Beéle
Brandon de Jesús López Orozco, born in 2002 in a working-class neighborhood of Barranquilla on Colombia's Caribbean coast, grew up surrounded by salsa, champeta and the African records his family favored, and has said Afrobeats became his fixation as a preteen. He launched his career at 16 with the 2019 reggaeton single 'Loco' and broke through in the mid-2020s by fusing Afrobeats with champeta, salsa and reggaeton on hits like 'Frente al Mar' (2024) and the viral 'La Plena' (2025). His music sits at the meeting point of West African groove and Colombian coastal rhythm, tropical and urban at once.
Beéle has said Afrobeats became his lodestar as a preteen, and by his own account he started writing songs after hearing Davido's 2014 hit 'Aye'; the Nigerian singer's melodic, mid-tempo Afropop is the template he fuses with his hometown's champeta and salsa.
listen forThrow on Davido's 'Aye' and then Beéle's 'Mi Refe' — notice the same loping, log-drum-style percussion and the softly melismatic, half-sung hook that glides along the groove rather than punching against it.
Beéle launched his career in 2019 with 'Loco,' a reggaeton track built on the bass-heavy dembow and conversational cadence that J Balvin's globe-conquering run made the default language of Colombian urbano; that reggaeton chassis still underpins much of his music, though Beéle hasn't singled Balvin out by name.
listen forCue J Balvin's 'Ginza' next to Beéle's 'Loco' — both ride the same unhurried dembow bounce and airy, sing-song delivery, trading aggression for a smooth, radio-ready glide.
Beéle's music carries the coastal-Colombian instinct that Carlos Vives helped modernize decades earlier — folding the Caribbean seaside's tropical rhythms and open, sun-warmed melodies into contemporary pop; you hear it whenever Beéle turns toward breezy, ocean-facing songcraft rather than club heat. This is a lineage of shared coastal sensibility rather than a stated influence.
listen forPlay Vives's 'La Tierra del Olvido' before Beéle's 'Frente al Mar' — both let a bright, lilting Caribbean groove and an unforced melody evoke the Colombian coast, more sea-air reverie than dancefloor.