Calle 13, a musical duo hailing from Puerto Rico, is returning to Colombia to offer a free show at the Plaza Simon Bolivar in Bogota on May 14th, 2014.
Organized by the city’s public media station, the third annual “Concierto de la Esperanza” (Concert of Hope) takes place 11 days before May’s presidential elections. Previous years have brought internationally known recording artists like Manu Chao and Cafe Tacuba to the Colombian capital.
According to a statement released by Canal Capital, “Calle 13 was selected for this concert because it is a group that sings about democracy, the freedom of expression, inclusion, the dream of a unified Latin America, that reveals the existance of inequality and rejects the invisibility of the poor, and also respects human rights, values that the” city has identified as priorities.
The show will be the 14th for brothers Rene Perez (Residente) and Eduardo Cabra (Visitante) off their Multi-Viral Tour, which starts March 1st in Buenos Aires and passes through Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile and Venezuela on its war to Colombia.
“Multi-Viral” is also the name of Calle 13’s most recent album-titled single, which features a collaboration with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and Rage Against the Machine’s guitarist Tom Morello. The duo put out a self-produced music video to accompany the song, filmed in the Palestinian towns of Belt Sahour and Bethlehem.
“I believe we were giving a message of peace, of calm, without getting on the their knees. And that is what is happening in the video: without giving up ideals, staying upright and firm, but with a peaceful message,” explained Reisidente to Spanish wire service EFE.
The new single illustrates the group’s diversified sound and represents a significant shift from their Reggaeton roots.
Since Calle 13’s first release of their 2005 self-titled album, the group has gained notoriety throughout the Spanish-speaking world, accumulating a record-setting 19 Latin Grammys, including Album of the Year for the 2010 album “Entren Los Que Quieran.”