Rolling Afro-Latin Music 2026: Reggaeton, Dembow, Latin Pop, Salsa,Bachata, Bomba, Latin Jazz, Merengue, Urbano and more Latinx

Once again defining the music broadly here but trying to emphasize Caribbean & the Americas rooted Reggaeton, dembow, Latin pop, Salsa, Bachata, Bomba, Latin Jazz, Merengue, Urbano (more than pop-rock but occasional mentions of that genre are ok too). Hybrid music with Latin trap and Mexican Regional traditional styles combined are ok too

2025 thread here -

Rolling Afro-Latin Music 2025: Reggaeton, Dembow, Latin Pop, Salsa,Bachata, Bomba, Latin Jazz, Merengue, Urbano and more Latinx

¡Feliz año!

Heh, just heard a song I performed at karaoke last year with your new DJ friend.

Also, there is a tribute to Andy Gonzalez at the Jazz church, St. Peter's, tonight.

Cool re the mystery karaoke song. Did you go to the Andy Gonzalez event? Sounds like it turned into a tribute to he and his brother Jerry. I miss them both

I see online that -- eleven-year-old Julia Girau Gonzalez, Jerry’s youngest daughter. Through music, she spoke volumes. Playing what appeared to be her father’s trumpet, Julia delivered a beautiful and emotionally resonant performance, joined in duet by Andy’s protege Luques Curtis.

I didn't go, just looked at the photos on social media. I assume it might be streaming on the St. Peter's YouTube account.

I imagine Luques is still feeling the pain of Eddie Palmieri's passing.

In fact, I might even know so, since I asked a good friend of his a little while back.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-latin-lists/best-latin-songs-2025-1235477925/

Rolling Stone top Latin Pop songs of 2025

Continuing from the other thread: if you like boleros half as much as I do, be sure to follow catalinaplazaa on Instagram. There seems to be a new live reel every other day.

A random new video from them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnCH2Uk1TsM

https://artsfuse.org/322913/the-20th-annual-francis-davis-jazz-poll-latin-jazz-albums/

Latin jazz 2025 Francis Davis Jazz poll results

Miguel Zenon won. I heard Zenon on a panel discussing Bad Bunny and he was smart and enthusiastic as he always is in interviews and social media. Unfortunately on his own albums he doesn’t always musically sound like to me someone who clearly knows and loves salsa and reggaeton and Bad Bunny. I am not by the way trying to be one of those white guys telling someone of another heritage to know their place and stay in their own lane. Zenon is good at what he is doing, it just doesn’t always wow my interests.

Will give 2025 live album another listen though

First 4 songs of Zenon’s Village Vanguard album swing like jazz but I don’t hear any traces of clave or reggaeton. Will listen to rest of it later.

Zenon doesn’t seem to want to do clave or reggaeton in a noticeable way even though he knows those rhythms well.

Excellent trio streaming from Terraza right now

Oh, I missed it.

Been listening to Weed 420 who made Chuck Eddy’s top albums of 2025 list. The vocalist at times has that cartoonish snarling voice that Dominican dembow vocalist El Alfa has ( which I enjoy).

Not too many Latin artists made the ILM tracks poll for 2025

There were 7 votes split between 2 different Bad bunny tracks, and also some votes for Rosalia. we shall see what shows up in album votes

https://remezcla.com/music/meet-los-sobrinos-bad-bunnys-tiny-desk-dtmf-band/

An article from last year on the band that backed Bad Bunny on his album from last year and on his Tiny Desk and now his Super Bowl appearance.

Article also mentions other reggaeton albums from over the years that incorporated Latin “folk” music— bombs, plena etc

https://remezcla.com/lists/music/21-new-songs-to-listen-to-this-week-from-mxka-to-la-gata/

new songs to check out

Listening to Dominican female Dominican dembow rapper Yailin La Mas Viral who's gonna be at a MD club near me in the DC area Friday night. Like El Alfa, Jey One, and Weed 420 she's got a cartoonish, sing-songy, high nasally voice at times and it works without being too annoying.

