Bogotá.- Colombian singer Yeison Jiménez, one of the main exponents of popular music in the country, died this Saturday when the small plane he was traveling in crashed in a rural area of the department of Boyacá (center), authorities reported.
“The Civil Aeronautics deeply regrets this tragedy and expresses its most sincere condolences to the family, friends, and followers of Mr. Yeison Jiménez, as well as to the families of the other occupants and the crew,” the entity stated in a statement.
That organization confirmed in a statement that the artist was one of the six people who were on board the small plane that crashed between the towns of Paipa and Duitama when it was flying to Medellín and that was burned out.
Jiménez, 34 years old, born in Manzanares, in the department of Caldas, in the center of the country, was one of the most influential artists of Colombian regional music in the last decade and a key figure in the expansion of the popular genre beyond traditional circuits.
You can read: A small plane with six people on board crashes in the Colombian department of Boyacá
According to the departmental government of Boyacá, in addition to the artist, the pilot, Captain Hernando Torres; passengers Juan Manuel Rodríguez, Óscar Marín (Jiménez’s assistant), Jéferson Osorio (the singer’s representative) and Weisman Mora, also lost their lives in the accident.
“The Government of Boyacá (…) deeply regrets this event and expresses its solidarity with the families, loved ones, and followers in these difficult times,” stated the statement, which added that a departmental mourning was decreed.
The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, regretted the accident, of which he assured there were no survivors: “Unfortunately, six people have died in a plane that apparently caught fire in flight, near Paipa,” the president expressed on X.
Jiménez had performed on Friday in the town of Málaga, in the department of Santander, and had scheduled a performance for the night of this Saturday in the municipality of Marinilla, in the department of Antioquia, near Medellín, as part of his artistic agenda.
Songs like ‘Aventurero’, ‘Vete’ and ‘Mi venganza’ established him as one of the performers with the largest audience in Colombia.
In 2021, he was recognized as a Latin breakthrough artist by Billboard magazine, and in recent years he managed to fill large stages in the country, including the Movistar Arena in Bogotá, a milestone for a genre historically associated with smaller spaces.
