lit a candle 1d ago65 is no age at all. I only know Álvaro Pava through "Mil Horas", which got played at every cookout my neighbor hosted for years, but hearing he was gone at that number stopped me cold. Thinking of his family tonight.
Their story
Álvaro Pava Angulo, known to audiences as Alvarito Pava, was a Colombian singer of tropical music from Barranquilla. Over more than four decades he sang with some of the best known orchestras on Colombia's Caribbean coast, and he reached an international audience as one of the voices of La Sonora…
Álvaro Pava Angulo, known to audiences as Alvarito Pava, was a Colombian singer of tropical music from Barranquilla. Over more than four decades he sang with some of the best known orchestras on Colombia's Caribbean coast, and he reached an international audience as one of the voices of La Sonora Dinamita, above all on the cumbia version of "Mil Horas".
Pava was born and raised in Barranquilla, in the barrio Cevillar, a neighbourhood he mentioned with pride in his songs. He began singing with a local group called Súper Star, where the composer and bandleader Adolfo Echeverría heard him and recruited him. He later said that Echeverría had been like a father to him and had put him on stage while he was still a teenager.
He joined Echeverría's orchestra around 1979, first as a chorus singer and then as a lead vocalist, recording songs including "Julio Calderón", "Perfume de gardenia" and "El guayabo". He also sang both chorus voices on "Inmaculada", a song played every year in Barranquilla on the Noche de Velitas. In 1985 he became the lead voice of Germán Carreño's orchestra, with hits such as "Salón burrero" and "La rabiosa", and moved to Medellín. He also worked with Los Titanes under Alberto Barros, Grupo Caneo, Fruko y sus Tesos, Latin Brothers, Los Tupamaros and Pastor López, and sang chorus on early recordings by Joe Arroyo and for Francisco Zumaqué. In 1986 he sang backing vocals for Héctor Lavoe at a salsa festival at the Estadio Romelio Martínez in Barranquilla, which he counted among his proudest moments.
His years with La Sonora Dinamita in the 1990s brought him his widest audience, particularly in Mexico, where "Mil Horas", a cumbia version of the Andrés Calamaro rock song, along with "Grito vagabundo" and "Pilar", kept his name tied to cumbia. He settled in Monterrey, Nuevo León, where he lived for about 18 years and continued to perform as a lead singer.
Pava died on Friday 9 October 2026 in Monterrey, aged 65, after several days in intensive care. The Colombian outlet Zona Cero reported that a severe pneumonia had led to cardiorespiratory arrest; the band did not give a medical cause. La Sonora Dinamita announced his death, remembering him as one of the original voices of many of its hits and writing: "Your voice will be eternal." The Barranquilla singer Checo Acosta was among the musicians who paid tribute.
Biography adapted from Zona Cero, Infobae, Univision, Excélsior and Publimetro (10 and 11 October 2026).
Photos
1Álvaro Pava singing on stage
by People Forever
Same song got my whole block dancing every summer, he'll be missed