Charlie Zaa has recorded over 10 albums since launching his career as a solo artist. His record Sentimientos, in which he sings some past hit songs, sold over three million copies throughout Latin America and the United States. His albums Sentimientos and Un Segundo Sentimiento led to him winning the 1998 Artist of the Year award at the Billboard Latin Music Awards. For his fourth album, Zaa returned to the Sonolux studios in Bogotá, where he made his first album Sentimiento, and to his original producer, Milton Salcedo, and recorded old romantic standards, boleros and waltzes, in an attempt to replicate the success of Sentimiento. Zaa’s album De Un Solo Sentimiento was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award in 2002. In 2011, Zaa’s album De Bohemia reached the top of the Billboard Latin Albums chart. Some of Charlie Zaa’s music was inspired by Julio Jaramillo.

On July 23, 2004, Zaa suffered a severe abdominal pain as he was about to begin a concert in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He couldn’t perform that day, having to be taken to a local hospital. Zaa was then flown to Miami, Florida, where he remained hospitalized until he was diagnosed with a kidney condition. Soon after, his personal doctor corrected the problem in a surgery performed in his native Colombia.