Good English Salsa Songs

There are good salsa songs in English.
They are not recent, experimental, or rare. Most people simply don’t play them.

This is not because English doesn’t work in salsa. It’s because English-language salsa tends to get dismissed as a category rather than evaluated song by song. A few bad examples circulate, assumptions harden, and the rest never make it onto the floor.

The result is predictable. Playlists converge, sets sound familiar, and perfectly functional dance music gets skipped entirely.

The songs below are included for a simple reason. They work. They hold structure, support connection, and produce the same outcomes any good salsa track should produce. People dance. No theory is required. Reaction is sufficient.

What follows is a straightforward list of English-language salsa songs that function exactly as expected and are oddly absent from many sets.

Maybe Then - New Swing Sextet

You’ve heard this once in a while. You liked it. You didn’t say anything because salsa is supposed to be in Spanish.

Let It Be - Tito Nieves

Yes, it’s salsa.. Yes, it’s in English. Yes, it works.

If this surprises you, there’s an entire record you may want to sit with. Tropical Tribute to the Beatles. It wasn’t a novelty project or a marketing experiment. It was recorded by established, serious musicians including Tito Puente, Tito Nieves, and José Feliciano. People whose careers did not require permission from playlists or comment sections.

Unlike your dollar store local DJ ranting about tradition and originality while actually talented people went ahead and produced good work.

Confidence hardens fastest where exposure is limited.

Blinding Lights - John Espinosa

Without You - Tito Nieves

Maria Maria - Carlos Santana

Smooth Criminal - Tony Succar and Jean Rodriguez

Michael Jackson, run through a salsa machine by people who actually understand rhythm.

If this doesn’t work for you, the problem isn’t the English.
Yes, it’s fast. Get good.

Excluding music preemptively is a reliable way to avoid learning whether it works.

No No No - Boogaloo Assassins

Discomfort is often misdiagnosed as discernment.

There are many more English-language salsa tracks than what’s listed here, if you’re actually looking. We didn’t run out of examples. We stopped where the point was already clear.

The bottom line is simple:

Language matters to enjoyment. Being able to understand and sing along while dancing is not unusual or shallow. It’s a common, human way of connecting to music, and salsa has never been an exception to that.