Peru has long been famous for its rich culture, gastronomy, and iconic tourist attractions, making it a top destination in South America. But when it comes to music, the country has sadly never gotten the same level of acknowledgment as some of its Latin American neighbors. Peruvian music has stayed under the radar, with some genres remaining niche interests without widespread international recognition. But at least for Peruvian cumbia, the narrative may be starting to shift — and it’s not just through younger artists.
Cumbia has flourished in Peru for decades, evolving into distinctive sub-variants like chicha, psychedelic cumbia, and tecnocumbia. But in recent years, a new wave of interest has begun to shine a spotlight on Peruvian cumbia abroad. Boosted by social media and increasing diversity in the curation of music events, seasoned artists and pioneers of Peruvian cumbia, like Rossy War and Los Mirlos, are being discovered by new generations and international audiences, leading to music festival performances abroad.
The last couple of years have signaled a new chapter in the history of Los Mirlos, the pioneers of cumbia amazonica, aka psychedelic cumbia. It’s a variant that blends psychedelic rock-inspired guitar riffs celebrating the culture of the communities near the Peruvian jungle. This year, 52 years after releasing their first album, the band will play one of their biggest audiences ever — the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, CA. It’s a significant milestone but not an entirely new experience for the band’s well-established international career, as the band’s founder, Jorge Rodríguez Grández, remarks. “In the 1980s, we were the first [Peruvian] group to travel abroad. [We went] to Argentina to participate in the musical Las Vacaciones del Amor, and our music had an astonishing acceptance there,” he tells Remezcla.
Since then, Los Mirlos have conquered fans in Mexico, Bolivia, and Colombia and played in Canada, Germany, and the U.S., with their music reaching 180 countries total, according to their 2024 Spotify Wrapped. “Little by little, the music spread across Latin America — and then the Internet came,” says Grández. They’re also releasing a collaboration with Franz Ferdinand soon, which comes after the Scottish band paid them homage by playing “La Danza de Los Mirlos” in 2024.
Indeed, the internet played a key role in helping Peruvian cumbia expand its reach. One turning point was in 2007, when the U.S. label Barbès Records released The Roots of Chicha, which included Los Mirlos’ classics “Sonido amazónico” and “La danza de Los Mirlos.” The collection made waves among underground communities in the U.S. and Europe, exposing their music and other bands like Los Hijos del Sol to young listeners and influencing modern psychedelic cumbia groups like Los Bitchos, who credit the band’s formation to listening to The Roots of Chicha. Grández also highlights the role of the label Infopesa in exporting the band’s music and of other Peruvian cumbia artists. The Peruvian label reissues classic cumbia albums, as well as its own Peruvian cumbia curation brand, Cumbia Chichadelicas, with two volumes out so far. It also uploaded classics to streaming services, which helped global audiences fall in love with the genre.
Psychedelic cumbia is mostly instrumental, which partially explains why it sounds accessible to foreigners. For Los Mirlos, guitars are the main characteristic that distinguishes Peruvian cumbia from those made in other countries. “Cumbia always has tropical roots [regardless of where it’s made], but the guitars are what makes the cumbia from Peru distinctive. When you listen to the guitars, you know it’s [from] us,” says Grández. “People may not speak our language, but they get carried away by the guitars, the melodies, the psychedelic rhythms,” Jorge Luis Rodríguez Pérez, keyboard and guitar player and musical director of Los Mirlos, adds.
But not even the electronization of cumbia erased the guitar from the genre. In tecnocumbia, a variant of which singer Rossy War is considered the queen of, synthesizers and drum kits share the spotlight with guitar riffs such as those played by Tito Mauri, War’s husband and songwriting partner. In Brazilian states like Amapá and Pará, even non-Spanish-speakers or people without deep knowledge of Peruvian culture immediately recognize the famous guitar solo from War’s hit “Nunca pensé llorar.” In 2024, she toured the U.S. and was one of the main attractions of Festival Psica, the largest music festival in Belém in Northern Brazil. “I feel blessed to have this much love and acceptance in Brazil, not only of my music but also of me as a person,” War tells us at Festival Psica.
Her hits “Nunca pensé llorar,” “Que te perdione Dios,” and “Tonto” are wildly popular in Belém, yet it was only in 2022 that she visited the city for the first time to perform at the festival Lambateria (Los Mirlos played in the same festival in 2024). “We were trying to bring Rossy War to Lambateria for years because she has always been a reference for many Pará artists of my generation,” says musician Félix Robatto, one of the festival’s producers. “Her songs are classics here, [so we knew] her visit would be a historical moment — and it was!” War and Robatto co-wrote and recorded “Amor que sentí” together, which War performed teary-eyed at Festival Psica in December 2024. By the next month, War was back in Brazil to record on Joelma’s live album, who is the main reference of brega calypso, a genre that was highly influenced by cumbia and War, specifically.
“To be a part of [Brazil’s] musical culture is a great honor,” War says. “I am from the forest part of Peru, from a community on the border with Bolivia and Brazil. So I feel like an ambassador of my country’s music and also of the Amazonia. We have to teach the people of the world how to take care of our madre selva. Peruvian artists are achieving it little by little, and we have to keep spreading not only our music but also this [message].”
Los Mirlos agrees that cumbia acts as a unifier of peoples from the Amazonic region across South America. For the ensemble, the upcoming Coachella performance is “an opportunity to share the Amazonian culture with the world.” “We are very excited to bring our music and the culture of Peru to a festival as important as that.” Rossy War also believes Los Mirlos’ feature in Coachella’s lineup is a big step for all Peruvian artists. “I’m happy that friends of mine are taking our music to the world,” she says.
To many festival attendees, it will be their first time listening to Peruvian cumbia. But Los Mirlos say it is also common for new fans to inherit their relatives’ taste for the music. “It’s incredible to see in events that there are different crowds dancing to Los Mirlos, just like maybe their parents or grandparents did,” says Pérez. He is living proof of it: he is the son of Grández and has been a part of the band for more than 20 years. Similarly, War’s ballet features her daughter Katya Mauri, who is also a singer. “Many of my daughter’s followers tell her that they used to dress as me when they were young girls,” War says fondly.
Thanks to this intergenerational collaboration that speaks to the genre’s timelessness, Peruvian cumbia, in addition to other tropical genres, could be on the brink of a globalized resurgence similar to that experienced by artists in Regional Mexican music. It’s hard to say if the genre will get the same international recognition as its Latin American counterparts, but its ability to keep conquering audiences across half a century is proof that it has the potential to do so.
