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Latin music, who should I check out?


Sweet Jane 61

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I´m hooked on Brezilian music by now... :) But they don´t sing in Spanish, they sing in Portugese... :P

In any case, Joao Gilberto is my hero in this moment...

Jane, maybe you´d prefer some folk Spanish music? Or you mean salsa, merengue and that kind of PortoRican music?

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I wish I had access to me old computer, but right now I'm stuck trying to hack into my own computer's WINXP password. Anyway, I can tell you that Rock and Pop do not translate too well into Spanish and vice-versa. You'll find very few English-speaking artists who sing like Leonardo Favio, Sabu, Emmanuel, Jose Jose, Rudy LaScala, and Camilo Sesto. In Spanish, singing in an intense and passionate voice is not out of the ordinary, while in English I'd imagine it'd draw a lot of bad attention and would be the butt of jokes (much like J-Pop is rife with high-pitched female vocalists). Here are some songs which, to me, have a Romantic Ballad sound:

- "Nena" ("Nena") by Miguel Bose

- "Insoportablemente Bella" ("Unbearably Beautiful") by Emmanuel

- "La Nave Del Olvido" ("The Ship Of Oblivion") by Jose Jose

- "El Cariño Es Como Una Flor" ("Love Is Like A FLower") by Rudy LaScala

- "Que Porque Te Quiero" ("Why It Is That I Love You") by Carlos Mata

- "Lo Que Fue No Sera" ("What Once Was Will Not Be") by Jose Maria Napoleon

- "Y Te Vas" ("And You Left") by Jose Luis Perales

- "Amor De Mujer" ("A Woman's Love") by Camilo Sesto

I think the one that translates the best in terms of sound is Camilo Sesto's song. It has a familiar English vocalist air to it and the instrumentation is pretty cool - sounds like the theme of some old foreign movie. Granted, these are ALL old songs with an average of 20-25 years give or take. I'm not too keen on what's current nowadays in Latin American and Spanish music (since they're trying to copy their English counterparts too much).

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Good, BA!! :cool:

then maybe Jane would appreciate Joan Manuel Serrat (melodic Spanish singer), Alaska y Dinarama (though it´s pop, they have melodic songs that are really some of the most beautiful spanish singing songs), Olga Guillot (the queen of bolero), Armando Manzanero...

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Ooh, Bolero music is gooooood. THAT is genuinely ours! Sure, there is Merengue, Salsa, Cumbia, Vallenato, Zamba, and Bachata - tropical music for which we're very famous for, but Bolero music is our "uber."

Speaking of Bachata, you should check out music by Juan Luis Guerra Y El Grupo 440. It's fun and upbeat tropical music. You usually hear them played every Saturday night at Salsa clubs in SoCal.

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Franco De Vita... that brings a lot of memories. A lot of South American singers got famous from having their songs played as the theme of a telenovela. Franco De Vita, Guillermo Davila, Carlos Mata, and Rudy LaScala got their songs heard when the Venezuelan telenovelas made it to the rest of the Americas (including the United States).

"Solo Importas Tu" ("You're The Only One That Matters") by Franco De Vita:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5eEO5s_qQM

"Un Buen Perdedor" ("A Good/Graceful Loser")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCSvEBdOgA4

He was a bit of a "piano man" himself. I bet you cien pesos he was heavily influenced by Billy Joel :cool:

Here's one which should sound familiar to millions... but this time it's in Spanish... and it should still sound familiar to another set of millions!

"Chiquitita" (in Spanish) by one of my favourite Pop bands, ABBA:

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Trio Los Panchos also do that kind of soft latin music...

Charlie Zaa built a career out of covering all those songs. Gotta hand it to him for keeping the tradition of the style, even if none of the songs were composed by him. His voice may not be up to par with the likes of people that worked with Agustin Lara, but it's a rare style for someone so young in our time.

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