Why you should listen to Spanish music

I’ve never been a fan of music in languages I don’t speak. The reason for that being that I love to analyse lyrics and all the meanings behind them – the obvious and confirmed ones but also the secret ones surrounded by conspiracy theories and question marks.

On the other hand, I’ve always felt drawn to Spanish music. It offers something special and unique that typical English music sometimes cannot provide. Y hablo un poco de Español…meaning I’ve been learning the language for almost 3 years now. But I am simply a bloody lazy person and even though I love languages I didn’t get the motivation to learn it. And since I am not the typical I-learn-everything-at-school-from-books kind of person, I always need another source of the language. After all that is how I learnt English – from films, Youtube, reading what I like but mainly from music. So why shouldn’t it work with Spanish as well?

With the time passing by I started to think about the music I saved on my Spotify and listen to on daily basis. One important realisation – 99% of it is in English and nothing more which is a call for a change. I soon stumbled over this Latin American boyband called CNCO which lead me to explore more music from the same area.

Photo by Mohammad Metri on Unsplash

Now… Vamos a conocer CNCO

CNCO

As I was saying, this is the band which helped me to love Spanish and Spanglish music even more. The boyband consists of 5 members, each having a different country of origin - Zabdiel De Jesús (Puerto Rico), Christopher Vélez (Ecuador), Joel Pimentel (México), Richard Camacho (República Dominicana) and Erick Colón (Cuba). Even though having slight differences in the Spanish language in each country caused some misunderstandings in the early stage, the band members are now closer than ever. Claiming they created their own Spanish with unique accents and dialects mixed from every area.

The band CNCO was created in 2015 when the members were put together because they won the TV show La Banda. The big help to the band was Ricky Martin who became a mentor to them, and the guys even joined him on his One World Tour.

The band didn’t stay behind with realising their music and it skyrocketed to the top of the charts. They have 2 albums out full of Spanish and Spanglish music. They are currently working on the third one which will hopefully be an even bigger success. Their shows are very energetic and have a friendly atmosphere full of not only singing but also dancing.

And even though they became such a hit in a relatively short period of time, they remain grounded and it’s clear the fame hasn’t got the worst of them. They never forget to mention their family which has been there for them no matter what. And some of their life stories will truly inspire you. For example, Christopher left Ecuador and moved to the USA to help his family financially. He did many different jobs to provide support for his loved ones – even had a job as a shoe-shiner. But he isn’t the only one, Erick’s dad had to leave his country (Cuba) so he could help his family. Needless to say, the dad reunited with his son much later.

Other artists that are worth listening to:

1.) Prince Royce

2.) Sofía Reyes

3.) Paloma Mami

4.) J Balvin

5.) Luis Gamarra

6.) Río Roma

7.) Daddy Yankee

Sofía Reyes

And what are the reasons to look up Latin American music?

1.) You learn the language – Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever had more motivation to learn Spanish than after discovering the music. I want to know what they sing about, and I do want to sing along as well. (song tip: Por Un Beso – Luis Gamarra)

2.) It can push you to try new things/activities – For me, it was dancing. I started learning it and I feel great about it. But it doesn’t have to be only this, the music can awaken all kinds of new ideas and inspire you in many ways. (song tip: Pretend, Sólo Yo – CNCO)

3.) You will feel just the right emotions – I swear that listening to this type of music makes you feel like you’re literally chilling on a beach. Put on the right music and suddenly it is summer and everything feels kind of right and beautifully calm. (song tip: Calma – Remix – Pedro Capó, Acapella – Mikolas Josef)

4.) This music makes you feel yourself – This is pretty much all of the above combined. It is really simple. If you truly give in and feel the vibe, you suddenly become the confident bitch dancing your ass off not caring about a damn thing. Or maybe that’s just the inner Leo in me being released by Spanish vibes. Regardless of that, I recommend you try that as well since it’s truly liberating. (song tip: Se Vuelve Loca, Reggaetón Lento – CNCO, R.I.P. – Sofía Reyes and others)

Open Spotify right now!