Andres Cepeda remains amazed by the resonance of “Bogota”, his most recent album.

“It's so personal, so dear to me, so much a part of my being, and this recognition means so much to me,” he said regarding his Grammy nomination for Best Latin Pop Album, which ultimately went to Natalia Lafourcade for “Songwriter.”

The Colombian singer was also competing in that category with Rauw Alejandro, Karol G, and Alejandro Sanz. He was in Los Angeles—where the awards ceremony took place last Sunday—to talk about his album and the process of creating it.

“Bogota” is also a song that Andres wrote for his mother, who has passed away. Writing it was difficult, and singing it even more so, he said, “but it was well worth it because there's nothing like reaching people's hearts in that way.”

The story deals with nostalgia, memories, longing, and loss. Andres had the opportunity to buy the house where he grew up, and where he returned to live two years ago. There he found a box of 8mm and Super 8 film that his father shot when the Cepeda brothers were children. Andres discovered a priceless family treasure that, after intensive restoration, became part of the song's music video. “They arrived just in time to accompany the video,” he said. "When I got to the house, I found that many things were identical; the house remained exactly the same, but obviously there was that absence that inspired me to write the song." Bogota, for its part, is the stage of Andres's life, the backdrop of his existence. And this album gave him the opportunity to introduce it to people who don't know it and who, through the songs, can imagine it, just as he did with cities like Mexico City, Buenos Aires, or Madrid, which he saw in his mind thanks to songs, film, or literature. Then he began to explore the city and visited the places that had been important to him. He unearthed memories and found more reasons to write the songs.

“Unlike many times when you make a whole album and at the end you look for a name, here it was the other way around,” he said, “here it started with a song with a title, and we went to look for all the songs that could mean something to me and represent my city.”

The fact that this album was also nominated for a Latin Grammy is a reminder, he said, that when music is made from an authentic place and from within, there is a possibility of connecting with other people.

On this album, Andres also explored cumbia for the first time alongside the Mexican group Los Angeles Azules. She recorded “Carinito,” a Peruvian song that, she said, is connected to her adolescence. The album is also a journey from the north to the south of Bogota, ending in the city center, in the La Candelaria neighborhood. “Once I had composed the first song for 'Bogota,' I came to the conclusion that yes, if I could find this inspiration, this emotion, right on my doorstep, then it was worth exploring the city and visiting those places that were iconic for me and my story, and in each one of them I found something to say,” she said. The city has changed a lot; metropolis, she said. And Bogota belongs to everyone but also to no one. one. That is why one of his intentions was to remind people that “the city is ours, and whether we were born in it or not, it deserves our love so that the city can eventually become the one we dream of.” That is why one of his intentions was to remind people that “the city is ours and whether we were born in it or not, it deserves our love so that the city can eventually become the one we dream of.” “Were born in it or not, it deserves our love so that the city can eventually become the one we dream of.”“That is why one of his intentions was to remind people that “the city is ours and whether we were born in it or not, it deserves our love so that the city can eventually become the one we dream of.”“That is why one of his intentions was to remind people that “the city is ours and whether we were born in it or not, it deserves our love so that the city can eventually become the one we dream of.”