Rawayana

Caracas, 2007

Rawayana started in Caracas in 2007 around Alberto "Beto" Montenegro on vocals and guitar, Antonio "Tony" Casas on bass and synth, and Alejandro "Abeja" Abeijón on guitar and synth. Andrés "Fofo" Story joined on drums and percussion in 2011, completing the four-piece that has held ever since; the percussionist and sampler player Orestes Gómez has travelled with them as a touring member since 2023.

The band's own term for what they do is trippy pop, which is less a genre than a licence: reggae and dub underpinnings, funk guitar, electronic production, and salsa and other Caribbean rhythms surfacing wherever a song needs lifting. Their debut, Licencia Para Ser Libre, arrived on 30 March 2011. Rawayanaland followed on 19 May 2013, and from that point the records came out through the band's own Brocoli Records rather than a major.

The records that built the audience

Trippy Caribbean, released on 7 October 2016, pushed them beyond Venezuela and brought a best new artist nomination at the 18th Latin Grammy Awards. It also marked the beginning of a long stretch of touring Latin America and the United States while Venezuela itself became progressively harder to work in.

Cuando los Acéfalos Predominan, released on 5 February 2021, was the first album to deal directly with the country's collapse, in the lyrics and in the videos, and was launched alongside an art installation in Mexico City. It set up the record that changed their situation: ¿Quién Trae las Cornetas?, released on 21 September 2023.

Two days before that album came out, on 19 September 2023, the band recorded an NPR Tiny Desk concert to promote it. The session has since passed eleven million views and functioned as the introduction for a large part of their current audience outside Spanish-speaking markets. A world tour under the album's name ran through Europe, North America and Latin America across 2024.

Veneka

The song that carried the album furthest also cost them their home market. Veneka reclaims a term used across Latin America for Venezuelans, one that turned pejorative as millions left the country. In early December 2024, at a rally in Caracas, Nicolás Maduro attacked the song directly: the women of Venezuela, he said, are called Venezuelans with respect and dignity, they are Venezuelans, not venekas. The band's sold-out Venezuelan run was cancelled on the Tuesday night that followed.

The cancellation was widely read as retaliation for the band's public sympathy with Maduro's opponents rather than as an argument about vocabulary. Rawayana have not played Venezuela since. Veneka, in a version with the Venezuelan rapper Akapellah, went on to win best Latin electronic music performance at the Latin Grammy Awards in 2025.

Two awards seasons and a second band

The run of recognition started in November 2024, when Feriado won best pop song at the Latin Grammys. On 2 February 2025, ¿Quién Trae las Cornetas? won best Latin rock or alternative album at the Grammy Awards — the band's first, and the moment their name stopped needing explanation on North American bills.

Rather than tour that win, they built something else. Astropical, released on 7 March 2025 through Sony Music Latin with Brocoli Records and Elegancia Tropical, is a twelve-song collaboration between Bomba Estéreo's Li Saumet and José Castillo and Rawayana's Montenegro and Story: tropical material drawn from the South American coastline crossed with Afrobeats. The project played its first live show at Vive Latino in Mexico City in 2025, opened a sixteen-date North American run on 24 May 2025, and reached the Hollywood Bowl on 7 September 2025. The single Me Pasa (Piscis) was certified Latin gold by the RIAA.

¿Dónde es el after?

The sixth Rawayana album landed on 1 January 2026 through Brocoli Records with distribution by Rimas Entertainment: twenty-three tracks, sixty-one minutes and fifty-four seconds, with guest turns from Manuel Turizo, Elena Rose, Carín León, Grupo Frontera, Jowell & Randy, Justin Quiles, DannyLux, Magic Juan, Mazzarri, Servando & Florentino and Joaquina. It debuted at No. 2 on Spotify's global album debuts chart and No. 1 in the United States, and has since passed eighty million streams.

Critical response split along a predictable line. The praise went to the pacing, the transitions and the refusal to sit in one genre for more than a few minutes; the complaints went to the length, with several reviewers arguing that twenty-three tracks hid a stronger album inside a longer one.

Commercially the argument is settled. Inglés en Miami, the lead single with Manuel Turizo, entered at No. 8 on Spotify's US top songs debut chart, then climbed to No. 1 on Billboard's Latin Rhythm Airplay chart dated 16 May 2026 after ten weeks in the top ten — a 27 per cent audience gain and 6.2 million impressions in the 1–7 May tracking week. It was Rawayana's first Billboard No. 1 in any format, and it went on to top the broader Latin Airplay chart the same month.

Where they stand, September 2026

On 16 September 2026 the Latin Recording Academy named ¿Dónde es el after? among the nominees for album of the year, putting Rawayana in a category alongside Anitta, Silvana Estrada, Mon Laferte, Carín León and Milo J. The ceremony is on 12 November 2026 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

The touring has been continuous. The ¿Dónde es el after? World Tour opened at the Movistar Arena in Bogotá on 17 April 2026 and sold well enough that a second Bogotá night was added for 23 April. Madrid followed in May, the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City on 7 June, three consecutive nights at the Movistar Arena in Santiago on 22, 23 and 24 August, and the Roig Arena in Valencia on 6 September.

The European leg runs through this month: the Melkweg in Amsterdam on 18 September, the Bataclan in Paris on 19 September, the O2 Academy Brixton in London on 21 September and the Movistar Arena in Madrid on 28 September. The North American leg, announced as a second phase with an artist presale on 17 March and general sale on 19 March, starts at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on 15 October, takes in Barclays Center in Brooklyn on 31 October, and finishes in Miami on 5 December. Monterrey and Toronto have been cancelled and Montreal postponed.