Morat

A farm outside Bogotá, and the name that stuck

Morat formed in Bogotá on 13 December 2011, four schoolfriends with no plan beyond playing together. The name was borrowed from La Morat, a farm outside the city where they rehearsed; their first choice, Malta, was dropped once it emerged that a Brazilian band held the trademark. The instrumentation was unusual for Latin pop of the period and remains so: Juan Pablo Villamil on banjo, ukulele and guitar against Juan Pablo Isaza's guitar, piano and lead vocal, Simón Vargas on bass and synthesisers, and four voices stacked on almost every chorus.

The outside world noticed in 2015, when Paulina Rubio recorded Mi Nuevo Vicio with them. The debut album, Sobre el amor y sus efectos secundarios, followed in June 2016 and did its heaviest commercial work in Spain, a market that has stayed central to the band ever since: Cómo te atreves reached number two there and 23 in Mexico, and the group took Song of the Year at the LOS40 Music Awards in 2017. Founding percussionist Alejandro Posada left as the touring load grew; Martín Vargas took over the drums and completed the line-up that has held since.

Asked in January 2026 to account for what the band actually is, Simón Vargas gave the least promotional answer available — a band of friends who got together to make music because it seemed like fun. Isaza, in the same interview, framed the 2026 touring year as the one in which they reconnect with the teenagers who started the thing fourteen years earlier.

Five albums, and the sound that got them the award

The catalogue is steady rather than scattered. Balas perdidas arrived in October 2018, ¿A dónde vamos? in July 2021 and Si ayer fuera hoy in November 2022, each carrying its own touring cycle — the Balas Perdidas run in 2019, the ¿A dónde vamos? dates across 2021 and 2022, and the Si ayer fuera hoy world tour in 2023. Across that stretch the Latin Recording Academy nominated them twice without result: Best New Artist in 2016 and Best Pop Album in 2019.

Ya es mañana, the fifth studio album, came out in May 2025 through Universal Music and pushed the guitars forward, leaning on a 1990s reference point rather than the acoustic frame of the early records. Camilo appears on Me toca a mí and Jay Wheeler on Sin ti. The release coincided with the Asuntos Pendientes tour, which carried the band into stadium-scale shows before the current cycle began. Villamil has described the trajectory since Si ayer fuera hoy as constant evolution within pop and rock, with the rock end of that pairing now doing more of the work.

Two 2026 singles have extended the record rather than replaced it. February brought their version of Tu cárcel, the Los Bukis song written by Marco Antonio Solís — a straight grupero standard handled without irony, and now a fixture of the live set. Lo poco que yo quiero followed and has taken a slot in the main-stage run-in. Martín Vargas said in November 2025 that the band were already writing what would become the next record while planning the tour.

Where they stand in October 2026

The 26th Latin Grammy Awards on 13 November 2025 gave Morat Best Pop/Rock Album for Ya es mañana — their first win, at the third attempt. Vargas had gone into the ceremony saying the third nomination would be the charm.

What followed is the largest routing of their career. The Ya es mañana World Tour opened in Bogotá with six nights at the Movistar Arena between 14 and 23 August 2026, moved to Santiago for six nights at the Movistar Arena on 8, 9, 10, 14, 15 and 16 September, then to Buenos Aires, where the run began on 23 September and filled six dates at the Movistar Arena with an expected aggregate above 100,000 people. Colombian coverage in February 2026 put the tally at 24 sold-out dates across Latin America and Spain, with the claim — repeated widely, and not seriously contested — that no other Latin band is currently selling out large arenas consecutively and simultaneously in Chile, Argentina, Colombia and Spain.

The Spanish leg is in progress as of mid-October 2026. Nine shows run across two weeks: Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona on 16 and 17 October, Navarra Arena in Pamplona on 21 October, Roig Arena in Valencia on 23 October, the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo in Seville on 25 October, and four nights at the Movistar Arena in Madrid on 27, 28, 30 and 31 October. All nine are 20:00 starts, with tickets from 39 euros.

The show, and the wristband that picks a song

The current production is built around a split stage and a piece of audience mechanics. The main stage is dressed with translucent fabric hung between the band and the floor, lit from behind so the group appears and disappears inside it; a B-stage sits out in the arena for an acoustic-leaning middle block. Every ticket-holder gets a light-up wristband that also functions as a ballot: three songs are offered and the crowd votes for one, so a slot in the B-stage sequence changes from night to night. Punto y aparte won the vote in Buenos Aires on 23 September; En coma won on the opening night in Santiago on 8 September. During MTV a fan is brought up to film the band from the stage, with the footage thrown onto the screens.

Lengths vary by room. Rolling Stone en Español counted 26 songs at the Bogotá opening; the first Santiago night ran to 24; the Buenos Aires opener was logged at around 20 plus encores. The shape is consistent — a main-stage opening block that starts with Llamada perdida, Amor con hielo and Me toca a mí and runs through Aprender a quererte, Ya es mañana and No se va; the B-stage detour with the voted song; a return to the main stage for Desastre naturaL, Lo poco que yo quiero, Cómo te atreves, Faltas tú and Besos en guerra; then an encore that closes on A dónde vamos and 506.

Reviews of the opening nights have converged on the same reading: a band that has stopped selling youth and started building a production with a thesis. Rolling Stone en Español judged the lighting design to go beyond the obvious, called the material proof that the group is not a passing phase, and predicted the tour would be remembered for its craft rather than its gross.

After Madrid

The routing does not stop with Spain. Mexico City's Palacio de los Deportes is booked for 6 November 2026, and listings in mid-October showed roughly 33 further dates on sale, running through Mexico, the United States and Canada and into spring 2027. Festival appearances at Tecate Pa'l Norte and Cosquín Rock sit inside that window.

Alongside the tour the band have kept their Aprender a Quererte foundation, set up in 2022, attached to the shows: proceeds from the current cycle are directed at rebuilding schools in Colombian regions hit by earthquake damage, with Isaza framing the obligation plainly — that carrying on with the concerts is the part of it they can actually do.