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Los Kjarkas
artist

Los Kjarkas

Los Kjarkas is a folk artist from Bolivia formed in 1965. 83 releases are catalogued on Riffiter.

Folk · Bolivia · Best folk albums

83
Releases
1976–2026
Active years
1965
Formed

Discography

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El Álbum cover

Most popular

El Álbum

2011 · 31 tracks

Singles & EPs

2

Live & compilations

1

Past shows

All past shows →

Community

More about Los Kjarkas

About

Los Kjarkas is a Bolivian band from Capinota, Cochabamba. It is one of the most popular Andean folk music bands in the country's history. Among the styles they play are saya, caporal, tuntuna, huayno, and carnavales. The instruments the band uses include the charango, quena, zampoña, ronroco, guitar, and bombo. The band's leader has always been singer, guitarist and songwriter Gonzalo Hermosa González, who formed the band with his brothers Élmer Hermosa González and Ulises Hermosa González, as well as Gastón Guardia Bilboa and Ramiro de la Zerda in 1965. "Llorando se fue", and the Lambada plagiarism controversy

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In the mid-1980s, Los Kjarkas were at their peak of their popularity. Then suddenly a plagiarism case would catapult them even further. In 1989, a French group called Kaoma popularized a new dance called Lambada, but the song Lambada was actually an unauthorized cover of Llorando se fue, composed by Ulises Hermosa and Gonzalo Hermosa and sung by Los Kjarkas in the saya rhythm. The song had reached Kaoma after being covered by two other musicians: Cuarteto Continental (1984), and Márcia Ferreira (1986), the latter being a legally authorized adaptation into Portuguese. Then Jean Georgakarakos and Olivier Lorsac discovered Ferreira's version in Porto Seguro, Brazil, and when they returned to Paris, they registered the composition under the name Lambada, and with a fictional composer called Chico de Oliveira, which turned out to be a pseudonym for Olivier Lamotte d'Incamps, aka Olivier Lorsac, one of the producers of Kaoma. The Bolivian group had registered the song in Germany's GEMA, and afterwards both Los Kjarkas and Márcia Ferreira sued Kaoma. And that would lead to the recognition by French courts that they were the rightful owners of the song's copyrights. Kaoma had to pay a large financial compensation to Los Kjarkas and Márcia Ferreira. The incident helped Los Kjarkas become even better known in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The song was sampled by multiple artists afterwards, including on Don Omar's "Taboo" and on Jennifer Lopez's single "On the Floor".

Los Kjarkas in brief

How many Los Kjarkas releases are on Riffiter?
83 releases are catalogued, spanning 1976 to 2026.
When was Los Kjarkas formed?
Los Kjarkas formed in 1965, in Bolivia.
What genre is Los Kjarkas?
Los Kjarkas is catalogued under Folk.
What is the most recent Los Kjarkas release on Riffiter?
Bolivian Music, released in 2026.