Golden Congo

The Golden Congo (Spanish: Congo de Oro) is a Colombian music award that since its founding in 1969 has been presented annually at the Orchestra Festival (Spanish: Festival de Orquestas) of the Barranquilla Carnival.
The current Golden Congo award comprises six genre prizes: Vallenato (since 1978), Merengue (since 1994), Tropical (since 1994), Salsa (since 1994), Urbano (since 2012), Folk (1992–4, and again since 2018), and four additional prizes: Newcomer, Best Vocalist, Best Instrumentalist and Lo Nuestro ("What's Ours").
The 2025 Orchestra Festival took place on Sunday 2 March. For the first time, it was planned that only one Golden Congo would be awarded. The award was won by salsa artist Byordy, with La Charanga del Sur coming in second place, and Luismi Yánez in third.
In 2024 the Barranquilla Carnival celebrated its 20th incarnation since being proclaimed intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2003. As part of the celebrations, the Orchestra Festival did not hold a competition for the Golden Congo, but instead awarded one to every performer.
In 2012 Golden Congos for "best performance" (Spanish: variations on mejor intérprete or mejor instrumentista) and "urbano music" were given for the first time, and the "newcomer" (Spanish: revelación) prize was reintroduced. In 2016 the Golden Congo for performance was split into separate prizes for vocalists and instrumentalists, and in 2018 "folk" was reintroduced as a genre category.
On the 50th anniversary of the Orchestra Festival in 2019 no awards were given; instead, past competitors and winners returned to perform at the festival, including Los Corraleros de Majagual, Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto, Pacho Galán, Checo Acosta, Juan Piña [es], Poncho Zuleta [es], Sergio Vargas, Beto Zabaleta [es], Eddy Herrera, Bazurto All Stars, and Jorge Oñate. In 2021 there was no Barranquilla Carnival due to the Covid-19 pandemic; the Orchestra Festival held a virtual event featuring past performances.
In 1995 the categories "newcomer" and "folk group" were discontinued, and a prize was introduced called the "Premio Rescate de lo Nuestro" (English: rescuing what is ours prize). It later became known as simply "Lo Nuestro", and at one point as "Lo Nuestro 'Roberto de Castro'".
In 1994 prizes for the musical genres of merengue, tropical, and salsa were introduced, in place of "orchestra" and "ensemble". 1994 was also the last year that "newcomer" and "folk group" were awarded until their return in 2012 and 2018 respectively.
In 1989 the category of "newcomer" (Spanish: revelación) was awarded for the first time, and in 1992 "folk group" (Spanish: grupo folclórico) was introduced as a category; both were discontinued after 1994 and reintroduced in the 2010s.
In 1978 the category of "vallenato" was introduced, which was also sometimes awarded as "accordion". The "ensemble" prize was occasionally awarded as "group" (Spanish: combo) instead. From 1981 the ensemble prize was regularly split by either genre (tropical/salsa) or by nationality.
From 1969 to 1977 the only categories were "orchestra" (Spanish: orquesta) and "ensemble" (Spanish: conjunto).
Occasionally special Golden Congos are given to recognise particular achievements.
The Super Congo (also called the Super Congo de Oro or the Supercongo) was created in 1990 specifically to honour Joe Arroyo, who had won a Golden Congo at each of the 6 preceding festivals. Since then the Super Congo has been awarded several times.
Twice a Rey del Pueblo (King of the People) has been crowned at the Orchestra Festival, decided by a public vote.
Some Golden Congos have only been given once. In 1985 Alejo Durán was awarded the "Special Congo" (Spanish: Congo Especial). In 1989 Alfredo de la Fe won a Golden Congo for "Best Solo Artist". In 1994 Cristian del Real received an honourable mention as the "boy genius of the timbal." In 2025 a Platinum Congo (Congo Platino) was awarded via audience applause to Orquesta La Máxima.
Golden Congos are also given for floats and dancers that take part in the Battle of the Flowers parade of the Barranquilla Carnival.
At the Barranquilla Carnival Night of Orchestras (Spanish: Noche de Orquestas) a jury awards Golden Congos in the same genre categories as the Orchestra Festival, and in addition awards the "Antonio María Peñaloza" prize for an unpublished song. The competition at the Night of Orchestras is open to musicians and groups from Barranquilla and the surrounding region.
The awards at the Night of Orchestras were first given in 2018, and the winners received automatic entry to the competition at the Orchestra Festival that year. In 2019 no competition was held at the Orchestra Festival, and since then winners at the Night of Orchestras have been granted entry to the Orchestra Festival the following year, as opposed to the same year.