Thousands of people gathered on Sunday outside the El Campín stadium in Bogotá to pay tribute to Colombian singer Yeison Jiménez, who died on Saturday in a plane crash along with five other people, in a spontaneous act that ended up becoming a collective celebration of his life and music. As if it were a great concert or a massive football match, from the first hours of the afternoon, long lines formed around the stadium to enter the fenced and protected area where a large screen showed past performances by the artist. The surroundings of the stadium were chosen by his followers for its strong symbolic value: there Jiménez brought together 40,000 people in a massive concert in 2025 and was scheduled to perform again this year. In front of the screen, the attendees, with Colombian hats and ponchos, and carrying balloons and white flower bouquets, organized in a semicircle and sang his most famous songs as the sun set in Bogotá, in an atmosphere that went from solemnity to the celebration of his legacy. "We don't feel him as an artist, we feel him as a close relative who left us," Mariana Velásquez, one of the attendees who had a photograph of the singer in her hands, told EFE. Four altars were set up at each of the stadium's entrances, all with photographs of the artist, floral crowns, and hundreds of lit white candles. "An example of life." "He taught us that dreams do come true and that it is not necessary to be born into a golden cradle to get ahead," Oscar Sánchez, a fan club representative who knew the singer personally and described him as "an example of life" for thousands of followers, told EFE. Sánchez added that Jiménez "always had time for his people" and never lost the bond with his followers, whom he considered a fundamental part of his career. Jiménez, 34, born in the municipality of Manzanares in the department of Caldas, was a man of humble origin who in his childhood worked at Corabastos, the main market for agricultural products in Bogotá, and who found death at the peak of his career. The artist became one of the most representative figures of Colombian popular music and, in addition to his artistic career, promoted a foundation with which he developed social support initiatives aimed at vulnerable communities, especially children and young people. During the tribute, several young singers and emerging artists who had shared the stage with Jiménez in the past performed some of his songs, as a gesture of gratitude to whom they considered a reference in Colombian popular music. The organizers explained to EFE that the call was spontaneous and arose after an announcement was spread by "Jimenistas" fan clubs on social networks. The accident. The singer died on Saturday when the small plane he was traveling in crashed and was completely incinerated. The Attorney General's Office reported on Sunday that it had opened "an investigation related to the private aircraft accident," which crashed while trying to take off from the airport in Paipa, in the department of Boyacá, and fell into a field near the end of the runway. The manager Jefferson Osorio, the photographer Weisman Mora, other members of his work team, and the aircraft's pilot also died in the accident. As the night progressed, thousands of people gathered in front of the El Campín stadium in Bogotá, where they remained between songs and applause to say goodbye to the artist in the same place where, less than a year ago, they celebrated his music while he was alive.
