Best Songs in Spanish If You Don’t Speak Spanish (Including Song Links)
The Power of Music
The first soldiers killed in a battle are the musicians, those whipping their comrades up to fight. Music can change your mood in minutes. It can give form to otherwise incoherent, nascent feelings. Music can take years off a world-weary spirit.
Surveys indicate that most people stop listening to new music in their 30’s, perhaps in the frenzy of child-rearing and career-building. I almost gave up on new music myself when access got so technical, during that stage, blessedly over, when we had to download our favorite songs into a device the size of a matchbook, usually while we were on a treadmill.
Today, it’s much easier to discover and play new music and explore different genres. There’s never been a better time to get back in touch with your groove - and learn some Spanish at the same time.
Other reasons to explore songs in another language.
You don’t need to understand the lyrics to appreciate a great song. There is a popular German band called "Los pistoleros güeros. They play cumbia (a Latin genre). German audiences love their songs without understanding the words. Music really is the universal language
Often songs exist in your favorite genre in other languages. I like alternative rock, and entered the second level of heaven when I learned that Latin alternative rock had its own Golden Age. Exploring new songs in the genre I liked, even though I understood little Spanish at the time, made me feel like a teenager thumbing through new albums at the record store again.
A friend of mine listens to Latin music as well as music from Asia and India. She told me, “Songs from other cultures remind me I am a world citizen. I like listening to mellow songs in other languages before bed. Since I can’t understand the lyrics, my mind can wander wherever it wants to.” She calls foreign language songs her “soak” music.
Popular songs
I have audio links below to a few songs in Spanish. They are wildly popular (as indicated by their YouTube popularity), award-winning songs in Latin America and Mexico. I didn’t understand their lyrics for years. That didn’t keep me from playing them over and over.
I’ve included links rather than Youtube links because I think it’s important to hear the songs without the visual distraction of video the first time.
Tuyo - Netflix series often open with intriguing songs, such as this one Tuyo (60 million views on YouTube) by Chilean Rodrigo Amarante for the series Narcos. When Amarante was contracted to write it, he first intensely studied the life of drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, particularly Escobar’s childhood (The song is a love song to his mother). The song’s so seductive that, as one commentator joked “I played this song to my dishwasher and now it launders my money.”
Tu Falta de Querar - The way Mon Laferte belts this song out will make you turn up the volume. The Chilean singer wrote during a break up and was convinced by friends to record it, which she did saying, “as long as no one else hears it”. That condition didn’t hold up. It’s had 345 million views on YouTube (Her song Amárrame, featuring Juanes, has had 345 billion.)
El Mareo (172 million views) is a song by one of the most beloved bands in Latin America, Soda Stereo (Argentine), the first Spanish language band I fell in love with. The frontman, the late Gustavo Cerati performed this electronica-touched song with Baja Fondo. Gorgeous violin accompaniment.
It’s hard to choose which to choose from León Larregui and his band Zoé. Locos (164 million), or Luna (220 million) or Labios Rotos (411 million views). The number of recent reactions to the song Luna (released in 2011) indicates it's been particularly popular during the quarantine so I chose it. The cello, later backed up with piano and then floor tom drums will bring tears to your eyes.
Amargo Adios - On a more robust note, the band Inspector fuses classic Jamaican rhythms with the feel of Mexican pop. Their style is based on nostalgia for the 1960s rock-n-roll and the great romantic groups of the 1970s (67 million views). The lead vocalist, Big Javi can hold a note.
Palmar - (ft. Mon LaFerte) It’s easy to recognize Bob Marley’s influence in the island beat of Óscar Alfonso Castro, better known as Caloncho. He was nominated for the Latin Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.
Kumbala - No one plays a trumpet like someone from Mexico, as demonstrated by this passionate song by the band Maldita Vecindad (13 billion views). Tons of interesting musical elements here (claves, maracas, bongos, a sax solo) and a great tempo transition that’s well worth the wait.
Buy Travel Speakers
Travel speakers are very inexpensive these days. You can purchase good ones for less than $60 on Amazon. They are small, wireless and instructions in the manual take only a few steps. You can link them to your smartphone or laptop if you have bluetooth capacity. With speakers and a cellphone, you can make any hotel or guest room home.
Whether you are looking to release your inner beast or tame it, give foreign music and Spotify a look. With music you love by your side, you are never alone.
Spotify: Still the Easiest Tool for Finding New Music in Spanish
Spotify is the most well-known method to find music and others’ playlists. The most difficult thing about the Spotify app (downloadable on computer, laptop or smartphone) is that it’s almost too sleek. If you know only a few things about navigating it however, you will be on your way to escaping the world at will. To use Spotify...
Type Spotify.com into your computer or laptop browser. Open the Spotify link.
When the Spotify home screen appears, download the application. Most likely you will choose the version for Windows.
Create your Spotify account and password.
To start the program, click the word “Spotify” in the top left corner. (This is what I mean by too sleek. The button should really say “Start Here”) There’s no button, the word Spotify has the link behind it. Once you’ve done this once, you will likely not have to do it again. The program will remember you.
Create your own playlist by clicking “playlist+” in the bottom left-hand corner.Name your playlist.
In the search bar on top, type in a song or band you remember liking. An entire list of songs from that band will appear. Move your cursor down to the song you want to hear.
Click the three dots on the right of the song title to add the song to your playlist.
Related links:
Of course - You may want to exercise a little caution when listening to songs in a concert in a language you don’t know, as Comedy Central illustrates.
This playlist is featured on Spotify (type kerryannbaker into the search bar on top. The playlist is named Spanish Language Music by Kerryannbaker). A similar playlist is included in my blog “Best Date Night Songs in Spanish.
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