Nelson Velásquez Díaz
2nd April 2023

Nelson Velásquez Díaz (born San Juan del Cesar, La Guajira, Colombia, March 15, 1973) is a composer and romantic singer of Vallenato music from Colombia.

Nelson Velásquez is the son of the renowned cumbia singer Aníbal Velásquez, from a very young age he began in music playing the accordion, at the age of 10 or 11 he was already very well trained to do so, his first group performance was with one in San Juan called Los Sensacionales, a group that also made up his old accordion player Emerson Plata. Later on, after his journey as an accordion player and singer throughout La Guajira, Nelson Velásquez is known at a Vallenato festival by Omar Geles, the director of the Los Diablitos group, to which he is called to be part of this guild, this is how Nelson becomes the first voice of the choirs that made up Los Diablitos at that time, he participated as a chorister in three musical works recorded by this group: Tocando el cielo, 10 años de Historia and Están de moda. He also did backing vocals for groups like Los embajadores and Los chiches del vallenato and recently duetted with the Power of the North on the song “Ya no me digas” from the album Que diosito te perdone.

Trajectory With the passing of time, in 1995 the opportunity of his life was presented to him, and it was to go out on the scene as a soloist, it is there when he meets the accordion player Niky López, they form a union and leave for Medellín to launch his recording, and participate in the musical project supported by the record label Orquídea Récords, under the production of the well-known composer and director Iván Calderón, is when the first notoriety becomes relevant because the song Volver became a success without thinking about it, this song It is included in a polyphonic work that was carried out called Orquídeas Vallenatas and in which not only Nelson Velásquez participated, but also other groups, but precisely Nelson recorded with his voice four songs that make up this album: Back from the authorship of the composer Wilfran Castillo, The Death of Abel Antonio by Abel Antonio Villa himself, Help me my God by Angel Gil and I love you as you are.

After this successful experience, Nelson Velásquez went on to form a group with his friend and lifelong companion, the accordion player Emerson Plata, and that is how they formed Los Inquietos de Colombia together, and the journey of these two young people began who, with their talent , one with his melodious voice and the other with his mastery of playing the accordion, have won over millions of audiences, not only in his native San Juan and his entire Colombia; but other countries such as Venezuela, Mexico, the United States, Panama, Ecuador and Peru.

In 2006, he released his first solo work Nelson Velasquez y la nueva era, from which hits such as I have not been able to forget you, Ajena Y Vuelve vuelve and he toured Mexico where he filled the largest discotheque in America with 20,000 people. Latina located in Monterrey, at the same time receives a gold record in Mexico for exceeding 100,000 copies sold, a highly sold album in Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela. As if that were not enough, he receives the diamond orchid in Venezuela in front of 30,000 people, the highest award of the orchid awards, awards that are given by public acclamation and applause.

In 2007, he released his second solo album Conquistando corazón, from which songs such as Chance, the most viewed vallenato song on YouTube with almost 17 million views, and Por querer olvidarte, a song that was the song of the year in all of Colombia, emerged.

For the year 2009 he launches Como never from which songs such as Dare to love me, The bravest and Love me emerge. That year he toured Ecuador, Mexico, Venezuela, Panama, the United States, and throughout Colombia. In 2012, he released Un vallenato sin fronteras, from which songs emerged such as Waiting for you to come back, a song that occupied the first places of all the stations in Colombia, and the second single titled Se te acaba el amor.