Blog: La Onda Tropical

Both artists are unknown to me, but I like their sunny pop songs very much. There's a special summer-night feeling about them that makes me wanna go to the beach and dance below the setting sun. Maybe it's because of the smoothed-down reggaeton beat that characterizes both songs, or maybe because of the easily sung along choruses... And is it a coincidence that both artists are from Panama? Mach & Daddy's Pasame La Botella is intrinsically a sad song, about boozing over a lost girlfriend, but the groovy rhythm makes up for all that. No wonder [...]

Guasones, Babasonicos and Bersuit Vergarabat: three great poprock bands who all happen to be from Argentina. (And that's not a coincidence, Buenos Aires has the most lively rock scene in Latin America!) All three groups have a long story involving underground gigs, a breakthrough record in the nineties and finally star status throughout Latin America during the last few years. Especially Babasonicos is immensely popular south of the equator. Their latest single Yegua is steeply climbing charts in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia and Chili. A very polished sound and lots of echo/reverb never let [...]

I'm not a big fan of bachata music, or any other romantic music, but Dominicans Aventura managed to stand out again with Un Beso . Their last notable song, Obsesión, ultimately became a worldwide hit, and caused a revival in bachata music (like in the 90's, when Juan Luís Guerra released Bachata Rosa). Un Beso is different, including classical guitar parts and non-standard song structure (though it still includes bachata principles like overly romantic lyrics and a godafwul boysband video clip). It's a song for sensitive souls, but aren't we all sometimes? Another sensitive [...]

Dear users, sometimes you will find posts in Dutch on La Onda Tropical. That's because we also cover the Latino party scene in Belgium and Holland, which is probably of not much interest to you, our international reader! Update: DJ Eliel, één van de belangrijkste producers in het genre van de reggaeton, is toegevoegd aan de line-up van de Antilliaanse Feesten Indoor (18 maart, Sportpaleis). Hij was vorig jaar al te zien achter de draaitafel bij het concert van Don Omar , nu doet hij het met enkel een MC en wat dansers. Eliel [...]

Last night, the 18th edition of the Lo Nuestro awards took place in Miami. These awards differ from others because only public votes determine the winners (hence "Lo Nuestro" - meaning "Our Own"). Here are some of the winners: Pop : Shakira was the big winner here, taking home the Best Album, Best Song and Best Duo awards, for her latest album Fijación Oral and single La Tortura. Rock : Sadly all awards went to pop mega-artist Juanes , while promising new rock bands were [...]

Next sunday, The Rolling Stones will rock Mexico City. Nothing spectacular, but it came to my attention that Mexican rock band Fobia will be opening the concert. Fobia was very popular in the nineties, and after a decade of silence they recently released a new album (Rosa Venus) produced by Gordon Raphael (The Strokes). Single "Dos Corazones" is conquering radio waves in South America now, but

I haven't had time to listen to the entire thing, but the first singles of Voltío's self-titled album are quite promising. It's acutally a kind of re-release of his first solo album, Voltaje A/C, with a couple of new songs. "Chévere" has a nice dancefloor flow, and the melancholic voice of co-rapper Notch makes it an exceptional reggaeton track. "Chulin Culin Chunfly" (whatever that means) is a