Zapateo, circuit, aleteo, trival colombiano, tarro, labala. Over the past years, several words have become part of the Latin American musical lexicon as part of a single phenomenon: guaracha. This might be another new term to many, but the genre's blend of multilayered drums, buzzing, filtered synth leads and unapologetic drops has already made its way to global pop stars (Jennifer Lopez), mainstream DJs (Tiësto) and underground artists and collectives alike—all born from a Latin American perspective. If you think you've never heard guaracha, maybe you'll remember "Pepas" by Puerto Rican artist Farruko. With a singalong chorus and a powerful horn riff, the 2021 track was a number one hit in more than 14 countries and the summer soundtrack for many across the US, Europe and Latin America.

Before making its way to the top, guaracha went through several underground mutations. Originally, the word itself had nothing to do with stomping kick drums and booming synth build-ups—it referred to a traditional folkloric music genre with roots in 18th-century Cuba. Known as a popular form of singing and songwriting, guaracha was mainly performed by duos or bands that would unleash comical or narrative lyrics with an acoustic guitar backing. This musical form snuck into the rest of Latin America and, in the 20th century, through radio waves and record shops. Just like rumba, the word guaracha became synonymous with party and dance in several Spanish-speaking countries, including Mexico and Colombia.

It was only in the mid-'00s that guaracha took off as an electronic music genre. Mexican DJs and producers created the first iteration by melding local singer-songwriter genres known as corridos, or regional, with cumbia elements and electronic beats—then known as tribal guarachero, or trival. By the late '00s, Colombia developed its own take on the frantic genre, which became known, once again, as simply guaracha. Across small parties held in summer houses—privaditos—and countryside venues far from big cities like Bogotá, both '90s tribal house and Mexico's trival found a fertile cross-breeding ground. Step by step, these genres went from imported goods to local offspring. South American cumbia drum loops, lyrics in Spanish, samples from Mexican dance floor hits and a taste for EDM-style drops were added to the evolving blend, and the parties created a whole new kind of music.

As guaracha grew in popularity among the working class, it also attracted the side-eye gaze of local media and overtly white Latin-dominant groups—a common dynamic in South and Central Americas and the Caribbean, from Brazil's baile funk to Puerto Rico reggaeton. But it didn't take long for guaracha, first seen as kitsch or tacky, to gain traction on local radio shows and bigger stages. Fumaratto, a DJ who first drew inspiration from football fanfares, is a guaracha hitmaker who has garnered almost 200 million views on his YouTube channel, and sells out concerts all over Latin America. With his bunny helmet, he impersonates the latest iteration of this music genre. With EDC big-room vibes, complex rhythms and non-Western sounds, guaracha is a distinctly made-in-Colombia form of electronic music gaining a new foothold across the world.

DJ Fist - El Pajaro (2003)

Released in 2003, "El Pajaro" was a milestone in Colombia's electronic music history, and one of the first popular tracks to point the way towards guaracha. Not only did it have a powerful syncopated kick-snare pattern—a key element borrowed from late-'90s tribal house music—the track was also hyperlocal. "It featured a sample of an old-school, folkloric song," explained Alejandro Cardona, DJ and founder of Medellín club Perro Negro, and one of the heads of house label Discos Nutabe.

That song was originally "Pajaro," a famous, festive porro recorded by several Colombian artists, from crooners like Pacho Galan to cumbia big bands. It was electronic music with a Colombian flavour. Years later, the producer Fist said in an interview, "This track has opened up the way to other Colombian producers. That's when many international labels and producers saw the possibility of supporting local talent."

David Lopez - Fly Sound (2013)

Born in the department of Meta, a landlocked region sandwiched between the Andes mountains and the Amazon rainforest, David Lopez might not seem like the most likely candidate to become a chart-topping DJ in Colombia. He wasn't based in the big cities like Bogotá or Cali, where electronic music had been thriving since the early '00s. But in Villavicencio, his hometown, the Colombian take on tribal house and tribal guarachero (think proto-guaracha) started to appear in small clubs and privaditos. David Lopez excelled in this context as a DJ, and was one of the first to to succeed as a producer, with "Fly Sound," defined by its catchy, high-pitched riff and an irresistible drop.

Alex Barrera - Take Tarake Take (2013)

Another DJ who pushed tribal house boundaries in the 2010s, Alex Barrera has notched several classics in Colombia's electronic music history. "Take Tarake Take" is among them, and one of his main national club hits. It also established the framework for what would become guaracha in the years to come: a vocal sample and two big drops, mixing Latin American sounds with trebly horns and hints of EDM. Today, DJs and producers often revisit this song, making new guaracha remixes of it.

Gio Silva - Que Todo (2015)

Colombia's central location in between South and Central America and the Caribbean has helped the country to draw inspiration from all areas of Latin America. In this context, guaracha seems to be a product of its environment. The name guaracha comes from Cuba and many vocal elements are inspired by Brazil's baile funk, while Mexico's experiments with tribal house were essential in shaping the current movement. Coming from a lineage of DJs influenced by European house and circuit—a sub-genre of tribal house that formed at '00s Mexican LGBTQIA+ parties—Gio Silva is a great example of the large reach of guaracha across Latin America. The Mexican DJ and producer Gio Silva saw his popularity grow bigger on Latin American electronic stages. One of them was in Barranquilla, on Colombia's northern coast, where his performance of the track "Que Todo" went viral. "Back then, guaracha tracks weren't broadcast on radios," said Fumaratto, one of the main guaracha DJs today, who was a teenager at the time. "But this one, everyone was listening to this track on YouTube."

