Bachata Music: 2022 First-Half Update — What a Scorching Season!

The first half of 2022, when we officially declared our breakup with COVID, and the bachata music scene ran yet another all-time-great rally.

The first half of 2022 — when we officially declared our breakup with COVID (though, sure, that breakup is still very much in progress) — has come and gone.

It was a time when pent-up demand exploded across every corner of society, but the Latin dance scene was something else entirely. The heat of going out dancing not just on weekends but on weeknights too, the nonstop stream of news about overseas dancers' events and workshops, brand-new crews and brand-new clubs opening, and the joyful return of regular meetups from crews that had been on hiatus — every single day was breathless.

The bachata music scene, too, ran yet another all-time-great rally in the first half of 2022.

The established bachata heavyweights leveled up again with signature-caliber masterpieces, and a new generation of MZ artists transfused fresh energy and diversity into the genre. It was also the season that gave us not one but TWO songs titled <La Bachata> from young top-tier Latin pop stars. 🥹🥹🥹

(What other music genre gets used as a song title this lovingly? Count Lenier's <La Bachata> from late 2021 and that's three! Laaa bachaaa-taaa~~ it's a bumper crop out here)

Bachata, having already broken out of the local confines of the Dominican Republic and South America, is now crossing the wall between generations. The veteran singers are connecting the generations; the new singers are staking out their own.

Birth years of the artists who newly arrived in the bachata scene in the first half of 2022

· Maria Becerra, born 2000

· Manuel Turizo, born 2000

· Andy Rivera, born 1994

· Sofia Reyes, born 1995

As if the energy of the universe were gathering in one place, the first half of 2022 overflowed with riches all over again. Here's my roundup.

2022 First-Half Bachata Music Update playlist

2022 bachata playlist

Romeo Santos <Sus Huellas> — The King's New Formula for Bachata

The one who led this all-time rally is the King of Bachata himself, Romeo Santos. After spending all of last year without releasing a single original bachata, staying on his reggaetón path, Romeo finally returned to the bachata kingdom in March 2022 with an epic titled Sus Huellas.

Romeo is the Samsung Electronics of the KOSPI, the Apple of the NASDAQ. The bellwether that moves the whole market dropped a towering masterpiece after several years and lifted the entire bachata scene with it. The return of the king we'd been desperately waiting for.

The music video opens on a man sitting alone in a bathtub. It's the most private time imaginable — the moment you strip off every layer of armor and exist in your most fragile, most naked form.

With an expression full of anguish, he sings to the new woman who has appeared before him.

Before I pull my heart out raw and show it to you, I warn you that it's covered in scarsNow I want to erase her from my life before this song endsCome, peel her traces off my body. Even if the raw flesh comes away, even if my skin is torn off piece by piece.Come, cut open my veins. The plasma inside them is addicted to her love.

Sus huellas (her traces) are exactly that: marks of a love so brutal, so indelible, that only tearing away living flesh could erase them.

At the end of the video, following the man's instructions, a woman comes closer, raises a knife to his shoulder, and begins carving into his skin. But as she tries to dig out the traces of the past love left on his body, she flinches and flees.

Flesh falls away, blood drips into the tub, and yet his indifferent expression doesn't change — as if this is all routine to him. The camera pans down over his body and reveals countless blade scars… proof that many others have tried exactly this before.

The final shot: the blood-stained tub, dark red tears running from his eyes, and wounds covering his whole body. Looks like this attempt to peel off her traces failed too. Romeo Santos came back with the traces of a devastating love that not even the destruction of the body can escape.

Across <Gold>, the album where he declared his Dominican identity, and the reggaetón work that followed, Romeo Santos stacked up blockbuster features and collabs. But on this bachata comeback he collaborates with absolutely no one and carries the song on solo vocals alone. As if to say that when the King sings bachata, nobody else gets to step in…

There's exactly one other voice in the song: a child answering Romeo's question in the interlude. This kid, a future citizen of the bachata kingdom, replies to Romeo. The king of this kingdom is you.

✂️ Who's the King

Did y'all miss me? Who's the King?(child's voice) Nya nya -> YOU!!

Song lyrics aside, maybe this is the real message the track was sending all along. This part shows up again in the teaser video for the new album that dropped recently.

