I’m not embarrassed to admit that recently I fell in love with ONE thing about Colombia. It’s the first thing related to Colombia that I admit I’ve fallen in love with. The country’s been making some really good music and the rest of the world would benefit from knowing about that. So I’m starting a series about Colombian music!

Perhaps it’s because my Spanish has improved so I’m finally enjoying the music, or maybe I’ve been successfully brainwashed?! One of my recent obsessions is Tracionera. It’s just got this incredible beat that’s incredibly addictive. It’s so cheesily pop that it’ll stick for a while once you’ve heard it. It could easily be the hottest song in Colombia at the moment!

It belongs to the genre reggaetón. Think about it as ‘latino hip hop’. It’s a genre that for some reason makes people cringe (at least those I talk to, who I guess aren’t really young, which is the demographics that love it most) whenever it’s brought up. Maybe because it’s got a bad rap due to the abusive nature of lyrics about sex and drugs..

But really, reggaetón is great. So, out of curiosity I checked out Sebastián Yatra and found out that he’s Colombian, from Medellín! And Medellín happens to be the birthplace of many reggaetón heavyweights and it’s become the mecca of reggaetón, where it is played in most clubs!