Move over Shakira, Colombia has a new rising star. Tanya Maku, a native of Colombia’s north-west Choco department, was selected to perform a duet with pop sensation Juanes, in celebration of the Andean nation’s bicentennial of independence on July 20.
“Her name is Tania Kaitiry Mosquera Moreno or Tanya Maku, as she is known. On guitar is Willmar from ‘Afrikantes’,” Juanes wrote via his Twitter account on Thursday, to announce that Maku had won the highly coverted gig.
Juanes ran a competition via Twitter to find the perfect female artist from the Choco department to accompany him in the duet “Fotografia,” a song he performed in the past with Canadian singer Nelly Furtado.
Maku’s stellar voice and soulful rendition of the song led Juanes to choose her from hundreds of hopefuls to sing with him as part of Colombia’s “Grand National Concert” in Quibdo, the capital of the western Choco department.
The Choco native, who resides in Medellin, is leader singer of “Afrikantes,” a group which blends reggae and dancehall into a fusion labelled “Reggaecool.”