Juanes “Muérdeme” — Producing a Music Video in Santa Marta

Some music videos are mainly about aesthetics. Others are production challenges first, and creative wins second. “Muérdeme” was both.

This project meant producing a video for Juanes and Li Saumet of Bomba Estéreo in Santa Marta — a city with the exact energy the song needed, but one we did not know well from a production standpoint. That changed the job immediately. The creative goal was clear. The logistical reality was not.

The Brief

“Muérdeme” needed to feel warm, rhythmic, alive, and unmistakably Colombian. Not in a generic tropical way, but in a way that felt tied to place. Santa Marta was not just a backdrop. It was part of the atmosphere of the song.

The job was to capture that energy with Juanes and Li Saumet moving through the city in a way that felt natural, musical, and visually alive — while keeping the production tight and controlled enough to work on schedule.

The Real Challenge

The hardest part of this project was not the concept. It was the location reality.

We were producing in Santa Marta without already knowing the city operationally. That means the usual problems become bigger immediately: how the streets move, what kind of local crew you can trust, how permits and police support need to be handled, how to keep the day moving when the environment is active and unpredictable.

Mario went two days earlier to get ahead of that problem. That early move mattered. It gave us time to build with a local production team, understand the terrain, coordinate the streets, and solve things before Juanes and Li were on the ground and the clock was running.

Building the Production on the Ground

For this shoot, we worked with a local crew build-out in Santa Marta and mounted a production of roughly 40 people. That included the on-the-ground structure needed to keep the day functional: local production support, street coordination, police support, and enough crew coverage to move fast without losing control.

Street closures were part of the operation. Police support was part of the operation. None of that is glamorous when you talk about a music video after the fact, but that is what makes many location-based shoots possible in the first place.

The production window itself was tight: about 8 hours of work. That meant the day had to be designed for efficiency. There was no room for wandering into the city and “finding the video.” The video had to be built through planning, local coordination, and fast decision-making once cameras were up.

Why Santa Marta Mattered

Santa Marta gave the song something real that a controlled studio setup would not have delivered. The streets, color, heat, and movement of the city gave the video its texture. The location helped the music feel embodied instead of illustrated.

That kind of result only works when the place is not treated like a postcard. You need enough control to shoot, but enough openness for the city to stay alive inside the frame.

How We Worked

The production depended on a simple principle: solve logistics early so the creative can stay focused on performance, movement, and atmosphere during the actual shoot.

That meant:

• getting local production support in place before shoot day
• sending Mario ahead two days early to reduce uncertainty
• coordinating the street and police side in advance
• designing a day that could move fast without feeling chaotic
• using the city itself as a visual asset instead of overbuilding the production

That is often what music video production really is: not just directing images, but creating the conditions that allow the images to happen on time.

The Result

The finished video captured the feeling the song needed: sensual, rhythmic, warm, and grounded in Caribbean Colombia instead of floating in an abstract “tropical” aesthetic.

The release later received coverage in Rolling Stone en Español, which referenced the Santa Marta setting and credited the video direction to Diego S. Cadavid and Mario Alzate. That matters, but the stronger result was the work itself: a video that feels tied to a real place and not detached from the culture it draws from.

What We Learned

• Local production knowledge changes everything. When you do not know a city operationally, sending someone early is not optional. It is part of protecting the shoot.
• Music videos often look spontaneous only because the logistics were handled well. The freer the final piece feels, the more likely it was carefully controlled behind the scenes.
• Real locations carry emotional value. Santa Marta was not decorative. It gave the video heat, rhythm, and identity.
• Street-level production is a coordination job as much as a creative one. Crew size, police support, closures, and timing are not side notes. They are part of the directing reality.

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ASA Films produces music videos and visual campaigns for artists, labels, and brands across Latin America and the U.S. For Juanes’ “Muérdeme,” directed with Mario Alzate, we built an on-location production in Santa Marta with local crew, street coordination, and police support to deliver a video rooted in the real energy of the city. Talk to us about your next production.