Get ready for an unforgettable night! YAILIN LA MAS VIRAL is coming to Mexico Lindo MXL Night Club in Bladensburg, Maryland, on Friday, February 20, 2026 at 9:00 PM. Come enjoy the explosive energy of reggaeton and dembow as the artist who has taken social media by storm immerses you in her musical world. Known for her iconic tracks like "Bing Bong," "CHAPA," and "Silla," Yailin la Mas Viral is ready to ignite the dance floor with her latest hit, "Shorty (Remix)"…

The translation from the Spanish on the tickeri website

She's having a bunch of djs open for her and my guess is that she won't be onstage till like 1 am

Cuban music is rich in transcendental moments, and I was present Thursday night for one of them, when perhaps 40-50,000 people -- it's a guess -- put their hands in the air and sang along with Alexander Abreu and Havana d’Primera at the Macroplaza del Malecón in Veracruz during Veracruz's Carnaval, the largest in Mexico.

Ned S re his fave recent Cuban music gig

Alexander Abreu and Havana d’Primera's funky timba and salsa sounded good in videos I checked out.

As for a very different genre-

Saw an article saying that Brooklyn-based mostly Peruvian band Tipa Tipo who meld cumbia w/ yacht rock are influenced by Vanessa Zamora. Listening to Mexican singer Zamora now and she has a more polished Julieta Venegas kind of sound, so it kinda makes sense that the even more lush Tipa Tipo would like her pop.

Switzerland-based Cuban violinist and singer Yilian Cañizares has a new album Vitamin Y out that she recorded in Paris with a Mozambique bassist who has played with Cuban pianist Omar Sosa and with a Cuban percussionist. Plus she has a Moroccan guest on another song and a Senegalese kora player on another, and Cuban jazz drummer Pedrito Martinez on 1 track. Sometimes she tries to do too much (the classical meets jazz violin runs are not my thing) but her less is more cuts where she just sings Afro-Cuban ballads and just adds a tad of violin work well. I also listened for the first time to her 2018 album with Omar Sosa. Again, the least flashy cuts work best.

She's doing a free show at the Library of Congress in DC in April and I think is doing shows in Paris this week.

Re-listening to 2025 Natalia Lafourcade album and liking it better than I did on first listen last year. She's got horns and strings and more backing her. She's doing more solo shows live this year and doing songs from that 2025 album solo with just her nylon stringed acoustic guitar.

Recently stumbled on Cuban tres player Renesito Avich while trying to see what sort of aguinaldos I could find on my streaming service. I listened to the whole album, very good, to my ear it's mostly straight acoustic son cubano with some nice touches here and there that make it feel alive and modern. Love his playing but also his voice is just great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKYtbky3cn8

Aguinaldo Puertorriqueño (feat. José Valentino)

https://aurorafloreshostos.substack.com/p/latin-fever-the-night-women-took

Need to check out that Cuban tres player Avich. Also now that I read that bittersweet Substack on Latin Fever’s 70s salsa , I have to go to YouTube and give it a listen also.

This guy seems to have the whole album up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvOFdjx9Cbc

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/10/uruguay-candombe-afro-music?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Uruguay candombe music - African rooted percussion with afro-folky vocal melodies

Very cool, thank you

Like the blues in the US, samba in Brazil, rumba in Cuba and plena in Puerto Rico, candombe, Uruguay’s African-descendent music, was once reviled, marginalised and even banned – but managed to endure.

I'm of two minds about this opening salvo, though I'm not sure I have the energy to fully articulate why. Overall I'd say it reflects positively on the trend in post-BLM anglosphere cultural writing to be more attentive to the centrality of African diaspora folks in so many of the artforms from which their contributions had so long been obscured or minimized, but on the other hand I can't help but feel that it simultaneously reinscribes certain tendencies of neocolonial thinking insofar as it smooshes these wildly disparate musics into a too-easy-to-digest narrative, with a faint echo of '90s world music rain stick consumerism as a panacea for righting historical wrongs. But I fully concede that part or all of that is baggage I'm bringing to it

I think that reaction is understandable. I did note the author of that piece is Brazilian, so I reckon he's just trying to hook the anglos

glad this got bumped. I read that the other day and have been meaning to pull out my El Kinto CD ever since, I haven't listened to this in ages

i'll post this here because why not. cool to seem him play

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkof6nmTOJQ
Arsenio Rodriguez - 11 seconds of live footage!

Wow!

