Learn Spanish with Music: 13 Songs from 12 Latin Artists

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When Despacito became a global hit in 2017, it gave millions of listeners a reason to pay closer attention to Spanish lyrics.

A song can make repeated listening enjoyable, but music is a supplement to Spanish practice, not a route to fluency by itself.

Other articles on Fluent in 3 Months explain how to learn languages with music. Here I’ll focus on 13 songs from 12 artists across Latin pop, bachata, salsa, merengue and reggaetón.

To turn listening into study, choose a song you enjoy and listen once without reading. Then read the Spanish lyrics, check the meaning of unfamiliar lines and listen again while following along. Sing or speak short sections, and save a few useful phrases to practise outside the song. Lyrics can contain slang, poetic word order and regional usage, so check expressions before copying them into conversation.

I used music while learning Spanish for two years. I enjoyed it enough to start a YouTube channel where I posted Spanish songs with the original lyrics and an English translation.

I’ll start with Latin pop, then move through several other genres. The list is a listening sampler rather than a ranking.

Some artists will already be familiar. Others may give you a new voice, accent or style to explore.

Use the translated-lyrics videos as a first check, then return to the Spanish and see how much more you can hear.

If you want a clear structure for putting your Spanish into practice, take a look at the Fluent in 3 Months Bootcamp. It’s a 90-day programme with weekly coaching calls, a private community and a focus on speaking from day one.

1. Shakira

Shakira is a Colombian singer and songwriter whose catalogue moves between Latin pop, rock and dance music. Her delivery can be quick, so work with a short section at a time.

Her mostly Spanish-language 2017 album El Dorado includes “Chantaje”, a duet with Maluma. The title means “blackmail”.

Listen for the repeated chorus first, then compare what you heard with the written lyrics:

2. Enrique Iglesias

Enrique Iglesias is a Spanish singer and songwriter with a long Spanish- and English-language pop career. “Bailando”, from the 2014 album Sex and Love, gives you a highly repetitive title and chorus to follow.

Bailando means “dancing”. Listen once for that recurring form, then see which surrounding words you can identify.

3. CNCO

CNCO formed through the first season of the television competition La Banda. The group’s members came from several Latin American countries, so its catalogue offers a different ensemble sound from the solo artists here.

The group formed in 2015 and released its first album, Primera Cita, in 2016.

“Quisiera” uses a repeated chorus that is useful for close listening. The title can mean “I would like” or “I wish”, depending on what follows:

4. Maluma

Maluma is a Colombian singer whose music spans Latin pop and reggaetón. His phrasing is useful practice once you are comfortable following faster sung Spanish.

Try “El Perdedor”, whose title means “The Loser”:

5. Romeo Santos

Bachata developed in the Dominican Republic and later reached much wider audiences. Some bachata songs have a measured vocal line, but tempo and clarity vary, so choose by the recording rather than assuming the whole genre is slow.

Romeo Santos helped bring contemporary bachata to an international audience, first with Aventura and then as a solo artist.

His solo career began in 2011. By the following years, his concerts and recordings were reaching large audiences in the United States and across Latin music markets.

His 2014 album Fórmula, Vol. 2 includes “7 Días”, or “7 Days”.

The same album includes “Odio”, a collaboration with Drake in which Drake sings some lines in Spanish. Odio can be the noun “hatred” or the first-person verb “I hate”; the song uses the verbal sense.

6. Aventura

Before his solo career, Romeo Santos was Aventura’s lead singer and a principal songwriter. “Obsesión” became one of the group’s signature songs. The title means “obsession”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03lGvtEqUx4

7. Prince Royce

Prince Royce is a Dominican-American bachata singer. His self-titled first album appeared in 2010 and established him in the Latin and tropical album charts.

“Darte un Beso” was released in 2013. The title means “to give you a kiss”, and its recurring title phrase makes a useful listening target.

8. Marc Anthony

For a move into salsa, try Marc Anthony, a Puerto Rican-American singer with an extensive Spanish-language catalogue.

“Vivir Mi Vida” is built around a recurring chorus. The title means “to live my life”, and the repetition makes it a practical place to begin before working through the verses.

9. Elvis Crespo

Merengue is a Dominican musical and dance tradition, and Puerto Rican singer Elvis Crespo is one of its internationally known performers. I discovered his music after a viewer asked me to translate one of his songs. “Tu Sonrisa”, meaning “Your Smile”, became a personal favourite.

10. Daddy Yankee

Reggaetón has roots in Jamaican music, Panamanian reggae en español and Puerto Rico’s 1990s underground scene. Its lyrics and register vary widely, so check each song rather than treating the genre as uniformly suitable for every learner.

Puerto Rican artist Daddy Yankee helped take reggaetón to a global audience. His 2004 song “Gasolina” was an important part of that international breakthrough.

Reggaetón can include sexual language, innuendo and regional slang. Those features can be worth studying, but a translated title is not enough context to decide whether you want to reuse a line.

For this list, try “Sígueme y Te Sigo”: “Follow me and I’ll follow you.”

11. Nicky Jam

Nicky Jam is known for reggaetón songs including “Travesuras”, “Hasta el Amanecer” and “El Amante”. “El Perdón”, a collaboration with Enrique Iglesias, means “Forgiveness”.

12. Ozuna

Ozuna is a Puerto Rican singer whose catalogue spans reggaetón and Latin trap.

I’ll finish with “Dile Que Tú Me Quieres”. The title means “Tell him or her that you love me”, although English may use a singular “them” instead.