Patricia Teherán was a Colombian vallenato singer who rose to fame in the early 1990s as the voice of Las Diosas del Vallenato. Tarde lo conocí, written by Omar Geles and released in 1994, became her signature song and a landmark for women in a male dominated genre. Teherán died in a car accident in 1995 at age 25, which deepened the song's emotional resonance. Decades later the chorus still circulates in edits, tributes and memes across Latin social media.