Culcha Candela

German group Culcha Candela came together in the early 2000s and soldiered on for years to come, growing their omnidimensional high-energy music as they rose to mass appeal. Their sound, a pastiche of Latin rhythms, multilingual lyrics, and big-beat pop production, has resulted in massive hits like 2007's "Party Bus", 2009's "Monsta" and 2012's soccer anthem "Von Allein." Culcha Candela became something of an institution as time went on, selling millions of albums, touring extensively and even releasing a live album and a greatest-hits collection as they approached 20 years in the music industry.

Culcha Candela was formed in 2002 in Berlin, founded by singer Johnny Strange. The lineup included various other singers and DJs, but eventually whittled down to its core membership of Strange, DJ Chino, Don Cali and Mateo. The band's debut album Union Verdadera was released in 2004, and followed up in 2005 with Next Generation. In 2007, their self-titled third album became their first platinum-selling release — the sales fueled by chart-topping, high-energy singles like the dancehall-tinged "Hamma!" Their rising international profile resulted in a non-stop succession of activity over the next several years, with a live album in 2008, politically themed fourth album Schöne neue Welt in 2009 and a best-of collection in 2010. Both Schöne neue Welt and their greatest-hits collection Das Beste sold over a million copies. Culcha Candela was firmly established as a pop success by the start of the new decade, and they rode their fame over the next several years with fifth album Flätrate in 2011, Candelistan in 2015 and Feel Erfolg in 2017. Each new record produced hits as Culcha Candela changed with the times, embracing new waves in EDM and hip-hop production and integrating them into their new material. ~ Steve Leggett & Fred Thomas