WORLDWIDE FM

Tune in for an hour long mix by Venezuelan DJ Toni Arellano (AKA Tostoni) coming to you live from Mexico City. Join us as he explores Venezuelan folk music, traditional styles, pop and experimental sounds straight out of Latin America.

The word boogaloo is inspired by the term “boogie-woogie” and is a danceable Latin musical rhythm that fuses American soul with Afro Cuban music. A natural mix between two minority cultures living side by side in The Bronx, NY.

Although there were earlier similar experiments, like Ray Barretto’s El Watusi from 1962. It was until 1966 when Ricardo Ray introduced the term on the cover of its album Se Soltó (On The Loose), which includes ‘Lookie Lookie’, one of the first tracks ever recorded under that tag. The real breakthrough came when the American charts exploded with smash hits such as Joe Cuba’s ‘Bang! Bang!’, Pete Rodriguez’s ‘I Like It Like That’ and Joe Bataan’s ‘Gipsy Woman’, tracks that defined perfectly the freshness and coolness of the style and enormously increased Afro Latin cultural exposure in the US and abroad. Even “old cats” like Eddie Palmieri and Larry Harlow, who despised it at the beginning, ended up making great boogaloo tracks too, like ‘Ay Que Rico’ and ‘Freak Off’ respectively (both are included in this mixtape). Its reign as one the most popular Latin styles was short-lived, lasting only around 5 years. The boogaloo finally faded out around 1970-71, making way for salsa, which would become the most successful Latin music style ever.

Unfortunately, the word has recently been linked to far-right extremist American youths and anti-system militias, some of them openly promoters of a new kind of civil war in the United States. Nothing could be further from the reality or significance of the original term. A term that celebrates the union of two rich and different cultures as one, and the joy of music and dance.

That’s why we want to express:
Leave Boogaloo Alone! // ¡Dejen Quieto Al Bugalú!