Music Features
Features | Spanish Music
WOMEN ON THE VERGE: Iberian Female Talent on the Rise

In the last few years, in an attempt to catch up with the US-based powerhouse that has become Latin music, Spain’s musical output has been in overdrive. While Karol G overtakes her male counterparts as reggaetón’s most successful…

Features | Urban
Reggaeton Revolution: 20 years of UK Urban Latin Culture 

Back in 2004, when the UK music industry was ignoring reggaetón and Maluma was in nappies, LatinoLife produced the UK’s first ever Reggaetón and Latin Hiphop Festival, giving a platform to young UK-Latin kids bursting to show…

Features | Pop & Rock
Luca Prodan : The Maradona of Rock

A rebel creative, Luca Prodan was an Italian-Scot who became one of the most unlikely founding pillars of the Argentine rock scene. Born in Italy, educated alongside King Charles at Scotland’s Gordonstoun boarding school, the…

Features | Urban
From Rock to Reggaeton: Argentina’s Revolutionary Road 

Once known for producing Latin America’s greatest rock icons, Argentina was forced to take a back seat as the tropical urban beats from the Caribbean conquered the Latin music market. Yet the recent success of “Bzrp Music…

Features |
LatinoLife - The UK's First Latina-run National Portfolio Organisation

In April 2023 LatinoLife became the UK's first and only Latina-run National Portfolio Organisation (NPO), selected to be part of the UK government's ‘most varied and ambitious’ portfolio of NPOs. In being chosen as one…

Features | Urban
Reggaeton Legend: Julio Voltio

Born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, Julio Ramos (Julio Voltio), became of the most well-known reggaeton artists of the mid-2000s, Voltio worked his way up the ranks for many years, expanding his reach with his successful releases.

Features | Urban
Latina Homegrown

Sweetness, strength, ambition and beauty are the words that encapsulate this unique group of talent trying to break through the many barriers of London's difficult world of urban music. What’s the biggest challenge; as women…

Features | Diaspora Music, Urban, Classical Jazz and Folk, Pop & Rock, Tropical Music
Diaspora Music: Venezuela

In recent years, there’s been a lot of talk of the global domination of Latin Music. A big contributor to this phenomenon has been the Latin diaspora - artists making music outside their countries. In this first feature of our…

Features | Urban
Reggaeton Legends: Vico C

Vico C is considered one of the greatest artists in the history of the Urban genre in Latin America and Spain. Reflective, deep, socially conscious and catchy and danceable lyrics are what Vico C songs are made for all kind of…

Features | Ballads and Boleros, Diaspora Music, Urban, Classical Jazz and Folk, Brazilian Music, Tropical Music, Alternative
A Brief History of Latin Music in London

Notwithstanding the cheesy album covers and the pastiche distortions of Latin dance on BBC’s Strictly’, London has had a long and idiosyncratic affair with Latin culture. From the hi-flying success of Edmundo Ros’ Latin Big Band…

Features | Urban
Classic Album: 'MTO² New Generation' by Don Omar

We revisit Don Omar's Album "Meet the Orphans 2: New Generation", released nine years ago. Full of surprises and without a shadow of a doubt, an album that made history in music.

Features | Urban
The Wonderful World of Afro-Reggaeton

Why are Reggaeton and Afro-beat collaborations taking over the world, and why should you care? We explore how the current explosion of reggaetón afro-beat fusions is the latest expression of a long and rich history of African and…

Features | Urban, Brazilian Music
OUR TIME TO SHINE

Sons and daughters of immigrants, the UK’s first-generation Spanglish-singing Latino-Brits have been busy creating in the shadows of a bustling UK urban music scene. But with music in Spanish now making the global hits, they…

Features | Classical Jazz and Folk, Tropical Music, Alternative
Strength in Music

And the music must go on. We brought together eight of London’s finest Latin bands and artists to record together, some of them for the very first time since lockdown in March, in what proved to be an emotional encounter. All…

Features | Urban, Brazilian Music
Here Come the Reggaetoneras

The crude origins of Reggaeton, from videos verging on soft porn and misogynistic lyrics, have been toned down in recent years in the industry's quest to make the genre moe commercial. At the same time, female Reggaeton…

Features | Urban, Classical Jazz and Folk, Brazilian Music, Spanish Music, Pop & Rock, Tropical Music, Alternative
The Latin Momentum: the Story of The LUKAS

The Latin UK Awards, known affectionately as the LUKAS, was launched 7 years ago to recognize the impact of Latin culture in the UK. Today it is Europe’s only Latin Entertainment Awards ceremony and its widest-reaching Latin…

Features | Urban, Pop & Rock, Tropical Music
Just Another Lonely Latin Hit?