Monsieur Periné - Bailar Contigo (Leeb Remix) (2018)

Thriving in the underground, guaracha started to sneak into Colombia's pop charts by the second half of the 2010s. In "Bailar Contigo", the pop duo Monsieur Periné teamed up with one of the country's top DJs at the time, Leeb, to sort out a guaracha-laced joint. The musical theme starts as a watered-down, easy-listening track with upbeat guitar lines. But when the drop comes up, we listen to all the kicks and horns that make this genre so unapologetically danceable. Even tracks with the sweetest vocal melodies like this one have the power of making listeners shake arms as if they're playing large drums.

DJ Dasten, Fumaratto - Prende la Fiesta (2018)

Born in Medellín, one of Colombia's biggest cities, Fumaratto took almost literal baby steps into the electronic music world. "I was 12 years old when my parents gave me as a Christmas gift DJ equipment and a DJ course," he recalled. At the time, he loved going to the football stadium to watch his team, Atlético Nacional. "I used to really enjoy the ultras horns and drums, all of that joy." That experience was essential to his music-making in the upcoming years, when he entered the guaracha world as Fumaratto—or just "bunny", as evidenced by his long-eared helmet on stage.

Today, Fumaratto is one of the guaracha's most successful charting acts, and high-pitched, flaring trumpet noises along with the guaracha drums are a trademark of his music. One of his first hits was "Prende la Fiesta," a collaboration with his friend DJ Dasten, another trailblazing Colombian music producer. In this track, both deliver a slightly darker version of the genre, with clanging but melodic leads, subtle metallic sounds and gut-punching kick drums.

J-Alex Stylee - Si Me Tocan Esta Play, Si Bailo (2019)

The rise of guaracha had spilled over Colombia's borders by the end of 2020. The genre found a home all over Latin America thanks to its catchy hooks and Spanish lyrics, and countries like Chile started to grow their own guaracha movements, helped by music-making tools only becoming cheaper and more widespread, as well as the ease of sharing music. There are several Pan-Latin Instagram profiles and YouTube channels fully dedicated to guaracha, and they're the hubs of phenomena like "Si Me Tocan Esta Play, Si Bailo." Produced by a virtually anonymous DJ—information about J-Alex Stylee is hard to come by—the track was meant to be a filler for these channels and a freebie for guaracha DJs. Now it's one of the greatest hits of the genre.

Dayvi, Victor Cardenas & Kelly Ruiz - Baila Conmigo (2019)

One of the first guaracha tracks to hit the charts outside of Colombia—from Argentina to Spain—"Baila Conmigo" is a masterclass in the genre. Victor Cardenas and Dayvi play around with guaracha's signature kick-handclap pattern in this collaboration adding different, subtle drum fills throughout the foundation. The rhythms are topped off with an infectious horn melody with sustained, high-pitched melodies. Singer Kelly Ruiz seals the deal with her sultry, airy vocals—a tint of nostalgia that looks back to Mexico's tribal guarachero roots. You can measure its remarkable success by all the remixes and edits that popped up around the world, from commercial tech house versions to Jennifer Lopez, passing through baile funk edits and a proggy Tiësto take.

Marcela Reyes - Lo Malo Se Fue (2019)

Appearing on influential Spotify playlists like Beast Mode and showing no signs of losing its momentum, guaracha today is also a hotbed for pop star DJs. Marcela Reyes debuted this new era of the genre with all the pomp and circumstance that an influencer can pull off on social media. Sure, the DJ is also known for being a regular in Colombia's tabloid media, but few would deny that her track "Lo Malo Se Fue" massively expanded guaracha's reach.

"There aren't that many women DJs in guaracha, and Marcela does that with a song about empowerment and overcoming challenges," said Fumaratto. In the music video, Marcela dances all alone and sings along the chorus with an ever-precise guaracha duo of kicks and horns: "All bad is gone."

Farruko - Pepas (2021)

In June 2021, few would've bet on "Pepas" becoming one of the year's most-streamed songs globally, a number one hit in 14 countries and the unbeatable soundtrack to summer parties on a planet that was still dealing with a phasing-out pandemic. Yet so it was. At the time, Farruko was mostly known for his genre-hopping career in the Latin Music pop spectrum, jumping on trap and reggaeton. A guaracha track was still missing in his catalogue, so he teamed up with an expert that would bring the most well-honed production skills to the table: Victor Cardenas.

The beat was languishing on Cardenas's hard drive after three years of unsuccessful pitches to Latin American best-sellers, including Bad Bunny and J. Balvin. He only saw the song coming to life when his producer friend Chino asked him for new sounds for Farruko's new album. The Puerto Rican artist loved the beat and sent the vocals to Cardenas, who added trumpet leads and reggaeton drums onto the guaracha structure, something unusual at the time. The finishing touch came with Farruko's chorus: "Pepa y agua pa' la seca, to' el mundo en pastilla' en la discoteca," a straightforward, hedonist ode to dropping pills, staying hydrated and keeping the party going all night long.