The One and Only Margarita La Diosa De La Cumbia

Legendary Colombian songstress Maria de Santa Teresita Gaviria is best known by her stage name Margarita La Diosa De La Cumbia, which means the Goddess of Cumbia in Spanish. She earned this affectionate nickname by being one of the forerunners of cambia music, a dance-orientated traditional music formed by the Caribbean pollution on the coasts of Colombia. She is widely regarded as having popularised the genre commercially in Mexico, and therefore in Latin music around the world.

After singing in popular ensemble groups, the much respected diva made her solo debut in 1991 to much critical acclaim and has since reinvented herself in multiple genres from cumbia to bolero and vallenato. Her live shows are upbeat affairs, with as much dancing and signing on stage as there is in the audience. Fiery and passionate, the Goddess Of Cumbia sure knows how to put on a high-energy celebration of a show.