A kid breaks into the castle of the kingdom carrying a hard drive from a recording studio, shakes Romeo Santos awake, and hands it over. That's Romeo Santos's actual son, Valentino.

And then that part plays again. This is, of course, the overture to Formula Vol. 3.

Formula Vol. 1 and 2, which Romeo Santos released as a solo artist after ending some twenty years with Aventura, are monumental albums in bachata history. He brought English into the lyrics in earnest and, through boundary-breaking collabs with pop stars like Usher and Drake, blended bachata — until then a local culture — into the mainstream and pulled it upward. It was both an extension of what had worked for Aventura and the inevitable road for a still-underground bachata.

He was also quick to embrace the changing ways people consume music. Aventura were MTV idols; Romeo hit bachata's summit on YouTube. He racked up records in album sales and concerts too, but <Propuesta Indecente> from Vol. 2 became only the second Spanish-language song ever (the first was Enrique Iglesias's <Bailando>) to hit a billion views on YouTube. Comet-like, in a very Justin Bieber way, he pushed the unfamiliar keyword "bachata" out to the whole world through digital platforms.

The strategy drew some criticism from conservative bachata purists, but it was a massive success in the end. Vol. 1, released in 2011, swept No. 1 on Billboard's Top Latin Albums and Top Tropical Albums charts and got a 3× platinum certification from the RIAA. Vol. 2, released in 2014, with features from giants like Marc Anthony and Santana, became 2014's Latin best-selling album, got a Grammy nomination, won a Latin Grammy, and so on… honestly, why even bother listing it all…

So Formula Vol. 1 and 2 are historic albums that laid out a new formula for bachata standing at the fork between mainstream and underground.

But that was an achievement built around a Latino fandom, before bachata had won this kind of worldwide popularity. Now Formula Vol. 3 arrives at a moment when bachata as a dance is loved all over the world and bachata music has never in its history been closer to the mainstream.

What kind of music is on the hard drive Valentino handed over? Eight years on, what formula for bachata will Romeo Santos's Formula Vol. 3 propose for this era, and what impact will it leave? In a time when "how do we mix it with reggaetón" seems to be bachata's central question, how will the King — who bachata-fies literally everything he touches — wield his majesty?

Sus Huellas is the starting point of that enormous history.

Prince Royce <Te Espero> — Bachata + Reggaetón, Peak Now Fused with Peak Retro

Prince Royce 2.0 has been the story of erasing the border between two split worlds, reggaetón and bachata, and climbing toward a state where bachata is reggaetón and reggaetón is bachata.

Last year's Lao' a Lao' sits on that same line, but you can tell it was an unfinished attempt from the fact that Prince Royce himself put out a bachata version of the track late last year. If it had been complete, no bachata version would have been needed.

Te Espero, though, is the finished form. It works perfectly as pure Latin pop, and there is nothing better for social dancing bachata. To lock in Prince Royce's final puzzle piece, the MZ-generation goddess of reggaetón, Maria Becerra, was dispatched.

That sandpaper-rasp of a voice — Maria Becerra is a "totally now" thing right down to her origin story. At 15 she posted a five-minute parody monologue to her Facebook, hit a million views within hours, and blew up; after that she built her footing as a YouTube and Instagram creator and made her way into the mainstream. She's still all over TikTok, sharing dance challenges and short-form videos. Her career path itself is digital-native.

She'd already sung an original bachata: <Antes De Ti>, with her now-ex-boyfriend RusherKing, whose pre-chorus alone ("This is the big one") gets your blood going. Bigger in general Latin pop circles than in the bachata scene, it made waves as a hot bachata from a young singer couple.

Next to Maria Becerra, Prince Royce's endlessly decorated résumé feels so professional that it reads as almost old. And this song, Te Espero, has '80s/'90s uncle-core hidden all over it. Starting with that killer intro.

A song that makes you want to hang-glide off the 63 Building! A legendary intro you can't forget once you've heard it. Cutting Crew's <(I Just) Died in Your Arms> is apparently one of Prince Royce's most cherished pop songs.

One more. What movie does the album cover bring to mind? Anyone from the uncle generation cannot help but picture beanie-wearing hitman Léon and bob-haired Mathilda. In the video Prince Royce plays a professional killer, and she — long straight hair and all — went so far as to put on a wig to get that bob.

