Petrona Martínez, her reaction to finally receiving the Latin Grammy statuette she won in November 2021

Petrona Martínez is known as the “Queen of Bullerengue”, at the age of 83 she has managed to reap important fruits for her from music, as well as for the music of her region itself.

Since its first production in 1989, Petrona has established itself as one of the most important folklorists of recent times, also having up to three Latin Grammy-nominated records out of the nine released so far.

The album that finally gave her the most important prize in Latin music was' Ancestras', released in 2021 and in which she brought together more than a dozen great female artists of African descent from Latin America to accompany her to sing together “as her ancestors did”.

Ancestras comprises 18 songs in which there are collaborations by fellow Peruvian folklorist Susana Baca, Cuban Aymée Nuviola, Angelique Kidjo from Benin, Africa, Llerena Martínez daughter of Petrona and Brazilian Xênia França, among others, all of them afro-descendants who joined the call of the Colombian to make the album that was worthy of recognition.

In November 2021, when the 22nd edition of the Grammy Awards took place, Petrona with her album Ancestras was nominated in the category of Best Folk Album and was finally the winner. That's what his reaction was like when he found out he had won.

Although the Bolivian woman had already won some awards such as Shock and the Radiocan Award with the album 'Las Penas Alegres' released in 2010, the Latin Grammy turns out to be an important recognition while transcending cultural boundaries by having found a point of conjunction between Afro women from different parts.

The album can be heard on different platforms and you can enjoy songs such as Ay mi gallina, San Antonio de Pauda, El Ventarrón, Los tres solitos, Parí Mujeres, as well as the reflections that Petrona herself makes about the Future of Bullerengue, as it is titled on the album.

Now, after a few months of waiting, the artist finally received the long-awaited Grammy Award in her hands without being able to hide her emotions when she saw it.

The person in charge of delivering the gramophone, with the permission of her children, was the artist and folklorist Mayté Montero who also collaborated in the production of the album, being Petrona's representative in Miami when it came up to receive the statuette in the middle of the ceremony.

Petrona makes history for Colombian music, but also for Afro-Latin music with this award, leaving a mark that, as she tells on one of the recordings of her album Ancestras, “El Futuro del Bullerengue”, she hopes that the path she has carved so far with the bullerengue and the culture that has cultivated it since her first days of life.

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