Brush Up On Your Spanish With These 7 Latin Songs
In an effort to improve my impoverished Spanish, I took my own advice and created a Spanish music playlist in Apple Music, and began watching Spanish language music videos on YouTube. What followed was magical.
The quality and largely moral content in rhythm, dancing, lyrics, and video production are outstanding. Many of the YouTube videos do not require Spanish language expertise in order to understand the messages. Most of the songs have over 1 billion views. The following is a survey of some of my favorites.
Related Link: “EXPLICIT” Music is Dominating Top Charts Nationwide, Disturbing Stats Show
Robarte un Beso — Carlos Vives ft. Sebastian Yatra
Title Translation: “Steal a Kiss From You”
Artist: Carlos Vives (Colombia) and Sebastian Yatra (Colombia)
Release date: July 2017
Views: 1,363,452,762
Moral quality: 10
A beautiful video about love from blossoming to teenage to senior, and stories in between. Spanish language understanding is unnecessary.
Me Voy Enamorando — Chino & Nacho ft. Farruko
Title Translation: “I Go Falling in Love”
Artists: Chino & Nacho (Jesús Alberto Miranda Pérez and Miguel Ignacio Mendoza Donatti) (Venezuela)
Release date: May 2015
Views: 924,569,350
Moral quality: 10
The video follows two teenagers falling in love—the girl is undergoing cancer treatments and a boy who wants to show his love by doing things like shaving his head. Leila Cobo of Billboard magazine described the clip as “uplifting and infectious.”
Bailando — Enrique Iglesias ft. Descemer Bueno and Gente de Zona
Title Translation: “Dancing”
Artists: Enrique Iglesias (Spain), Descemer Bueno (Cuba), and Gente de Zona (Cuba)
Release date: April 2014
Views: 2,925,571,820
Moral quality: 6
A wonderfully executed video with flawless beautifully choreographed dancing. The tune is catchy and resonates well with Spanish and English-speaking audiences. The featured dancers are from Havana’s Ballet Lizt Alfonso. It was filmed in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
La Gozadera — Gente de Zona ft. Marc Anthony
Title Translation: “Good Time or Party”
Artists: Gente de Zona (Cuba) and Marc Anthony (America)
Release date: July 2015
Views: 1,275,569,048
Moral quality: 6
A wonderfully choreographed video filmed mostly in Cuba but partly in the Dominican Republic (Marc Anthony scenes). This song is about inviting all of Latin America to a party with each country bringing some food of cultural significance. It is happy, fun, and uniting. It is tough not to want to go to their party.
Entre mi Vida y la Tuya — Fonseca
Title Translation: “Between Your Life and Mine”
Artist: Fonseca (Colombia)
Release date: July 2015
Views: 21,855,822
Moral quality: 10
The romantic story takes place in a remote beach town in what looks like Colombia and follows two children who form a friendship, fall in love, marry, and grow old together.
Related Link: Spanish Cover for “Glorious” Released
Cumbiana — Carlos Vives
Title Translation: “A Woman from Columbia”
Artist: Carlos Vives (Colombia)
Release date: October 2020
Views: 5,427,944
Moral quality: 10
The incomparable Carlos Vives is about as woke as any human. In this song, he is highlighting several things. The beauty of love in a small family, the terrors of abduction, disruption, and slavery that accompany narco-trafficking, the wonders of amphibious ecosystems, and the need to protect them. The last paragraph of the song reads,
“May the music of the water remind us that there is an amphibious world in Colombia. That world wants to flourish again. Keeping its way of life in balance. And on that, which seems so simple, everyone’s future depends.”
Bailar Contigo — Carlos Vives
Title Translation: “Dance with You”
Artist: Carlos Vives (Colombia)
Release date: August 2013
Views: 80,995,138
Moral quality: 9
The music video is a beautiful video Carlos Vives made with his wife as his co-star. It begins with him trying to write her a letter. The great thing about this video is that it is so easy to follow the progression of the story without even knowing Spanish.
Due to poor moral content, by comparison, I bypassed Luis Fonsi—Despacito and its 7 billion views along with a few others. Hope you enjoyed them as much as I have.
Who is your favorite Latin artist to listen to? Share in the comments.
