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Alt.Latino: Rawayana on their new album and a changing Venezuela

NPR Music · January 21, 2026

Alt.Latino: Rawayana on their new album and a changing Venezuela artwork

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Alt.Latino: Rawayana on their new album and a changing Venezuela

NPR Music

Sometimes life imitates art - or at least the two can seem eerily connected. On Jan. 1, the Venezuelan band Rawayana released a new album, '¿Dónde Es El After?,' which began with a lyric that many interpreted as a wish for their country's leadership to be gone. A few days later, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was ousted from power and seized by American forces. For this week's episode, we chat with Fofo Story and Beto Montenegro of Rawayana to hear how the album came together, where its sonic influences lie, and how they're reflecting on the seismic changes underway in their home country. (00:00) Intro (01:54) How they decided to open the album (06:26) On the song 'Qué Rico PR!' (09:36) Caribbean influences growing up (13:41) Childhood love for merenhouse (16:13) Adapting tonada folk music (21:58) Reflections on Venezuela in this moment This podcast episode was produced by Noah Caldwell. The executive producer of NPR Music is Suraya Mohamed. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

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Sometimes life imitates art - or at least the two can seem eerily connected. On Jan. 1, the Venezuelan band Rawayana released a new album, '¿Dónde Es El After?,' which began with a lyric that many interpreted as a wish for their country's leadership to be gone. A few days later, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was ousted from power and seized by American forces. For this week's episode, we chat with Fofo Story and Beto Montenegro of Rawayana to hear how the album came together, where its sonic influences lie, and how they're reflecting on the seismic changes underway in their home country. (00:00) Intro (01:54) How they decided to open the album (06:26) On the song 'Qué Rico PR!' (09:36) Caribbean influences growing up (13:41) Childhood love for merenhouse (16:13) Adapting tonada folk music (21:58) Reflections on Venezuela in this moment This podcast episode was produced by Noah Caldwell. The executive producer of NPR Music is Suraya Mohamed. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

Published
January 21, 2026
Status
active
GUID hash
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Archive key
alt-latino-rawayana-on-their-new-album-and-a-changing-venezuela--entry_bbf5651d641d0931529df9eb7585
Archive id
entry_bbf5651d641d0931529df9eb7585