Mambo

Mambo is a dance-oriented music genre that evolved from Danzón during the late 1930s thanks to brothers Orestes and Israel López, both of whom were members of Arcaño y Sus Maravillas. Their first mambo composition was a highly syncopated upbeat danzón called "Mambo". They dubbed this new style "nuevo ritmo" (new rhythm), and in a few years it became very popular all over Latin America, especially thanks to Pérez Prado, the King of Mambo, who exported mambo to Mexico. Cascarita, Chico O'Farrill, Xavier Cugat and Beny Moré also took part in the "mambo revolution" of the 1950s, which reached New York, where it became a worldwide phenomenon. Yma Sumac's combination of mambo and Exotica proved to be very successful as well. From the 1960s on, competing genres such as Chachachá, Son cubano and Pachanga, shared mambo's popularity, which experienced a slight decline until the 1990s, when there was a mambo revival that began with the release of the movie The Mambo Kings, starring Antonio Banderas and the famous mambo specialist Tito Puente. The revival reached its peak in 1999 with the release of "Mambo No. 5", Lou Bega's Pop version of Pérez Prado's hit, which became a chart topper all over the world.