[Pre-show Post]
I will start Episode 31 where I ended in Episode 30, playing more of my preferred salsa songs released in 2023 -- that means twenty-five more tracks (fifty in total)! It turns out that with so much good material and so many lesser-known artists worthy of recognition, a selection of the "best 25" salsa songs of 2023 was just not enough.
Criteria
As mentioned in the post about the original show (Part 1), my choices are not intended to be authoritative. Rather, they are based on personal appreciation using several criteria -- primarily on how a song matches my style of deejaying for dancers. This is admittedly, subjective. Also important are what I consider to be notable arrangements, instrumentation, vocals, and lyrics. I also lean a little more towards artists who are not especially well-known but I feel deserve more recognition.
Feedback
Simply, I am keen to share my own favourite tracks. However, I certainly respect differences of opinion, so I welcome feedback on my selection and would love to hear recommendations about songs I did not choose.
Source
The pool of songs for choosing tracks is a Spotify playlist curated by my colleague DJ Rem (France) and myself for salsa songs released in 2023. It contains just more than 600 songs, so naturally it was very difficult to select only twenty-five songs for Part 1 and once again another twenty-five for this upcoming Part 2.
While programming for both shows, I began with a shortlist of roughly 45 songs and then trimmed it little by little to reach my final twenty-five songs, which was not easy. Nonetheless, this upcoming episode (Part 2) is an attempt to fix some glaring omissions in the last show (Part 1), which aired on Dec 28.
So I revisited the 2023 Spotify playlist and will play outtakes, passed-over tracks, and newly discovered material, such as songs released late in the year.
Why 25?
For those wondering why twenty-five and not more or less, the reason is because twenty-five is roughly the number of songs that I can squeeze into a two-hour show.
Rankings
Below is the ranking of songs from Part 1; however, the tracks appeared in a random order on the show. A replay link follows.
REPLAY EPISODE 30
(Part 1)
Click below to listen in your browser or on SoundCloud.
