Santana Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free Santana trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Santana trivia quiz covers both the band and the guitarist whose name it carries, from the Santana Blues Band at Bill Graham's Fillmore to the Woodstock set that made them famous, Abraxas, and the improbable 1999 comeback of Supernatural. The easy questions cover the hits everybody knows: Black Magic Woman, Oye Como Va, Smooth and Maria Maria, plus where Carlos was born and which festival broke the band. The harder questions dig into the classic line-up, the members who left to form Journey, the jazz-fusion detour of Caravanserai, the guru who renamed Carlos Devadip, the Grammy record shared with Michael Jackson, the guitars and amps behind his sustain, and the Sentient and Santana IV projects of recent years. There is a bit of everything: chart facts, personnel, equipment and the odd restaurant chain. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries for the band and for Carlos Santana before publishing. If you enjoy this, try our classic rock, guitarists and Woodstock quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which US city was the band Santana formed in 1966?
San Francisco
San Francisco is where Carlos washed dishes full-time and busked for change while soaking up the hippie scene, until he could quit the job and start the group.
Q 02Carlos Santana was born in Autlán de Navarro, in which Mexican state?
Jalisco
Jalisco was home until the family moved to the border city of Tijuana, where Carlos, a mariachi musician's son, discovered American blues and rock and roll.
Q 03Four months after Woodstock, Santana opened which infamous free concert headlined by the Rolling Stones?
Altamont
Altamont turned violent as the day wore on: Hells Angels acting as security fought with the crowd, and a fan was stabbed to death while the Stones played.
Q 04Which instrumental from Santana's Woodstock set became a highlight of the festival film?
Soul Sacrifice
Soul Sacrifice turned on a drum solo by Michael Shrieve, who had just turned 20, and the band played it to that crowd before it had released a single record.
Q 05'Black Magic Woman', Santana's 1970 hit, was originally written and recorded by which band?
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac's 1968 original reached only No. 37 in Britain and missed the US chart, while Santana's cover climbed to No. 4 and became the better-known version.
Q 06Carlos Santana's 'Dar um Jeito (We Will Find a Way)' was the official anthem of which 2014 sporting event?
The FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup in Brazil: the song has one verse in English and one in Portuguese, and Carlos played at the closing ceremony in Rio before the final.
Q 07Which guitar great trades solos with Carlos Santana on the Supernatural track 'The Calling'?
Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton was the rare fellow veteran on an album that deliberately paired Carlos with younger hitmakers such as Lauryn Hill and Dave Matthews; their duet won a Grammy of its own.
Q 08Who sang and co-wrote 'Smooth', the lead single from Supernatural?
Rob Thomas
Rob Thomas never meant to sing it: he took the job to try writing for someone else and floated George Michael as the vocalist before the label asked him to do it himself.
Q 09Which hip-hop star co-wrote and produced Santana's second No. 1 single from Supernatural?
Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jean produced it with Jerry Duplessis and brought in his own protégés, the Product G&B, to sing; the single spent ten weeks at No. 1 in the spring of 2000.
Q 10Santana's Gregg Rolie and Neal Schon went on to found which band in 1973?
Journey
Journey began as a jazz-rock outfit with Rolie singing lead; the arena-filling hits came only after Steve Perry took over the microphone in 1977.
Q 11Which label, home to Bob Dylan, signed Santana in the late 1960s?
Columbia
Columbia stayed Santana's label for 22 years, until Carlos left to sign with PolyGram.
Q 12Which Latin-music-loving promoter championed Santana and booked them at his Fillmore ballrooms?
Bill Graham
Bill Graham personally got the still-unknown band onto the Woodstock bill, the booking that made it famous before its first album was out.
Q 13Which Santana single, the band's first US top-ten hit, was first recorded by Latin jazz percussionist Willie Bobo?
Evil Ways
Evil Ways was pressed on the band by its promoter, who thought the simple tune would get radio play; it peaked at No. 9 in 1970.
Q 21Santana's 1987 solo record Blues for Salvador won a Grammy in which category?
