The songs of Omar Geles, the Colombian accordionist and songwriter behind vallenato standards such as “Cuatro Rosas” and “Tu Hombre Soy Yo,” have a new global home. Sony Music Publishing Colombia has signed a worldwide catalog administration agreement with Geles's estate covering more than 300 works, a deal Billboard reported on October 15, 2026. The signing itself was announced in Valledupar in early June 2026, the Medellín newspaper El Colombiano reported at the time. Geles died on May 21, 2024.
What the deal covers
The agreement includes vallenato songs such as “Cuatro Rosas,” “A Blanco y Negro,” “Tu Hombre Soy Yo” and “Tarde lo Conocí,” InterSpace Daily reported. El Colombiano explained that Sony will handle the royalties generated by all of his compositions, both the recordings Geles made himself and the versions recorded by other artists, so that the money reaches his heirs correctly. The paper added that Sony will work on licensing and on synchronization for film, TV and digital platforms, and that the deal has no effect on other singers performing his songs live.
A songbook other stars sang
Geles's career as a songwriter and performer ran for more than four decades. Artists who recorded his compositions include Diomedes Díaz, Silvestre Dangond, Jorge Oñate, Kaleth Morales, Elder Dayán Díaz, Jorge Celedón, Los Hermanos Zuleta, Hebert Vargas, Peter Manjarrés and Iván Villazón, according to InterSpace. El Colombiano lists “Cuatro Rosas” as sung by Jorge Celedón and “El Invencible” as sung by Jorge Oñate.
He rose to prominence in the 1980s with Los Diablitos, whose hits included “Los Caminos de la Vida” and “Cómo le Pago a mi Dios,” and launched La Gente de Omar Geles in 2004. He was crowned Rey Vallenato at the Festival de la Leyenda Vallenata in 1989 and received three Latin Grammy nominations, InterSpace reported.
What the family and Sony said
“Omar Geles was not only a defining voice in vallenato music, but one of the great songwriters of his generation,” said Jorge Mejía, CEO of Latin America and U.S. Latin at Sony Music Publishing, in a statement to Billboard. “It is a true honor to partner with his family to preserve, promote and expand his legacy, ensuring that his songs continue to inspire audiences around the world for generations to come.”
Laura Mendoza, Sony Music Publishing's managing director for Colombia, said the company entered the agreement “with great honor and a profound sense of responsibility,” calling the Geles catalog “an extraordinary body of works within our musical heritage.”
Speaking for the family, his wife Maren García thanked the publisher. “Thanks for making us feel at home since the first moment and for continuing to write the history of the legacy of my eternal love, a legacy that will continue to live in each one of his songs,” she said, according to InterSpace.
For vallenato fans outside Colombia, the practical upshot is a publisher with global reach now working to place these songs in new recordings, films and shows, while the people who first made them famous keep singing them on stage.