This week’s standout album release is Better Late Than Never, a surprise new record by two superstars of Latin Music Romeo Santos and Prince Royce, who have long been friends but never released music together until now. Santos and Royce sing Bachata music, a Dominican music style that started in the 1960s. Bachata is delicate and romantic dance music. Bachata started in the Dominican Republic, but many of its best-known practitioners today, like Royce and Santos, are from the States, often with Dominican parents. I first became aware of Bachata music through Luis Guerra, a great singer who is a generation older than Royce and Santos. Until I researched the music for my new Bachata playlist, I only knew of three Bachata singers: Guerra, Santos, and Royce. They head up this playlist (including a song by Aventura, Santos’ band before he went solo). The playlist starts with one of my all-time favorite songs “Ojalá Que Llueva Cafe” by Guerra. Then the list continues more or less chronologically from the 1960s. Enjoy yourself some Bachata.
As Juan Luis Guerra says: I hope it rains coffee in the countryside. ¡Ojalá!