<Léon> came out five years before Maria Becerra, born in 2000, was even born. The age gap between her and Prince Royce, born 1989, is 11 years.

On Lao' a Lao' Prince Royce packed in denim-on-denim fashion, worn-out cassette tapes, and rainbow disco feelings; this time he pulled cultural icons from a past generation and fused them with the newest, hottest thing going — Maria Becerra — plus the very latest bachata rhythm, creating a new newtro combination.

Te Espero, a flawless synthesis of the 1980s and 2022!

Could anything possibly be hipper than this!!!!!!!!!!! (exclamation marks auto-generated)

The song topped all kinds of charts. Lots of awards (already won, more coming)… and it made bachata ring out at the Latin American Music Awards. Señor Juez made it to the Latin Grammy stage too, and honestly, at this point — of course it did!

But watching that performance, did anyone else flash back to the <Te Perdiste Mi Amor> video with Thalía nine years ago? That's a young, young Prince Royce — 23 at the time — singing alongside Thalía, 18 years his senior.

And now that same Prince Royce is giving off full uncle energy, holding hands with 22-year-old Maria Becerra as they sing. That's how time flows. And the Bachata Must Go On…

😲😲😲😲😲😲 The moment they burst out hand in hand — the sync gave me CHILLS 😲😲😲😲😲😲😲

Romeo Santos sounds like bachata even when he sings reggaetón; Prince Royce sounds like reggaetón even when he sings bachata. What concept and combination will the song that surpasses <Te Espero> arrive in? I can only look forward to it — I can't even imagine it….

What's certain is that nobody is going to beg Prince Royce "please, sing a bachata" anymore. He's kept changing, and he's reached a level of originality that has quieted all those pouring fan demands.

Dani J / Mario Baro — The Sevilla Squad Delivers

Steady as ever and still showing us new things: Dani J. He let us hear Kewin Cosmos again after a long while, and teamed up with DJ Alejandro, who has become everyone's darling. In the video for his most recent release <Tu Juguete>, he dances with Sara Panero — the bachatera we most want to see — showing off serious dancing chops and really driving home that Dani J is a man who has it all.

Nothing that gave me full-body chills, exactly, but I'm just grateful for Dani J's new songs: great to listen to, even better to social dance to. Always trying to let us hear and see something new, Dani J. And now we finally get to meet him at BSBF 2022 in Busan later this year!!!

Mario Baro released nine singles in the first half of this year, ascending to prolific-bachata-artist status. He seems to have shifted the mood entirely toward trap, and lately he's been working a lot with Mayimbito — the legendary bachata guitarist who's now singing too. Of the bunch, the one I heard most was <Desde Mis Ojos>.

Pinto Picasso <Nada es Igual> — An Explosion of Pure Cool

After 'Paris' and 'Lucky,' here we go again…. Cool people put out cool things, that's just how it works. Pinto Picasso's gorgeous vocals, a song filled with an atmosphere that's his and nobody else's! Honestly, if it's Pinto Picasso, the next one and the one after that are guaranteed to be cool too.

Nada es igual. Así es Pinto.

MR. Don <The Romanze, Pt. II> — The Saddest Boy-Next-Door Vibes in the World

This part is a full confession of personal taste. I think Mr. Don suits plain old boy-next-door feelings way more than complicated, flashy songs. Not everyone has to sing the songs of kings and princes.

So I was glad that the rest of <The Romanze, Pt. II> — the full-length he put out bundled with the pre-released singles — carried a lot of that feeling. Because nothing compares to how it feels to dance to Don-oppa's songs: a little empty, aching in the voice itself, like he made them sniffling after getting dumped. The painful emotions of love land as something real, and from that you feel that fundamental "something" at the root of bachata.

The scent of my neighborhood alley brushing past the tip of my nose and making it sting. A song that feels like my mood today. If nothing else, I hope Don-oppa keeps putting out songs like that.

So this was my favorite of the bunch. It's the one Mr. Don left a comment about: "sorry for making you think of your ex…"

Jensen — The Freshest Name of the Season

Jensen was the most refreshingly new name of this season. Similar to how I felt hearing Mr. Don for the first time. Strangely, Lucid Fall, Jeju Boy, Okdal, a little bit of Paul Kim… all drift past. A blue-tinted clarity and cleanness that's rare in original bachata. Who on earth, who on earth is this singer?

