Manuel Turizo (full name: Manuel Turizo Zapata) is an urban singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from Colombia. While best known in his native country, he has made major global inroads into the Latin Pop mainstream. Since 2016, his videos and singles have been seen and heard hundreds of millions of times on streaming services and YouTube. His hit “Una Lady Como Tú” was the winner of a Colombian Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Song in 2017.

Turizo was born into a musical household — both his mother and older brother were musicians. In interviews he has described participating in music as compulsory. As a child he learned to play saxophone, guitar, ukulele, and piano. While his initial career choice was to become a veterinarian, his brother Julian convinced him to take singing lessons with a Cuban teacher and the end result, personally discovering his talent as a singer, altered the course of his life. (Because of his early success as a professional musician, he had to finish his studies via internet courses.)

In 2016, his first two self-released singles, “Baila Conmigo” and “Vámonos” (both produced by his brother), racked up positive responses on social media and garnered excitement from industry insiders. On March 16, 2017, he released “Una Lady Como Tú” along with a video clip — the latter went viral with some 300 million views. He signed to the Sony Music-distributed La Industria Inc. label. The song made the Top 40 of the Hot Latin Songs chart and scored even higher on three others including Digital Song Sales, Latin Pop Songs, and YouTube charts. After opening for Ozuna on a Colombian tour, he undertook his own national run of trendy clubs and discos, selling all of them out. In May, the reggaeton singer Valentino released the song “Bésame,” featuring Turizo. The video single got 50 million views and Turizo gained even more international exposure. In August, he released a remix version of “Una Lady Como Tú (feat. Nicky Jam)” that got airplay all over Latin America and in the United States. After reaching number six on the Columbian charts with 2018’s “Culpables,” Turizo scored an even bigger hit with “Desconocidos,” featuring Mau y Ricky and Camilo. Likewise, the 2019 collaboration with Jowell & Randy, “Dile la Verdad,” reached number two and was quickly followed by the platinum-selling “Esclavo de Tus Besos” with Ozuna.