Monsieur Periné is a group formed in 2008 and despite what you may think, they’re not French but their name definitely is! They hail from Colombia and the first time we heard the song ‘Suin Romanticón‘ was when Max Dana sent us the link to the video with a note: ‘Play the video!‘. We did and after a magical first listen it was stuck in our head, even though their best-known single is ‘Bailar Contigo‘.

The ensemble, one of the leading bands in Colombia’s new music scene, is composed of lead singer Catalina García, Santiago Sarabia (guitar, violin and charango) and Nicolás Junca on the guitar. Their style mixes elements of Gypsy / guitar-driven jazz and various Latin traditions, with swing and pop flavors. Monsieur Periné was named 2015’s Best New Artist and ‘Caja de Música‘ won them Best New Artist at the Latin Grammys. If you never heard of them before, you’ve really been missing something and we’re glad we could fix this.

So Monsieur Periné is not French, but: we read on NPR that producer Eduardo Cabra added to ‘Encanto Tropical‘ (released in May 2018) a post-colonial nod to the band’s French jazz influences in references to songs such as Guadeloupean singer Francky Vicent’s ‘Fruit de la Passion‘. On their Wikipedia page, we learn that the name of the group arose from Prieto’s reading of [French writer] Michel Houellebecq’s “The Elementary Particles”, which discusses the périnée (…) García, who initially opposed the name, later added the word Monsieur, referencing the idea that everything that is French is elegant and refined. And Catalina García studied at the French international school Paul Valery!

So we’ll say it directly: C’est le plus français des groupes colombiens and we love them. Play the video and get ready to feel the same way 🙂

Visit Monsieur Periné Facebook page and follow them on Twitter.

Tengo poco, Pero tengo todo, Lo que necesito, Para darme cariñito, Tengo poco, En este mundo loco, Y aunque sea poquito, Mi mundo es bonito…