Originally from Cuba, but expanded throughout Latin America, it has a mix of son, cha-cha-cha, mambo, etc.

Constantly bored or are you new to the world of salsa?

You should concentrate on the musical genre, get to know it more closely to know all its styles and see which one is best for you.

You can choose between the afro-latino, the caleño, the cuban, the Los Angeles and the New York styles.

Although the Afro-Latin style is very popular in the Caribbean, countries like Venezuela, Ecuador and, to a lesser extent, Peru also stand out.

The Colombian style, Cali. It is known for his quick steps and skipping motions.

The Cuban style and that of the last Americans already mentioned are similar, because when the salsa was created in Cuba, its arrival in the United States was quick.

1. Llorarás (You will cry)

Dimensión Latina – Oscar D’León

With Oscar D’León in voice, the orchestra achieved the greatest success of its history; this sticky theme is found in the album “Dimensión Latina 75”, released in 1975. Although there were hits like Que bailen tós, La Piragua, etc. Llorarás, composed by the same Oscar was the first international success. The musical arrangements were always by Monges and Oscar D’León.

His subject tells us about his ex-partner who cheated on him and, although his love was pure, it was never returned in its entirety. However, Oscar D’León thinks that everything gets back in this life and she did not know how to value it, so she will regret it and “cry.”

2. Timbalero (Timpanist)

El Gran Combo the Puerto Rico

The group that has been published almost 100 albums in the salsa industry, could not stop being on this list. One of his most popular songs is Timbalero, a song that shows in all its expression this great orchestra.

3. Rebelión (Rebellion)

Joe Arroyo

This song describes better than any other the so-called salsa dura or brava, a sound that revolutionized the genre, highlighting musical virtues that many exponents used later.

Slavery, mistreatment, the African Diaspora, emancipation and freedom, among many other interpretations, immortalized the song.

Regarding the narrative, it is clear that Rebellion is an impeccable chronicle: a journalistic story, if one wants to perfectly narrated (sung). However, the great legacy of the song, and what is famous in the whole world, is the musical footprint.

Discos Fuentes decided to make a music video whose result, a couple of years later, was an extravagant sketch with the walls of Cartagena as a backdrop, in which some Cartagena dancers made a silly choreography in which a Spaniard in a wig – another mulato – hit the black one. A tender tropical farce.

I want to tell my brother a bit of black history, of the
our history, gentleman

In the sixteen hundred years, when the tyrant commanded
the streets of Cartagena, that story lived.
When those slavers came there, Africans in chains
They kissed my land, perpetual slavery

4. Gitana (Gypsy)

Willie Colón

Colón was known as a trombonist and a great musician, after Héctor Lavoe’s departure from his orchestra, he took the microphone and became the new voice, surprising the audience. Gitana emerges from the album “Tiempo Pa ‘Matar”, released in 1984.

Its subject of greater radial success turned out to be “Gitana” which owns evident Spanish airs and whose authorship belongs to “Manzanita”, also known like Jose Manuel Ortega a Madrilenian singer who was characterized by his broken voice.

In case one day I die
And you read this paper
That you know how much I love you
Even if I do not see you again
I know you were never mine
You have not been, nor are you
But from my heart
A bit you have
You have, you have, you have, you have

The song directed for a gypsy girl that he fell in love with at first sight, but he is certain that she has not even looked at him, but he has hope and wants to give her his love that he considers to be very pure.

5. Cali Pachanguero (Cali is party)

Grupo Niche

In the voice of Puerto Rican Tito Gómez, but written by Jairo Varela, this song became the flagship theme of the Colombian orchestra. The album “No Hay Quinto Malo”, released in 1984, reveals this wonderful subject. The Codiscos label released a new video with the original voices in 2014.

The story you did not know behind the legendary song.

In 1982, the group were on a tour in New York. During a rehearsal, Varela noticed that a young man was watching them, so he invited him to chat. He was a Caleño who had traveled to the United States illegally in search of the American dream but due to the bad weather, he dreamed of returning to his homeland. He managed to move Varela deeply, for what Cali Pachanguero wrote.

6. Periódico de ayer (Yesterday’s newspaper)

Hector Lavoe

From the album “De Ti Depende” released in 1976, this song is revealed, considered the best of Héctor Lavoe, even the best of the genre, for its sensational lyrics, its wonderful arrangements and of course, the interpretation of Lavoe.

Your love is a newspaper of yesterday
that nobody else tries and read
sensational when it came out at dawn
at noon and confirmed news
and in the afternoon forgotten matter.
Your love is a newspaper of yesterday
It was the headline that reached full page
that’s why they already know you where they want
your name has been a cut that I saved
and in the album of oblivion I stuck it.

This theme is directed to an ex-love that thinks and believes that there is still love for him, but that is already really happened, since you already passed page.

7. Fuego en el 23 (Fire in the 23^rd)

Sonora Matancera

This theme belongs to Arsenio Rodríguez, a Cuban artist who became blind as a child as a result of an accident. Despite his state he learned to play the tres (string instrument).

The story you did not know behind the legendary song.

One afternoon, in the department of Arsenio, located on the fifth floor of building 23 East, on 110th Street, between Madison and Fifth Avenue in New York, a fire broke out and smoke ran through the fifth level of the building.

Among so many people someone shouted there is fire at 23rd Street 110! And the singer Luis “Wito” Kortright hurried Arsenio and led him out of the building away from the danger. It was then that this song was born in rhythm of “Son” recorded in 1957.

It is clear that salsa has something that awakens us inside to dance it. Regardless of what gender it belongs to, it is proven to be the best for any party.