Harry Belafonte narrating afaik

hmm good call. somebody in the comments got snippy about the "left wing" agenda of the narration, lol

I've been listening to this on repeat, it's just packed with astonishing music

https://www.discogs.com/release/7688399-Various-Cuban-Counterpoint-History-Of-The-Son-Montuno

Maybe there's a better thread for it, but it all started when I went on a Cuban tres kick after hearing the Renesito Avich track I shared above

Not sure where to post this but since I like both salsa and newer genres why not here- Jonathan Bogart has just been posting his fave 2025 tracks from various places around the world including Mexico - here's his faves that are mainly neo-perreo urbano

https://www.jonathanbogart.net/blog/2026/3/13/2025-favorites-mexico

Bogart's fave 2025 afro-Colombian tracks here

https://www.jonathanbogart.net/blog/2026/3/15/2025-favorites-afro-colombia

Deb Grant on BBC 6 Music played an impressive track, Ojunjo from the new Nuevos Rios album:

Nuevos Rios - Ojunjo
https://mastodonapp.uk/@BBC6MusicBot/116319814823866130

Bandcamp:

Nuevos Rios - Nuevos Rios
https://nuevosrios.bandcamp.com/album/nuevos-rios

Nuevos Ríos is the new project born from the meeting of Colombia’s iconic Canalón de Timbiquí, led by the unmistakable voice of Nidia Góngora (Quantic, Ondatrópica, The Bongo Hop), and the Toulouse-based trio Reco Reco, known for their explorations of trance-driven rhythms from South America and beyond.

Rooted on the banks of the Timbiquí River in Colombia’s Pacific region, the collaboration fuses ancestral Afro-Colombian traditions with electronic and amplified sounds. The result is a powerful and hypnotic journey where marimba, percussion, bass, and voices intertwine with keyboards, guitar, and drums. Between ritual intensity and dancefloor energy, the music bridges continents—echoing West Africa, the Caribbean, and the sweaty clubs of Europe—while always returning to the river as a vital source of life and inspiration.

Released on ZZK Records (home to Son Rompe Pera, Nicola Cruz, La Yegros, among others), this debut album is both a manifesto and a celebration: a living testimony of Colombia’s Afro-descendant heritage, reinvented through collective creativity. Nuevos Ríos is not just fusion—it is a new current, a sonic ritual where traditions flow into modernity.
credits

released March 27, 2026

interesting

I realized this weekend that Mas Flow 2, probably the most important compilation in reggaeton history, is not on streaming services.

a newsletter I read mentioned this cool Dominican track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXgvde31yLQ

Jezzy El Chef - LA MUJER QUE ME PARIO

Fania Records Facebook post-

We are saddened by the passing of Joe Conzo Sr.—a longtime friend of Fania, confidant to Tito Puente, and a dedicated historian of Latin music.
Our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.

----------------------------------------

Conzo used to guest once a month on WPFW Dj Jim Byers Classic Edition- Mambo show, and Byers is paying tribute to him and airing old interviews with him talking about Tito Puente now 6pm to 8 pm Et. Archived on wpfw website for 2 weeks. Byers also had COnzo, Tito Puente's biographer and archivist, talk live on a "Metro Membo" panel in DC

Conzo's son btw took amazing photos of the early hiphop acts and break dancers in NYC

I saw Natalia Lafourcade from Mexico on the 2nd gig of her US tour (1st was in NYC the night before) last night at 2,800 or so Strathmore Theatre in Maryland near DC. A real nice show (that I would have enjoyed even more if I spoke Spanish more as she talked a lot mostly in Spanish between songs. The stage was set up like a home but with a piano, a table with a lamp, and a chair. It's a solo tour and she had some pre-recorded sounds coming on on certain songs, plus lighting that changed on different songs and some stage fog.

She came onto the stage and sat at the piano, and then fumbled through a purse and grabbed a ragged sheet of paper that she placed on the piano and proceeded to play "Apertura & Lagrimas" while pre-recorded bird, other animals, little kids voices also played. Soon she switched to acoustic guitar and stayed with that most of the night. Lots of beautiful Latin folk melodies and interesting arrangements. Cool shadows of her playing appeared on a theatre wall at times.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/natalia-lafourcade/2026/the-music-center-at-strathmore-north-bethesda-md-537657dd.html

Ned Sxblette is showing his 2020 filmed Tierra Sagrada (Sacred Ground)with lots of footage of Afro-Cuban religious drumming and singing in New Orleans on Thurs. April 16.

Ned says- It's wall-to-wall drums, no damn narrator.
I still don't have an . . . actual release plan for the film, but I'm ready to screen it and talk about it. If you want to sponsor a screening at your school or community institution, let me know.

https://hnoc.org/events/tierra-sagrada-film-screening

Ned will also be talking tonight in New Orleans re the connections between Cuban and New Orleans music

I am missing opening day of new salsa music exhibit today at the Smithsonian Museum of American History ( put together by staff of future Smithsonian Latino museum if Trump and Republicans don’t kill it) . Local salsa band at 3:30. But I have a conflict. Will go another day and report here .

