Three participants competed in the grand final of the Acordionera Mayor in the park of the Vallenata Legend ‘Consuelo Araujonoguera’.
These are the accordion players Wendy Paola Corzo Carmona, Madelaine Bolaño Escobar and Sara Marcela Arango Pérez, who passed with a score of 4800.
Their pass to the final was achieved by interpreting the walk, merengue, son and puya before the table of the jury made up of Juan Manuel Arzuaga, Néstor Cárdenas and Leonsio Peralta.
Their presentations were made from a platform in Los Algarrobillos park and then the grand finale in the Vallenata Legend park.
All the finalists have a long history on the accordion and experience at the Vallenato Festival.
Accordion player Wendy Paola Corzo Carmona, from Valledupar, for example, is the fourth time she has competed in the category.
The first was in 2019 when she was part of the three finalists, from which Loraine de Jesús Lara Mercado, a native of Sabanalarga, Atlántico, emerged victorious.
The young woman of Kankuamo origin is recognized in the artistic world for having competed in different cultural competitions. She was youth queen at the Vallenato Indio Tayrona Festival, amateur vice queen at the Tierra del ‘Cachaquito’ Festival, child queen at the Voices and Songs Festival, and queen at the Vallenato Femenino Encounter, EVAFE, 2017.
In the same way, Sara Marcela Arango Pérez, a native of La Apartada, Córdoba, is the third time she has competed to win the title of Major Accordion Maker.
In 2021 he managed to take second place and in 2022 he took third place.
Arango has stood out in other Vallenato music contests such as the EVAFE Festival in 2019, in which she was crowned as a children’s queen, as well as in contests held in Sahagún, Córdoba; Corozal and Los Palmitos, Sucre, among others.
Finally, Madeleine Bolaño Escobar, granddaughter of Francisco Irenio Marzal, ‘Chico Bolaños’, a great precursor of Vallenato music, has participated in this category since 2020.
However, since childhood he has played the accordion and participated in the children’s category.
“This is a process, each year that passes we feel better to participate”, he commented.
Bolaño when he was 16 years old founded the group Las Chicas del Vallenato with which he recorded four songs.
His apprenticeship on the accordion began with his father, the renowned accordionist Hildemaro Bolaño.