Jorge Drexler did not need much to get his fans talking. A brief video on social media was enough to confirm that his new global tour includes a stop in Paraguay. The Uruguayan singer-songwriter will perform in Asunción on 3 June 2026, presenting Taracá, his thirteenth studio album, at the Puerto de Asunción, a riverside cultural venue on the banks of the Paraguay River. It will be his first appearance in the country since May 2022.
A new album built on Candombe
Released March 13, 2026, Taracá centers on candombe, an Afro-Uruguayan percussion tradition from the Río de la Plata region. The title is a double reference: it is the onomatopoeia for the sound of the tambor chico, the smallest of the three candombe drums, and a contraction of the River Plate phrase “estar acá”, meaning “to be here.”
The album spans eleven tracks and features collaborators from across generations and genres. They include Puerto Rican artist Young Miko, singer Ángeles Toledano, guitarist Julio Cobelli, and murga ensemble Falta y Resto. Murga is a theatrical form of street music unique to Uruguay, combining percussion, costume, and satire.
A deliberate return to his roots
To record Taracá, Drexler returned to Montevideo after recording previous albums in Madrid, Mexico City, and Bogotá. He worked at Estudio Elefante Blanco with a production team of young local musicians.
“I wanted to return to record at home, in my Montevideo, where my parents met and where they brought me into this beautiful and terrible world,” he wrote in the album’s liner notes.
In a recent interview, he described the album’s emotional origin. His father, Gunther Drexler Schlein, died in 2024 after escaping Nazi Germany as a child with his family, eventually settling in Uruguay. The closing track, Las palabras, “The Words”, is dedicated to him. The album was released on what would have been his father’s birthday.
“It is an album of mourning, but it is also a celebratory album,” Drexler said, “which is a contradiction I still cannot explain.”
‘Consagration is a very dangerous thing’
The album comes at a moment of considerable professional recognition. Jorge Drexler holds 17 Latin Grammy Awards and an Academy Award for Best Original Song, which he received in 2005 for Al otro lado del río, composed for the film The Motorcycle Diaries. He was the first Uruguayan artist to receive that honour.
Yet rather than build on that momentum with an internationally oriented record, he chose to go home. When asked about that decision, his answer was direct.
“Consagration is a very dangerous thing,” he said. “Believing it turns you into a statue of yourself. It might be more beautiful than you, but it is dead. And that frightens me enormously.”
Jorge Drexler in Paraguay: a long history
Drexler has performed in Asunción several times since his October 2007 debut at theater in the Banco Central del Paraguay. Demand during his 2018 visit was strong enough to require two dates at the Gran Teatro José Asunción Flores. He returned in 2019 as part of the Asunciónico festival and most recently in May 2022 at the Arena SND, as part of the Tinta y Tiempo tour.
The 3 June concert at the Puerto de Asunción starts at 20:00 and is part of a broader tour that has already covered Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and Uruguay, and will continue to Colombia and Europe later in 2026.
More live music in Asunción: Argentine Artists Kevin Johansen And Liniers Return To Asunción For Tour Finale.
