Awards & Winners

Rafael Escalona

Date of Birth 26-May-1927
Place of Birth Patillal
(Colombia, Cesar department, Valledupar)
Nationality Colombia
Also know as Rafael Calixto Escalona Martinez, The Master, El Maestro
Profession Composer, Diplomat, Poet
Rafael Calixto Escalona Martinez was a Colombian composer and troubadour. He was known for being one of the most prominent vallenato music composers and troubadours of the genre and for being the co-founder of the Vallenato Legend Festival, along with Consuelo Araújo and Alfonso López Michelsen. He was also a long-time friend of Gabriel García Márquez, who included him in his stories and once told him that his own masterpiece novel, 100 years of solitude, was just a 350-page Vallenato. Escalona's songs compile the history and stories of the Magdalena Department of the past 20th century. Escalona was an atypical music composer: he does not play any instruments or sing so his songs can in some ways be difficult to analyze. His songs constitute a legacy of a past generation of Colombians in his memory, a pictorial collage, full of grace, that narrates stories, customs and gossips from his region. He also left a legacy of his loves and pains, humour and poetry. In 1991 Caracol TV produced a television series named Escalona, after him.

Awards by Rafael Escalona

Check all the awards nominated and won by Rafael Escalona.