Karol G playing stadiums on her end of summer 2026 US tour

https://www.livenation.com/artist/K8vZ917p3-V/karol-g-events

https://remezcla.com/lists/music/20-new-songs-to-listen-to-this-week-from-aria-vega-to-clave-especial/

youtube autoplayed this to me and it rules (I gather Lalita is Peruvian):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ-LNmVV3mE

Daniela Lalita - Tiroteo ft. Mura Masa

A couple weeks ago I picked up an LP by Puerto Rican singer El Gran Ramito, and since then have been exploring his disco. I wanted to share one of his tunes here ("Divino Maestro"), and in searching for it discovered that there's amazing video footage of his brother, Luis Morales Ramos, performing the same tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awp11OPWDHo

Aguinaldo and seis puerto puertorriqueño is a really rich vein, love the heavy mountain sound

El Rubio Acordeon, a Dominican musician w/ a huge Instagram following is playing gigs all over the NY and New Jersey area this weekend. He was just up in Massachusetts and earlier was down in North Carolina. Has also played the dc area

listen to this:

L’energia della presentazione dei convocati del Brasile.

Esci fuori e ti metti a correre.

Poi con tutti i loro difetti di sempre, tipo fare i fenomeni e chiamarli “I 26 del sesto titolo”.

Ma pace, senti come pompa pic.twitter.com/HtNmmTLd7M

— Tancredi Palmeri (@tancredipalmeri) May 28, 2026

Wife and I went to Rio and Bahia/Salvador in Brazil/Brasil for carnival once and it was awesome. That looks great too.

Reading about the Chanchona double bass and its use in El Salvadoran music. "The term literally translates to "big pig" or "sow". The instrument was affectionately given this name because its large, rounded shape resembles a heavy pig."

Friday June 12 is the Mundial de Chanchona w/La Chanchona de los Hnos. Lovo, La Chanchona 503, La Chanchona de Efraín Lobos, and Moisés y su Chanchona @ Cococabana in Hyattsville, MD near Washington DC which has a large El Salvadoran population

Wife and I went to Rio and Bahia/Salvador in Brazil/Brasil for carnival once and it was awesome. That looks great too.

The crowd scenes there at the end are AI fwiw (not that I'm doubting football victories in Brasil make for amazing celebrations!).

Ha

Helado Negro + Reyna Tropical = Helado Tropical

https://heladotropical.bandcamp.com/album/helado-tropical

sounds really promising so far, especially "Sensación"

(full album out in July)

Fan of em both so yeah

Now for something different than that, which I also like, a speedy Dominican dembow song by El Alfa "El Jefe" w/ De La Ghetto, Zion, El Cherry Scom, Dj Chulo NYC, Ronny GTA, Ezzy R. that means panties and thongs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25tKbsTDRS8

I missed the April opening of Pure Ritmo! The musical Journey of Salsa exhibit but finally made it there today. Worth seeing @ Smithsonian Museum of American History

Argentine vocalist Six Sex combines dembow, perreo reggaeton, & various electro club dance styles with pop and sometimes raunchy lyrics. Pitchfork kinda likes her, & critic Dave Moore thinks her album is a best of the year. Still making up my own mind on it

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/six-sex-ultra/

various electro more less identified as Latino US/UK/Europe style electro club dance styles I mean

But Six Sex doesn't have Robert Smith of the Cure or indie friendly guitar pop on her album and her lyrics are nsfw so she can't get the attention here on ilm that Olivia Rodrigo does

x-post- I should never type on my phone and post in a hurry. Six Sex combines Latin club styles with those club styles less identified as Latino, and more identified as US/UK/Europe style electro-clash, techno, etc.

Some of the Six Sex album is pretty conventional poppy club dance music, but some cuts more uniquely meld Latin perreo/dembow & US/UK/European variations

So NY has a "Cue the Records" event where they play a record on a fancy turntable in a restaurant or somewhere and people pay to sit and listen to it, and then afterwards discuss it with special guests. I like how at a recent one where they played Willie Colon & Ruben Blades Siembra, that some folks got up from those seats and started salsa dancing couples style together. I saw this in the video clip that journalist Carina Del Valle Schorske who has written about Latin music for New Yorker, NY Times and others, shared on Instagram.

