuentes (7 December 2024), "La artista Nidia Góngora encarna la fuerza y el espíritu de la música de Timbiquí" [The artist Nidia Góngora embodies the strength and spirit of the music of Timbiquí], Radio Nacional de Colombia (in Spanish), retrieved 10 February 2026
  5. ^ "Canalón de Timbiquí celebra sus veinte años con un concierto en el Gaitán" [Canalón de Timbiquí celebrates its twentieth anniversary with a concert at the Gaitán Theatre], El Espectador (in Spanish), 8 October 2021, retrieved 10 February 2026
  6. ^ Olga Lucía Martínez (6 October 2021), "Canalón de Timbiquí: dos décadas de sonidos del Pacífico" [Canalón de Timbiquí: two decades of Pacific sound], El Tiempo (in Spanish), retrieved 10 February 2026
  7. ^ Sara Kapkin (1 March 2024), "La agrupación De Mar y Río lanzó su primer disco Bailen y gocen" [The group De Mar y Río have released their first album Bailen y gocen], El Colombiano (in Spanish), retrieved 10 February 2026
  8. ^ Russ Slater, "Quantic & Nidia Góngora – Curao", Songlines (review), no. 128 (June 2017), p. 63, retrieved 10 February 2026
  9. ^ Ammar Kalia (17 September 2021), "Quantic and Nidia Góngora: Almas Conectadas review – Colombian gold-panners go orchestral", The Guardian, retrieved 10 February 2026
  10. ^ a b c Ángela María Páez Rodríguez (28 April 2025), "Nidia Góngora lanza Pacífico Maravilla, un homenaje sonoro a esta región del país" [Nidia Góngora releases Pacífico Maravilla, a musical tribute to this region of the country], El Tiempo (in Spanish), retrieved 10 February 2026
  11. ^ a b José Antonio Minota Hurtado (30 January 2026), "Nidia Góngora, la cantante del Pacífico caucano destacada por la revista Forbes, se aventuró a crear su sello discográfico para impulsar talentos" [Nidia Góngora, the singer from the Pacific coast of Cauca featured in Forbes magazine, has ventured into creating her own record label to promote talent], El Tiempo (in Spanish), retrieved 10 February 2026
  12. ^ Isabel Peláez (5 February 2026), "Nidia Góngora: la voz maestra del Pacífico que conquistó Rusia, estrena sello discográfico y lanzará álbum sinfónico" [Nidia Góngora: the masterful voice of the Pacific that conquered Russia, debuts record label and will release symphonic album], El País (in Spanish), retrieved 10 February 2026
  13. ^ Russ Slater, "Lullabies of Life", Songlines, no. 146 (April 2019), pp. 40–43, ISSN 1464-8113
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