Q-Pop: Peru's social media phenomenon Lenin Tamayo fuses Quechua and K-pop
Lenin Tamayo mixes Spanish and Quechua lyrics with K-pop beats. He’s amassed more than 4.4 million likes on TikTok and released the digital album “Amaru” this month.
by Franklin Briceño | Associated Press
4 hours ago
Peruvian singer Lenin Tamayo takes a break while recording a music video in downtown Lima, Peru, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023. With his fusion of K-pop and Andean culture, the 23-year-old composer is known as the inventor of Quechua pop or Q-pop, writing songs in Spanish and Quechua. Credit: AP Photo/Martin Mejia
LIMA, Peru (AP) — What happens when you take Quechua, the most widely spoken Indigenous language in the Americas, and fuse it with K-pop, the global musical sensation with roots in South Korea?
Ask Lenin Tamayo, who has become a social media phenomenon with “Q-pop” and released his first digital album this week.
Tamayo grew up listening to his mother, a Peruvian folk artist who sings in Spanish and Quechua, a language shared by 10 million speakers in countries including Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. As a teenager, K-pop became his passion and helped him find a group of like-minded female classmates who helped fight the bullying he says he faced at school for his Indigenous looks.
Now himself a musician, the 23-year-old Tamayo has fused those chapters, mixing Spanish and Quechua lyrics with K-pop beats to create Q-pop (in which the “Q” stands for “Quechua”). He’s amassed more than 4.4 million likes on his TikTok account and released five digital singles online.
Peruvian singer Lenin Tamayo and his mother Yolanda Pinares, look at a cellphone during a break from recording a video in downtown Lima, Peru, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023. With his fusion of K-pop and Andean culture, the 23-year-old composer is known as the inventor of Quechua pop or Q-pop, writing songs in Spanish and Quechua. Credit: AP Photo/Martin Mejia
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