Lenin Tamayo: Do you know this K-Pop singer from Peru?

Lenin Tamayo is a young Peruvian singer who is revolutionizing music with his K-pop in Quechua, the indigenous language of Peru and South America. Actually, if we want to label his genre of music correctly, it should be 'Q-Pop'!

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Lenin fuses the rhythms of K-pop with lyrics in Spanish and Quechua, a true revolution in today's music. Quechua is a language spoken by 10 million people in the south of America.

For Lenin, the stage is not an unfamiliar place, as he has been near it since he was a small child. His mother, Yolanda Pinares, is a folk singer and used to have her son backstage during her performances, Reuters reports.

Photo: lenintamayoqpop / Instagram

Ever since he was a teenager, Lenin has had a physical appearance with a pronounced jawline and a very thin face and body. Together with his bushy eyebrows, these features made him the target of school bullies, the Spanish newspaper El País reports. Over time, the young man sought refuge in K-pop. And now, ironically, it is these physical attributes that his fans like the most about him.

The fandom of K-Pop, which is spread across the world, helped Lenin make his life a little easier. "Contemporary Korean culture became a way for Tamayo to make like-minded friends and deal with bullying that he says he faced for his indigenous appearance," Reuters states.

Lenin Tamayo released his first album, 'Amaru' (referring to the Serpent God of Uku Pacha) in August of 2023. Its songs are based on Inca mythology, with songs referring to ‘Hanan Pacha’, ‘Uku Pacha’, and ‘Kay Pacha’ (the celestial kingdom, the world of the dead, and the world of the living).

As Lenin explained on Instagram: "Q'pop is a way to express my Andeanness with freedom, through the opportunities that life has offered me, it goes beyond geopolitical, cultural, or linguistic frontiers. LOVE to unite PEOPLES and FREEDOM to be ONE."

Photo: lenintamayoqpop / Instagram

For Lenin, making K-Pop in Quechua is a social project, as he explained to El País. The psychology student wants to develop his career as a psychologist through his music. "Along with my first album, I am preparing a thesis. I want to present it with the album."

To demonstrate he is serious about his university studies, he gives some examples of research he is doing for his thesis: "Psychosocial exploration in contemporary Andean music as an agent of change and empowerment in the struggle of minorities" and "Amaru, sound fusions for social transformation: a psychosocial analysis of the impact of Andean music on the collective consciousness."

Lenin is among the 50 most creative Peruvians according to Forbes magazine. Forbes states that his first album is a macro experience. Through lyrics, music, video, dance, and costumes, Lenin takes us on a journey through the world from the perspective of Andean mythology.

In his choreographies, he fuses modern steps with typical dances such as the 'diablada puneña' or the 'danza de tijeras Ayacuchana' (Ayacucho scissors dance). We can see it in his YouTube video, titled: 'Ymaynata?'

The singer has many followers and fans. 200,000 people follow him on the video platform TikTok. His videos have amassed 4 million likes so far. The platform helped him to make his song 'Tusurikusun' viral.

Lenin wants to reach all corners of the world with his music. It's universal, he says: "It goes beyond language. It's feeling and emotion, that's why humans make music. In this album, we try to break down almost the human matrix, to see the human DNA through art," he told Forbes. So BTS and BLACKPINK, watch out for this rising star!

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