We’ve seen it before, the querky pop tune with a tropical feel that gets under the UK’s skin for a while. Every so often they hit this cold little island, create a Latin craze and then disappear. In the nineties we had ‘Mambo no.…

Features | Urban
The Reggeatón Evolution – Three Decades of Flow

When quintessentially English band Clean Bandit was recently rocking X Factor with their latest hit ‘Rockabye,’ few watching would have known that the country that invented its catchy beat was banned from playing it for years.…

Features | Tropical Music
All Hail the Vinyl Collectors!

Salsotecas are the mythical vinyl-sharing encounters that began in Cali, Colombia. We explore the legendary phenomenon that helped give the city its reputation as home to the world’s most passionate Salsa lovers.

Features | Tropical Music
THE FANIA GENERATION

Jose Luis reflects on the importance of Fania, the iconic 1970s New York record label that created the Salsa brand, and the identity it forged for Latinos all over the world. It left not only a musical legacy but had a…

Features | Urban
Should we Boycott Narcocorridos?

Sarah Quarmby delves into the gory culture that surrounds increasingly popular Mexican drug ballads.

Features | Tropical Music
‘Siembra’ and the Birth of The Latin Nation

In 1978, Ruben Blades, a young Panamanian “Sonero” and Willie Colon, a New York-born trombone player, producer and poster boy for the already booming salsa industry of New York, got together and released what would become the…

Features | Tropical Music
Venezuela’s Rich Musical Tapestry

Professor T.M. Scruggs, an ethnomusicologist at the University of Iowa, has spent six years specializing in Venezuelan music and culture. In this interview he paints a fascinating portrait of a musical heritage that is one of…

Features | Urban
From Reggaetón to Urban Latin: What Happened after the Boom?

Five years ago Reggaetón exploded onto the US music scene with NORE’s Oye Mi Canto. Fresh out of the streets of Puerto Rico and Panama, Latino kids, the US’s fastest rising demographic, were going crazy for it in every major city…

Features | Urban
Hustle and Grind in the Mexican Music Scene

Struggle is the name of the game in Mexican music, but the creativity and innovation keep flowing with eclectic genres and fusions blossoming from the land of the Aztecs

Features | Tropical Music
From The Docks To The Decks: The Cumbia explosion

Cumbia, a Colombian musical genre whose humble beginnings lie in the port of Cartagena, is finding its way into the hands of enthralled DJs and producers across the world. Why is it, asks Olly West, that a genre celebrated…

Features | Tropical Music
Brown Girls in the Ring Make Argentina Sing…

How Cumbia conquered Argentina. The Cumbia invasion rides on populist political culture, but has urban snobs singing a different tune.

Features | Urban
Area 23, Hip Hop and Venezuela’s Cultural Revolution

Jorney Madriz or ‘Master’ as he is commonly known, is a rapper with hip hop group ‘Area 23’, based in ‘23 de enero’, one of the most militant low-income barrios, that encircle the country’s capital Caracas.

Features |
The History of Latin Music in London

Notwithstanding the cheesy album covers, Latinolife explores the rich and idiocyncratic story of Latin Music in London.

Features |
Music, Baseball and Cacao

It’s not only Rio Ferdinand who sees himself as the next Simon Cowell, baseball legend Bobby Abreu has put his weight into promoting Venezuelan music worldwide, with a marketing strategy only fitting for a baseball star.

Features | Urban
The History of Reggaetón

For those of you who've come to it late, here's a beginner's guide...

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Ballads and Boleros
LatinoLife's Favourite Mexican Male Singers of all Time

Since the days when Mexico was a serious rival to Hollywood in terms of film production and quality…

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We may have come a long way since the days of overt misogyny in Urban Latin Music, but the industry…

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Dominated by Caribbean talent - from Venezuela and Puerto Rico to Cuba and the Dominican Republic…