With a new album in the pipeline, NY Times and BILLBOARD charting world music supergroup Sultans of String are releasing their brand-new single Mi Santuario on Sept 10, 2021. The song features the four core Sultans as well as an incredibly talented and inspiring special guest Juan Carlos Medrano, who co-wrote the music with the band, and sings his original lyrics, as well as performing on gaita, the traditional flute. Originally from Cartagena on the north coast of Colombia, Juan Carlos moved to Canada in 2006 as a refugee.
“It was tough back home, lack of opportunity for people like me, people that look like me, Afro-Colombian,” says Juan Carlos. “We were not comfortable with the system, the rules, and how they treat their people”
He knew since he was 15 that he would leave Columbia, even though that is the place that he loved the most on Earth. “I love the culture. I love the music, everything. But in my head was the idea that I need to leave this place, because I want more… internal peace, and being happy doing what I love, that was to go to school… to go to university, to just make it to university was a big deal”
Juan Carlos likens existence in his home country like living in a concrete jungle, “where you have to survive, where you don’t think about … You don’t plan. People like me, people that look like me, we don’t plan. We just live day by day by day, and looking for a future.” In Mi Santuario, Juan Carlos expresses in his lyrics how everyone doesn’t have the luxury to utilize the legal immigration process like he did. “I’m screaming “run, run” because the immigration is coming, and they are coming sometimes to kill you, because no one sees anything in the border”
Now Juan Carlos is an educator after having attended York University to become a teacher, “and it’s time for me now to give back to this beautiful country. Back home, people don’t talk about native people, aboriginal people, how they struggle inside this beautiful country. So the way for me to pay back [is to] inspire these little kids. And my main goal is to bring music, to bring art together, and give these kids hope.”
Watch the accompanying video for the single below and don’t miss the free Backstage with Sultans of String on Facebook (details below).
Stream Mi Santuario: https://ffm.to/misantuario
Mi Santuario is being released in standard stereo as well as Dolby Atmos on September 10. That is the date that also kicks off a new Friday lunchtime livestream series led by producer Chris McKhool and band members, with Juan Carlos as the first guest. Backstage with Sultans of String is a free series that features in-depth connections, behind the scenes footage, fan interactive conversations, up close and personal stories behind the songs with their stories of both struggles and success, and live music.
Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/820735978594133
https://www.facebook.com/sultansofstring
More here: https://sultansofstring.com/