Elsa y Elmar


Elsa y Elmar is the name of the musical project of Elsa Carvajal, a singer-songwriter from Colombia. Describing her songs as "spiritual pop", in 2014 she won the Grand Prize in the Latin category of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest for her song "Me Viene Bien", and in 2016 she played in front of 40,000 people as the opening act for Coldplay at their concert at the Estadio El Campín in Bogotá.

History

Born in Bucaramanga in Colombia, Carvajal took some classes in musical appreciation and flute at the age of nine, but admitted that she had little discipline to continue with them. At the age of 16 she enrolled in a jazz academy, and then in 2011 she traveled to Boston, Massachusetts in order to study at the Berklee College of Music. Carvajal came up with the concept of Elsa y Elmar in 2012 during her time in Boston. In an interview with Colombia's W Radio, Carvajal explained that she liked the idea of being accompanied rather than being a solo star, and that the people who surrounded her and supported her music were her "sea" – the name "Elmar" is a play on "el mar", meaning "the sea" in Spanish. In 2013 she recorded a six-track EP titled Sentirnos Bien, produced by San Francisco-born Colombian Mateo Lewis, himself a former student of Berklee. The EP was released in digital format on October 13, 2013. One of the tracks from Sentirnos Bien, "Me Viene Bien", was entered into the second session of the 2014 John Lennon Songwriting Contest for new songwriters and won the Grand Prize in the Latin category.
On completing her studies at Berklee, Carvajal moved to San Francisco, where she assembled a band to accompany her live performances. Elsa y Elmar's first full-length album, Rey, was released on September 25, 2015. It was preceded by a single, "Exploradora", which was accompanied by a video shot in various parks and beaches around San Francisco.
In 2015, Elsa y Elmar performed at a number of music festivals, including Estéreo Picnic Festival in Bogotá, Colombia and Festival Coordenada in Guadalajara, Mexico. On April 13, 2016, Elsa y Elmar performed as the opening act for British band Coldplay's concert at the Estadio El Campín in Bogotá.