Latin Music Stars Rally for Colombia and Venezuela Earthquake Relief With Two Benefit Concerts

More than 30 Latin music artists — including Marc Anthony, Luis Fonsi, Chayanne, Feid, Jay Wheeler, Ricardo Montaner and Gilberto Santa Rosa — will perform at a benefit concert in Miami on Sunday, Aug. 16 to raise funds for earthquake relief in Colombia and Venezuela.

The concert, called "Unidos Por Los Nuestros," will take place at the Kaseya Center and air live at 6 p.m. ET and PT / 5 p.m. CT across Univision, ViX, WAPA and TelevisaUnivision radio, according to Billboard. The event was originally promoted as "Unidos por Venezuela" before a second earthquake struck Colombia, expanding the fundraiser's scope to cover both countries.

A 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit Colombia's Pacific Coast on a Monday, with its epicentre in San José del Palmar, Chocó, roughly 150 miles west of Bogotá. The quake came six weeks after Venezuela was struck by two earthquakes — magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 — in June.

As of the Thursday following the Colombia earthquake, at least 281 people had died, 348 had been rescued, more than 3,900 had been injured and nearly 400 remained missing, according to the Associated Press, reported by AP News. Civilian databases listed more than 4,200 people as missing. The earthquake destroyed 10,600 homes and damaged another 65,800.

A second benefit concert, "Colombia, Medellín Te Quiere," will take place a day earlier on Saturday, Aug. 15 at Centro de Eventos La Macarena in Medellín. More than 25 artists are scheduled to perform, including Kapo, Pipe Bueno and Juan Duque. The concert runs from noon to 8 p.m., with doors opening at 11 a.m. One hundred percent of ticket proceeds will go directly to earthquake disaster victims, according to Billboard.

The relief effort extends beyond the two headline concerts. Colombian artists including Maluma, Karol G, Feid and Carlos Vives, along with artists from Puerto Rico, Cuba and Venezuela, are participating in earthquake relief events and fundraisers. Shakira, Camilo, Greeicy and Maluma have spoken out on social media to raise awareness about the devastation.

A separate initiative, "Si Nos Organizamos, Cabemos Todos," is a marathon of interviews featuring comedian and actor Alejandro Riaño performing as his character Juanpis González from The Juanpis Live Show — a format aimed at sustaining public attention on recovery efforts.

The two-nation response reflects the scale of need. Between the June quakes in Venezuela and the August quake in Colombia, the disasters have displaced thousands, flattened entire neighbourhoods and left families searching for hundreds of missing loved ones. The Miami concert, broadcast across multiple networks and streaming platforms, is positioned to reach Spanish-language audiences across the Americas; the Medellín event puts artists on stage in one of the countries directly affected.

For the artists involved, the concerts follow a long tradition of Latin musicians mobilising for disaster relief — benefit telethons and stadium fundraisers have repeatedly followed earthquakes, hurricanes and political crises across the region. What is different here is the timing: two major earthquakes in neighbouring countries within six weeks, and a response that grew from one national appeal to a cross-border one within days.