Lo Mejor del 2007

A little later than expected - it's those darned exams again - La Onda Tropical presents: the best of a year in latin music.
PS: all songs removed.

Best 2007 Albums
Best Rock/Alternative Album: Café Tacvba - Sino


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mp3: "Volver A Comenzar"




Café Tacvba blew away the competition, crowning themselves yet again as the kings of Rock en Español. Los tacubos combine epic stadium rock, powerful guitar ballads and electro influences on a diverse and adventurous album.

Best Pop/Ballad Album: Ibrahim Ferrer - Mi Sueño


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mp3: "Quizas Quizas"




If today's bubblegum teenie pop (RBD) and nauseatingly cheesy ballads (Camila) are becoming too much, we'll just have to resort to the dead for quality love songs. Ibrahim Ferrer made his life-long dream, to sing an album filled with delicate boleros, come true more than two years after his death. A posthumous jewel by a monument of latin music.

Best Salsa/Tropical Album: Marc Anthony/Hector Lavoe - El Cantante


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mp3: "Aguanile"




It's definitely because of the timeless quality of Hector Lavoe's original songs, but I've never played a salsa album as much as El Cantante. Marc Anthony puts down a near-perfect vocal imitation, and the arrangements are delicately modernized, but in the end you're just listening to el cantante de los contantes himself. Salsa just tasted so much better in the 70s, no?

Best Merengue Album: Juan Luis Guerra - La Llave De Mi Corazón


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mp3: "La Llave De Mi Corazon"




After six Latin Grammys, the only possible winner in this category is Juan Luis Guerra. The baladas can't compete with Ibrahim's above, but the upbeat mambo he's serving throughout the majority of the album was THE soundtrack to my 2007 primavera.

Best Reggaeton/Hip Hop Album: Calle 13 - Residente o Visitante


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mp3: "Pa'l Norte"




The funniest, dirtiest, cleverest, catchiest, most innovative, most conscious, and most musical latin album of 2007. Taking the commercialism out of reggaeton, and putting the social issues back in hip hop. While delivering smash hits like "Pa'l Norte" and "Tango del Pecado". Calle 13 is how latin urban music should be.

Best Songs
Best Rock/Alternative:
1) Café Tacvba - Volver A Comenzar (post)

2) Inmigrantes - Golpe de Suerte (post)

3) Manu Chao - Me Llaman Calle (post)

More great stuff: Caramelos de Cianuro, Los Bunkers

Best Reggaeton/Hip Hop:
1) Calle 13 & Orishas - Pa'l Norte (post)

2) Casa de Leones - No Te Veo (post)

3) Dalmata - Pasarela (post)

3) Don Omar & Wisin y Yandel - MySpace (post)

I really couldn't decide on those last two :)

Best Pop/Ballad:
Shakira - Despedida (post)

And in my humble opinion best song of 2007.

Best Salsa/Tropical:

Best Merengue:
Juan Luis Guerra - La Llave De Mi Corazón (post)

Though I also enjoyed Elvis Crespo a lot this year.

Best Electronica/Funk:
Los Mono - Promesas (post)


Special Mentions
Best Overlooked Song: Orishas - Hay Un Son

Nope, we didn't post this, but it was merely a technical reason: El Guiri was waiting for a copy of Antidiotico, Orishas' greatest hits album, in the mail. It never arrived - and we forgot about "Hay Un Son". It's a sunny Cuban hiphop song that's certainly not Orishas' best, but still a welcome summer hit.

Best Video: Los Mono - Promesas (post)
buy video @ iTunes

The most simple concepts are often the best. Have a guy in an orange jumpsuit dance through some hallway, add monkey faces, and there's your YouTube hit!

Most Nostalgic Song: Tito Nieves - Mas Que Tu Amigo (post)

Nostalic images of watching some telenovela in a Guatemalan mountain village pass through my mind. The chicken-filled buses, the colorful trajes, the tasty garnachas, it all comes back thanks to Marco Antonio Solís and Tito Nieves.

Most Annoying Hit: Nigga (Flex) - Te Quiero (post)

I hear you shout "Whaa? He just posted that last week!" Yes I did. And I'm sorry. Guess I was appealed to the caribbean atmosphere at first listen, but the fact is that this is a very, VERY annoying song if you hear it often. It has everything an irritating latino hit needs: infuriating contagiousness, stomach-churning lyrics and a cheap reggaeton drum. Ugh.

Most Overrated Artist: Maná (post)
How can MTV give four awards to the very disappointing Amar Es Combatir? Only because the endless plugging of Maná songs on latin radio. Even the nice songs sound dull after the 100th time. Well-deserved second place: Jennifer Lopez (but she isn't exactly overrated, the press hated her album just as much as I did).

Most Popular Download: Dalmata - Pasarela (post)

Of the 113 songs posted on La Onda this year, "Pasarela" was the most popular with 570 downloads. Now let's hope at least as many people acutally bought the catchy reggaeton tune by DJ Nelson.

Readers Award: Calle 13
You have decided! Calle 13 is the most important latin artist of 2007, scooping a quarter of the 191 votes in our poll. They're followed closely by Shakira, who didn't even have to release an album this year to earn 19% of the votes.