Best Rock Instrumental Performance
Best Rock Instrumental Performance was the first Grammy of his career, arriving some twenty years after Woodstock made him a star.
Q 22Which jam band did Santana hire as his opening act in 1992?
Phish
Phish got more than a support slot: Carlos regularly called some or all of them up to jam during his own headline sets, and took them across Europe again in 1996.
Q 23Which record executive, who had worked with Santana at his first label, signed him to Arista and pushed the star-studded Supernatural?
Clive Davis
Q 14Which Santana album features 'Oye Como Va', later inducted into the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame?
Abraxas
Abraxas turned Tito Puente's early-1960s cha-cha-chá into a worldwide rock hit, swapping his brass section for electric guitar and Hammond organ.
Q 15Santana's 1972 album Caravanserai marked a strong shift toward which genre?
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion was such a leap that the label's president told Carlos he was committing career suicide; the album sold more slowly than its predecessors but still went platinum.
Q 16Which guru took Carlos Santana as a disciple in the 1970s and gave him the name Devadip?
Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy demanded a disciplined life free of drugs and alcohol; Carlos followed him for roughly a decade before breaking away in the early 1980s.
Q 17Santana recorded the 1973 album Love, Devotion, Surrender with which fusion guitarist?
John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin brought members of his Mahavishnu Orchestra into the studio alongside Santana's players, and the two guitarists then took the music on tour together.
Q 18Santana's 1974 album Illuminations was a collaboration with the widow of which jazz giant?
John Coltrane
John Coltrane was one of Carlos's heroes; his widow Alice played harp and keyboards, and the pair signed the album with their spiritual names, Turiya and Devadip.
Q 19Santana's 1977 album Moonflower had a hit cover of 'She's Not There', originally by which band?
The Zombies
The Zombies had already broken up when another of their songs, 'Time of the Season', became a US hit in 1969; Santana's 1977 cover put their debut single back in the Top 40.
Q 20Carlos Santana co-wrote the score for which 1987 music biopic?
La Bamba
La Bamba told the story of Ritchie Valens, killed at 17 in a 1959 plane crash; Los Lobos re-recorded his hits for the film and took the title song to No. 1.
Clive Davis steered him toward collaborations with younger stars, the formula that produced 'Smooth', after Carlos had asked his previous label to let him go.
Q 24Supernatural was Santana's first US No. 1 album since which 1971 release?
Santana III
Santana III was the last chart-topper for 28 years, and even Supernatural debuted at only No. 19, needing months of climbing before it reached the top in October 1999.
Q 25Who wrote 'Black Magic Woman' and joined Santana to play it at the 1998 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony?
Peter Green
Peter Green shared the night twice over: he was inducted with his own old band at the same ceremony, then walked on to play the song with the group that made it famous.
Q 26Which singer featured on 'The Game of Love', the Grammy-winning lead single from 2002's Shaman?
Michelle Branch
Michelle Branch was not the first voice on the song: co-writer Gregg Alexander sang the demo, and a finished take by Tina Turner was shelved, staying unreleased until 2007.
Q 27Which rock frontman wrote 'Why Don't You & I' and sang it on Santana's album Shaman?
Chad Kroeger
Chad Kroeger's label refused to let his voice go out on the single ahead of a new Nickelback album, so Alex Band of the Calling re-sang it for radio.
Q 28Carlos Santana is credited with inspiring the name of which amplifier company after trying an early model?
Mesa Boogie
Mesa Boogie got its name after founder Randall Smith hot-rodded a small Fender amp and asked Carlos to try it; he exclaimed that it really boogies.
Q 29Which guitar maker builds Carlos Santana's signature models?
PRS
PRS did not yet exist when Carlos first ordered a hand-built guitar from Paul Reed Smith; the company was founded in 1985, and his signature models followed.
Q 30What guitar did Carlos Santana play at Woodstock?
A red Gibson SG Special
A red Gibson SG Special, which Carlos has said he played that day while still feeling the effects of a psychedelic.