Some music N$d S*blette saw in NYC recently (I'm on his email list)

Luis Perdomo, Cuban Osmany Paredes, Camila Cortina, Omar Sosa, Algerian cellist / vocalist Nesrine in Prospect Park. vodou music by Riva Prècil , Dame un Pasito!'s rooftop bachata party in the Bronx w/ Savi Rodríguez's band, and Afro-Dominican salve and palo in memory of recently transitioned master singer Enerolisa Núñez of the Congos of Villa Mella.

Helado Tropical album that Rob mentioned upthread was coming soon back in June here, is out today . It's Helado Negro with Reyna Tropical

ah thanks for mentioning that, I had forgotten about it. I'm just back from Costa Rica (sadly, zero musical experiences were had) so that should hit the spot today

That Orquestra Akokan record is good (I guess it's supposed to be a throwback mambo/salsa record, but I like that shit).

Yep throwback Cuban mambo on Daptone might elicit sneers from some, but I like that style too

Akokan is great and always have been, not sure what there is to sneer about

A 2017 formed group playing decades old music from the last century might seem overly museum like and retro to some, but they do it well in a timeless manner.

https://stereogum.com/2499367/lido-pimienta-announces-new-album-caribenya-hear-toxica/music

I haven't listened yet to new Lido Pimienta "Caribenya" album that just came out last week

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/15/arts/music/lido-pimienta-new-album-caribenya.html

the Helado Tropical album is really good, very aqueous and dubby; also very short

I need to give it a listen. The ILM best albums of 2026 so far list thread includes barely anything that's Latino, Caribbean, African, etc. btw.

I already need to post an update to that thread, it's been quite a year! cool to see people getting into the Neba Solo & Benego Diakité album after you posted about it

tbf though so far there aren't any anglo/franco Caribbean albums-as-albums that I'd mention there (Ayetian just released one that I haven't had time for yet). And I'm nowhere near plugged into this thread's remit enough to help out on that front, but I think the Helado Tropical will end up on my list. I gave that Six Sex album a quick listen, but it's exactly the wrong kind of obnoxious for my taste.

I should check out this Akokan album, though I have very little knowledge of salsa/mambo in the first place

I should probably start a rolling fave tracks thread (iirc we used to have both), but at this point it would be an at-least-80-tracks data dump

French Guiana musician Bamby had an album in 2025 but I only discovered her from you this year.

I feel like there might be Dominican rap albums from this year I like, plus there's Latin pop from Julieta Venegas, Helado Tropical, Lido Pimienta,

On this year’s list, readers will find everything from commanding sets by hitmakers like Fonseca, Maluma, Carín León and Christian Nodal to emotionally resonant singer-songwriter projects from Kany García and Julieta Venegas; from high-voltage urbano and rap releases by Trueno, Eladio Carrión, Arcángel and Tokischa to tropical detours from Rawayana and Neutro Shorty, and collaborative efforts rooted in pure chemistry, like CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso, Peso Pluma and Tito Double P, Paola Jara and Jessi Uribe and Chino & Nacho.

Dominican rapper Tokischa yes... Billboard's critics list of 26 albums also includes more such as Maluma (Colombian reggaeton w/ Latin pop & trad Latin music accents), Quevedo , Junior H & Gael Valenzuela, Arcangel, Mon Laferte, Chuyin, Bad Gyal, Hermanos Espinoza, Neutro Shorty, Xavi, Greeicy

https://www.billboard.com/lists/best-latin-albums-2026-so-far/

https://www.billboard.com/lists/best-latin-songs-2026-so-far/

Pretty sure some of the above are as worthy as what others are listing on ilx best albums so far list.

Still haven't dug into them yet but will. No salsa or Latin jazz I believe on those lists. Maybe Felix Contreras or others at NPR are aware of anything in those genres

Latin Music alternative Conference started July 28 and goes through August 1 in NY

Ala Jaza is the stage name of Dominican-born singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Enmanuel Jiménez. He's known for pioneering MamWali, a 21st century style of urban merengue that blends merengue and trap music.

DOn't know who this guy is but he has a sold out show in a small Maryland club Aug 22

https://open.substack.com/pub/aurorafloreshostos/p/from-willie-colon-to-marc-anthony?r=2ck8a&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

RIP Richie Bonilla

For more than six decades, Richie Bonilla helped shape, promote and protect the music we now call salsa. While others stood under the stage lights, Richie worked the phones, negotiated the contracts, found the venues, crossed the borders and made certain the bands arrived, were taken care of, paid and came back happy.