Most of his earlier songs were fairly ordinary Latin pop, but when I went back and re-listened to his feature on <Estado Decadente>, his first bachata with Kewin Cosmos, that quality was already there. Something a bit different, and that different thing isn't bad, so it hooks you into looping it. And surprisingly, he's genuinely from the Dominican Republic.

✂️ Estado Decadente - Jensen's part

Frío is a little different in content too. Frío.. cold… it sings about a cold heart that can't believe in love. It lays out, honestly and plainly, a heart frozen by memories of the past to the point where the will to love just won't come.

Different from the story arcs of so much Latin pop/bachata — desperate, scorching, agonized, exaggerated, emotional, overwhelming, far-fetched, racy, and so absurdly harrowing it circles back to preposterous… (ex: Sus Huellas, asking someone to peel off his skin to forget his ex;)

And whether he's switched genres entirely or not, Jensen's new song <Limbo> carries on that chilly bachata register. And it's not just "not bad," it's good — really good. Honestly I'm obsessed with this one lately….

Manuel Turizo — A 22-Year-Old Singer and the MZ Generation's 'La Bachata'

Manuel Turizo, the 22-year-old Colombian reggaetón singer-songwriter, is already a familiar name to us through countless remixes. From 'Vacaciones' featuring Luis Fonsi to 'Culpables' remixed by DJ Alejandro, he's delivered ear-gasms with that deep, magnetic urban voice.

But this time the title is straight up 'La Bachata.' And he didn't just sing it — he's openly declaring his heartfelt fandom for the bachata genre.

He says he's followed the genre since he was a kid, and has watched in admiration as it's transformed over the past few years. Bachata, he says, is no longer just a South American culture but a genre that transcends the whole world.

— I decided to record a bachata this time because of the joy of it. I've enjoyed bachata since I was little.— I'm so happy to introduce this to you and get closer to bachata lovers. I'm one of them.— I love things that evolve. Bachata is music that generates happiness and energy. Bachata shows how fun our Latin culture is and says a lot about what being Latino means.Manuel Turizo apuesta a "La Bachata" y anhela cantar con Juan Luis Guerra

And you can tell he means it, because he didn't stop at praising bachata in words — he made a public proposal for a bachata collab with the maestro Juan Luis Guerra.

It would be an honor to collaborate with Juan Luis Guerra. The day it happens, I'm calling my mom."Sería un honor colaborar con Juan Luis Guerra; el día que lo haga llamo a mi mamá"

He even recently posted Romeo Santos's account on his own Twitter and rallied a comment brigade. He basically begged? his fans to go comment on Romeo's account asking him to do a remix with him and make his dream come true.

Will that dream come true… and if it does….

Also, one shot in the music video that made me gasp. Is this an homage, a joke, or just a coincidence?

✂️ Who's Ataca and who's Turizo!

'La Bachata' is the first bachata track Manuel Turizo has released, but this multitalented artist — who's been making music and scoring worldwide hits since he was 15 — apparently already has several bachata songs made and stashed away in a drawer. On top of that, he's out here volunteering for bachata collabs before anyone asks…

Looks like we'll get to keep hearing that ridiculously gorgeous voice on bachata!!!!!!! (exclamation marks auto-generated 2)

In old-school bachata you show up at her house; in MZ-generation bachata, Instagram shows up. I want to hear a lot more of this kind of now-feeling, new and hip MZ bachata.

I blocked your account on Instagram but I still see your stories on other feedsI deleted your number but I don't know why my heart remembers it.I drive down the street where you kissed me. Listening to the song you dedicated to me.

Bachata for Hipsters — Continued Infiltration of the Mainstream and the Genre's Expansion

Beyond all this, a run of bachata tracks came out one after another from mainstream artists. Some were perfect for dancing bachata; others were a bit iffy for it. Even the ones that were awkward to dance to sounded great to the ear, and they were popular.

Andy Rivera's <Mi Mundo Entero>, which has racked up 18 million views, takes a full minute out of its brief 2 minutes 40 seconds before the bass rhythm you can even step a basic to shows up. It definitely doesn't feel like a song built for social bachata. But the moment the bachata bass kicks in after that murmuring, monologue-like intro, the song fills with a whole new energy. If not the bachata rhythm, what else could possibly give this song that vibe?

