Monsieur Periné is a Latin alternative band from Bogotá, Colombia, led by singer Catalina García and string player Santiago Prieto. The 2023 “Best Alternative Album,” and 2015 “Best New Artist” Latin Grammy winners sprinkle global pop and Latin sounds over Afro-Colombian roots.
Catalina sings in Spanish, French, English, and Portuguese. The band has been doing lots of collaborations lately which is growing their audience.
Monsieur Periné in New York City
Monsieur Periné, 2023 “Best Alternative Album” Latin Grammy winners, play Colombian alternative; in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall in Midtown, Manhattan; on Saturday, February 22, 2025 at 7:30pm. From $55. carnegiehall.org 🇨🇴
New York City Venues
Monsieur Periné
The band got its start at Javeriana University, the university of the Colombian elite in Bogotá, the capital. They were a group of well-to-do college kids playing around. Colombian culture is incredibly diverse with some notable French influence. Until World War II, Paris was the world’s cultural capital. Like many others, Colombians looked up to French culture as the world’s best. Catalina did her early education in a French school.
The band’s name actually describes their creative position. The kids were fascinated by Michel Houellebecq’s novel “Les Particules élémentaires” the explicit story of two brothers disillusioned by modern society, one whose work in cloning ends sexual reproduction, and the other who becomes a sex addict. So the band jokingly began calling themselves “Periné” after the erogenous zone in between your anus and genitals. Whether we end sex or become sex addicts, we’re screwed either way. Catalina made it “Monsieur Periné” to make it sound more elegant.
Like the perineum, the band finds themselves between powerful forces. They don’t look African, but are grounded in Afro-Colombian music. They bring world culture to Colombia and Colombian culture to the world. They are rich kids, but Catalina acknowledges her family’s campesino roots. They are young people making their way between a reasonably stable recent past, and a very uncertain and chaotic future. Many people don’t even know the perineum exists, but for others, it’s a major erogenous zone. In a similar way, Monsieur Periné’s creative position seems to be that if the world is going to fall apart, let’s have fun falling apart together.
Catalina has a big little girl voice that just charms you. Santiago’s music really swings. They are Colombians who draw on the entire world, and that is a fun point of view.
In a way, they follow in the footsteps of Aterciopelados, the iconic alternative rock band, that defined Colombian alternative in the 1990s.
Albums
- “Bolero Apocaliptico” (2023) mourns and celebrates the current breakdown of the environment and social structures with many global sounds including hot jazz, salsa, cumbia, bossa nova, and reggae. It won
- “Encanto Tropical” (2018) was nominated for the “Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album” Grammy. The single “Bailar Contigo” was nominated for the “Record of the Year” and “Song of the Year” Latin Grammys.
- “Caja de Música” (2015) led to their Latin Grammy for “Best New Artist;” and was nominated for the “Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album” Grammy.
- “Hecho a Mano” (2012)
Tours
- Bolero Apocalíptico Tour (2025)
Information
Social Media
Instagram @monsieurperine
Facebook @monsieurperinemusic
X @monsieurperine
YouTube @monsieurperine
TikTok @monsieurperine