Celso Piña

Who is Celso Piña?

Celso Piña is a professional singer, composer, arranger, and accordionist mainly in the genre of cumbia.

Celso Piña is a pioneer in the mixture and fusion of tropical sounds with many of his works having elements of musica norteña, sonidero, ska, reggae, rap/hip-hop, R&B, etc. Piña is also known as El Rebelde del acordeón or the Cacique de la Campana.

Piña started playing music in his small town with his brothers Eduardo, Rubén and Enrique. Together they would go to several homes and perform for local citizens, especially teenage girls from their neighborhood.

In 1980, Celso Piña bought his first accordion and was introduced to the world of cumbia. He spent numerous hours of practice and work in the popular district of Colonia Independencia, south of the city of Monterrey, Mexico. Having lived for a majority of his life there, he titled one of his songs Mi colonia Independencia, which is located at the heavily populated area of Cerro de la Campana at Monterrey.

Piña's group decided to change their musical rhythm to encompass a more tropical style during the mid-1980s after having seen Aníbal Velásquez and Alfredo Gutiérrez in concert at "Baile de las Cintas". The group decided to switch into the genre of cumbia, and became what today is Celso Piña y su Ronda Bogotá.