Is bachata now settling in as an independent music genre complete on listening alone — not just background music for dancing — or as a musical puzzle piece that fits in anywhere? Can the element of "bachata" reach lots of people on its musical value alone?

That would be a wonderful thing too.

Esme / JR — Artistic Experiments

From La Diaba to Sextoy. After a quiet stretch, Esme came back having started his own label, carrying the concept of Sangre Nueva (new blood). Sangre Nueva is an ambitious long-term project to collaborate with 16 artists and release one full-length album. Kind of like sP Polanco's <Bchta Rising>.

Befitting a record company boss, Esme pulled off the feat of releasing four original bachatas in the first half of this year. Melodies a touch heavy and unfamiliar, in line with what "new blood" is after. Great for happily dancing? Eh, hmm. And the song titles, why… a man and a woman are supposed to dance to this all serious, and the lyrics are far too easy to make out: I'm a sextoy ~ toy~ toy~ [repeat]

JR's X-Amada (past love) — beloved by DJ Alejandro and DJ Khalid on their Korea visits — has a title that's also… a big fat X 😆 The song is good, of course… but isn't JR the singer who gave us <La Estrella>, of all things!

I find myself wondering where "newness" comes from. Competing against blockbusters that already have enormous commercial polish and can manufacture even novelty through cash and systems, maybe the new bachata these artists are chasing has ended up pointed toward a slightly unfamiliar world… just spitballing here.

But it's attempts piling up on attempts that eventually make something new detonate. Remembering the beautiful moments their music has given us, I'll keep loving them and looking forward to the moment these experiments cross the threshold and explode.

EQS — Some Code-Breaking Required

This season, I don't think EQS had anything that made a big impression on me. Time for the self-proclaimed code breaker Derek Vinci to go take another hit of whatever he's on!

What stuck with me more, actually, was Derek Vinci's <Bachata Code> project, which stripped the vocals from EQS's signature bachata tracks, turned them into instrumentals, and slapped on cryptic titles like Bachata Universe, Bachata Fool, and Bachata Tower. Guessing the titles like solving riddles, with "Bachata Cooo~se" and "Bini Rive~ra~~" slipping out of my mouth without meaning to.

Remixes — Craving a Sweet, Savory Pop-Ballad Remix

With the two great pillars of remixing, Khalid and Tronky, both running lukewarm, plenty of tracks still came out, but there was no mega remix hit like <You Broke Me First>, <Before You Go>, or <Shivers>. These days I'm hungry for a polished, lyrical pop-ballad remix banger that's exactly our taste. Somebody blow one up in the second half, please! Yah!

And Then There's Johnny Sky…. Johnny Sky

A new Johnny Sky song — the kind that appears once every few years like beans in a drought — dropped again. It carries a faint scent of bachata. I got startled listening to my playlist on shuffle while driving. THAT VOICE!!

Johnny Sky's new song felt like it could have been Leslie Grace's Bachatica. But he didn't cross that line. Makes me want to give him a knuckle-rap on the head and drag him over here by the collar. Stop posting weird selfies and SING BACHATA~!!

The song was called Sin Parar, but for some reason he suddenly took it all down ㅠㅠ

Anyway; as if sensing this feeling, DJ Clau dropped a collab remix with Johnny Sky~! It's supposed to be packed with summer vibes. But this isn't enough!! I want a whole ongoing series of Johnny Sky high-note bachatas cutting clean through the heat of a midsummer night and shooting up into the open sky.

And I'm waiting, so hard, for my beloved Mikey Den — who didn't release anything in the first half of this year — and for Sp Polanco's new album. Truly original things can't come often, so this wait is only natural. Still, I'd love it if the two of them came out hand in hand in the second half of 2022! Kewin Cosmos too. Esme with something a bit more accessible, JR with a banger worthy of his reputation…. And some romantic remixes. Romeo and Royce will handle the epics.

Laying it all out like this, I'm seriously excited for the second half of the year too. May it run and run without getting derailed by another COVID surge, rate hikes, recession, climate crisis, nuclear war, mega-earthquakes, locust swarms, volcanic eruptions, mega-earthquakes, or a Mars invasion.

Our dancing and our music both!