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
Carlos was drawn to the city's hippie counterculture and originally called the group the Santana Blues Band.
Q 02Carlos Santana was born in Autlán de Navarro, in which Mexican state?
Jalisco
His father was a mariachi musician who taught him violin at five and guitar at eight; the family later moved to Tijuana.
Q 03How much was Santana paid for its 45-minute Woodstock set on 16 August 1969?
$2,500
Their promoter agreed to help organise the festival only on condition that Santana was added to the bill.
Q 04Which throbbing 11-minute instrumental was the highlight of Santana's Woodstock set?
Soul Sacrifice
Its inclusion in the Woodstock film and soundtrack vastly increased the band's popularity.
Q 05'Black Magic Woman', Santana's 1970 hit, was originally written and recorded by which band?
Fleetwood Mac
The Santana version segues into Gábor Szabó's 'Gypsy Queen' almost lick for lick.
Q 06What was the title of Santana's second album, released in September 1970?
Abraxas
It spent six weeks at No. 1, stayed on the chart for 88 weeks and was later ranked among Rolling Stone's 500 greatest albums.
Q 07How many Grammy Awards did Supernatural win at the 2000 ceremony, tying a record held by Michael Jackson?
8
It also won three Latin Grammys and topped the charts in eleven countries.
Q 08Who sang and co-wrote 'Smooth', the lead single from Supernatural?
Rob Thomas
The Matchbox Twenty frontman's cha-cha number spent twelve weeks at No. 1 and was the last chart-topper of the 1990s.
Q 09Which R&B duo featured on Santana's second Hot 100 No. 1 from the 1999 comeback album?
The Product G&B
The song spent ten weeks at No. 1 in the spring of 2000.
Q 10Two members of Santana's classic line-up, Gregg Rolie and Neal Schon, left in 1973 to found which band?
Journey
Rolie was Santana's original organist and lead vocalist; Schon had joined as a teenage guitar prodigy in 1971.
Q 11Which record label signed Santana in late 1968?
Columbia
Carlos refused even to audition for Atlantic because he wanted to be on the same label as Miles Davis and Bob Dylan.
Q 12Which Latin-music-loving promoter championed Santana and managed them at the Fillmore?
Bill Graham
He fired the band from the Fillmore in June 1967 after members showed up late for a gig supporting The Who, then went on to back them anyway.
Q 13'Evil Ways', Santana's first Hot 100 top-ten hit, covered which Latin jazz percussionist?
Willie Bobo
Their promoter suggested the band record it because he thought it would get radio airplay; it peaked at No. 9.
Q 21Santana's 1987 solo record Blues for Salvador won a Grammy in which category?
Best Rock Instrumental Performance
It resurfaced on his 2025 collaborations retrospective.
Q 22Which jam band did Santana hire as his opening act in 1992, regularly inviting them to sit in?
Phish
Phish toured with Santana again in Europe in 1996.
Q 23Which record executive, who had earlier worked with Santana at his first label, signed him to Arista and pushed the star-studded Supernatural?
Clive Davis
Santana had been without a recording contract before the deal.
Q 14'Oye Como Va' was inducted into the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001. Which album did it come from?
Abraxas
The song is a Tito Puente composition and one of the band's two most enduring hits from that record.
Q 15Santana's 1972 album Caravanserai marked a strong shift toward which genre?
Jazz fusion
A CBS executive warned that it would sabotage their Top 40 status; it still went platinum over the years.
Q 16Which guru accepted Carlos Santana as a disciple in 1973 and gave him the name Devadip?
Sri Chinmoy
A fellow fusion guitarist made the introduction; Santana and his wife broke with the guru in 1982.
Q 17Santana recorded the 1973 album Love, Devotion, Surrender with which fusion guitarist?
John McLaughlin
Musicians from both Santana and the Mahavishnu Orchestra took part, along with two alumni of Miles Davis's Bitches Brew.
Q 18Santana's 1974 album Illuminations was a collaboration with the widow of which jazz giant?
John Coltrane
Alice Coltrane's record veered into avant-garde free jazz and Indian classical influences.
Q 19Santana's 1977 album Moonflower had a hit cover of 'She's Not There', originally by which band?
The Zombies
Moonflower went double platinum in the US and was their first UK top-ten album since 1974.
Q 20Carlos Santana wrote the film score for which 1987 biopic of Ritchie Valens?
La Bamba
It starred Lou Diamond Phillips and let Santana pay tribute to the rock and roll he heard growing up in Tijuana.
Q 24Supernatural's Album of the Year win came how many years after Santana's previous No. 1 album, a record gap?
28
Santana III had topped the chart in 1971; Supernatural took eighteen weeks to climb from a No. 19 debut to No. 1.
Q 25At the 1998 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, Santana played 'Black Magic Woman' with its writer. Who was he?
Peter Green
He was inducted the same night as a founder of the band that first recorded the song.
Q 26Which singer featured on 'The Game of Love', the Grammy-winning lead single from 2002's Shaman?
Michelle Branch
It reached No. 5 on the Hot 100 and won Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals; Branch returned for 'I'm Feeling You' in 2005.
Q 27'Why Don't You & I', a top-ten hit from Shaman, was written by and featured which Nickelback frontman?
Chad Kroeger
A remix with Alex Band of the Calling was combined with the original for chart purposes; Kroeger returned for 'Into the Night' in 2007.
Q 28Carlos Santana is credited with naming which amplifier company after saying a prototype 'really Boogies'?
Mesa Boogie
His rig still combines a Mesa/Boogie Mark I with Dumble amps and, more recently, a Bludotone.
Q 29Which guitar maker has produced Carlos Santana signature models since 1988?
PRS
Their first Santana model, 'The Yellow', was followed by the 'Supernatural' and 'Shaman' editions.
Q 30What guitar did Carlos Santana play at Woodstock?
A red Gibson SG Special
He had earlier busked and washed dishes to afford an SG after his Melody Maker was destroyed.