My whole point with my blog is to go outside my comfort zone and experience new things. I have learned to pole dance, bike across the United States, learn two more languages, and have lived in a variety of places.

One of the things I have been trying to expand upon while I am not actively backpacking the globe is my selection of art, specifically music.

It is hard to get into new music and new artists especially if they are from a different country or language.

However, through the years, I have discovered these artists and songs and have added them to my playlists. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Natti Natasha – Pa’ Mala Yo

As a Spanish and regeatton lover, I really like Natti Natasha’s music. She often sings about women empowerment and feminism as well in the sense that women can do whatever they want. There are no limits and barriers.

Yeng Constantino- Ikaw

As Natti Natasha sings about women breaking barriers and stereotypes, Yeng Constantino sings songs that are more romantic and traditional in the sense of feminine. Ikaw is a love song to her husband and how he is the love of her life. It is soft and definitely gets me in the mood for a happily ever after. The language she sings is Tagalog, which is the main language of the Philippines.

Taeyeon- Fine

I just discovered this Korean artist recently and love her style. It is more pop and she mixes English into her music. I don’t speak Korean so I don’t understand what she says, but I like the beat and the mixed languages.

Elena Risteska- Tequila and Lemon

One of my favorite areas of the world is the Balkans. This area is right above Greece and consist of countries like Croatia, Serbia, and Macedonia. This singer hails from Macedonia. Again, I don’t speak Macedonian either, but I like the style of the song and tequila is one of my favorite hard alcohols.

Le Vide – Slimane

I like a lot of Slimane’s music mainly because he is French speaking and I am currently trying to improve my French level. There is an array of music styles from more slower tunes to faster paced ones.

Panama – Matteo

Once again, this singer hails from the Balkans, specifically Romania. It has a catchy tune, but one of the reasons I like it is because it is quite popular in Asia! I didn’t hear it very much while I was in Europe, but it was everywhere in Malaysia and the Philippines.

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La Camisa Negra – Juanes

As I am a big lover of Spanish and prefer speaking it most times over English, I couldn’t be remiss to mention one of the first songs I heard while learning Spanish. In my Spanish classes in high school, we listened to this song over and over to fill in the blanks on a worksheet. Since then, I have bonded with other Spanish learners over this song because it seems to be a common song in Spanish classes!

Cuando Me Siento Bien – Efecto Pasillo

A friend of mine from the Canary Islands in Spain told me about this song and this band. He actually is friends with them – they went to the same high school I guess. I like their messaging – upbeat, positive, happy songs – and plus it is in Spanish! I tend to stick to Reggeaton in Spanish so having a different genre in the Spanish language is nice.

Senorita – Hrithik Roshan

This song actually comes from a movie…a Bollywood movie. The main actor is Indian Hrithik Roshan and the movie is about a group of guys who do a bachelor’s trip for their buddy. They go to the south of Spain and just live life. The main character is a business executive in London and very tight. He meets a beautiful woman who is also Indian, but grew up in Spain (the character) and they fall in love.

I like this song because it mixes Spanish and Hindi together. In the movie, there are actual flamenco dancers too.

New York avec toi – Telephone

One of my latest additions to my playlist collection. After living in Quebec for a while, I have picked up some French songs. Unfortunately, this isn’t Quebecois, but it is more from France, but it is still good practice to learn the language.

This is a rock genre song and it has a nice beat. I still don’t really know what they say, without reading the lyrics, as my French isn’t that good. But, I think most of us don’t really listen to the lyrics anyways, even if it was our native language.

Have you had the chance to listen to these songs? Let me know in the comments what you think!