Bolero is a type of music that began in eastern Cuba in the late 1800s as part of the trova tradition. It is not connected to an older Spanish dance with the same name. Bolero is known for its complex words about love and is often called the most typical Latin American romantic song of the 20th century.

Unlike canción, which is simpler and has a wide range of themes, bolero did not come directly from European traditions like Italian opera or canzone, which were popular in cities such as Havana. Instead, bolero started as romantic folk poetry created by troubadours from Santiago de Cuba, called trovadores. Pepe Sánchez is considered the founder of this movement and wrote the first bolero, "Tristezas," in 1883. At first, boleros were sung by individual trovadores while playing the guitar. Later, it became common for trovadores to perform in groups, such as pairs, trios, or quartets. Because of groups like Trío Matamoros and later Trío Los Panchos, bolero became popular in Latin America, the United States, and Spain. At the same time, Havana became a place where bolero composers gathered to create music and improvise new songs. This movement was called filin, a word taken from the English word "feeling." Many of the genre's most famous songs were written during this time and performed on radio and in cabarets by singers like Olga Guillot and Elena Burke, who were supported by orchestras and big bands.

Boleros are usually in 4/4 time, and their musical arrangements can vary. This flexibility has allowed boleros to be included in the music of Cuban son and rumba groups, as well as in Spanish copla and flamenco performances since the early 1900s. Sometimes, boleros have been combined with other styles to create new subgenres, such as bolero-son in the 1930s and 1940s, and bolero-cha in the 1950s. In the United States, the rhumba ballroom dance developed from bolero-son in the 1930s. Boleros are also found in the African rumba music of artists from places like Kinshasa and Dakar because many bolero records were shared through the G.V. Series.

The popularity of bolero has reached far, including Vietnam, where it became a popular style in South Vietnam before 1975 and is still enjoyed by Vietnamese people today.

History

In Cuba, the bolero was the first major Cuban musical and vocal blend to gain worldwide recognition. In 4/4 time, this dance music spread to other countries, leaving behind what Ed Morales called the "most popular lyric tradition in Latin America."

The Cuban bolero tradition began in Santiago de Cuba during the last quarter of the 19th century. It did not come from Spanish music and songs with the same name. In the 19th century, a group of traveling musicians in Santiago de Cuba earned a living by singing and playing the guitar.

Pepe Sanchez is known as the father of the trova style and the creator of the Cuban bolero. Without formal training, but with natural talent, he composed songs in his head and never wrote them down. As a result, most of these songs are now lost, but about two dozen remain because friends and students recorded them. He served as a model and teacher for the great trovadores who followed.

The bolero first spread from eastern Cuba to the Dominican Republic in 1895, thanks to trovador Sindo Garay, who had previously brought the criolla song "La Dorila" to Cuba. This led to a lasting exchange of lyrical styles between the two islands. In the early 20th century, the bolero reached Puerto Rico and Mexico, where radio stations popularized it around 1915. In Mexico, the genre became a key part of the thriving trova yucateca movement in Yucatán, alongside other Cuban styles like the clave. Its leading figure was Guty Cárdenas.

By the 1930s, when Trío Matamoros made famous their mix of bolero and son cubano, called bolero-son, the genre was a common part of the musical repertoire in most Latin American countries. In Spain, Cuban bolero was added to the copla repertoire with elements from Andalusian music, creating the bolero moruno, which became famous through composers like Carmelo Larrea and Quintero, León y Quiroga.

Some of the bolero's leading composers came from nearby countries, such as Puerto Rican composer Rafael Hernández and Mexican composers Juan Gabriel, Agustín Lara, and María Grever. Some Cuban composers of the bolero are mainly considered trovadores. Several lyric tenors helped spread the bolero across North and South America during the 1930s and 1940s through live performances and radio shows like La Cadena de las Americas. These included Mexican operatic tenors Juan Arvizu and Nestor Mesta Chayres. Their work in New York City with musicians like Alfredo Antonini, Terig Tucci, Elsa Miranda, and John Serry Sr. on the CBS radio show Viva América introduced the bolero to millions in the United States. During the 1940s and 1950s, Trio Los Panchos, featuring musicians from Mexico and Puerto Rico such as Chucho Navarro, Alfredo Gil, Hernando Avilés, and Miguel Poventud, also performed the bolero. The genre gained new popularity in the 1990s when Mexican singer Luis Miguel revived interest in it through his album Romance.

Bolero fusions

José Loyola explains that the frequent blending of bolero with other Cuban rhythms is one reason it has remained popular for so long. This adaptability happened because it was not limited by specific formats or instruments, and it used more complex rhythms, which created a more Afro-Cuban sound. Examples include:

• Bolero in the danzón: Adding lyrics to danzón created a new style called danzonete.
• Bolero-son: A long-time favorite dance music in Cuba, often called "rumba" in other countries.
• Bolero-mambo: Slow, beautiful lyrics were added to the complex arrangements of mambo music.
• Bolero-cha: A 1950s style that uses a chachachá rhythm.
• Bachata: A Dominican style developed in the 1960s.

Bolero lyrics are common in popular music, especially in Latin dance music.

Vietnam

Bolero music also became popular in Vietnam. In the 1930s, Vietnam began enjoying modern music that mixed Western styles with traditional music. Vietnamese bolero is usually slower than Hispanic bolero and shares similarities with Japanese enka and Korean trot. This music expressed emotions, love, and life through poetic language. However, the Viet Minh, who aimed to build a working class during that time, did not support this type of music.

This style of music became known as "yellow music," which was the opposite of "red music" promoted by the Communist government of Hanoi during the Vietnam War. After North Vietnam won the war, yellow music was banned in 1975. People who listened to it faced punishment, and their music was taken away. After the Fall of Saigon, many Vietnamese moved to the United States, bringing their music with them. The ban was relaxed in 1986, allowing love songs to be written again, but by then, the music industry had declined.

The Vietnamese government also forbade the sale of music by overseas Vietnamese, including shows like Asia and Paris by Night. In recent years, bolero has become popular again as overseas singers performed in Vietnam. Television singing competitions like Boléro Idol have also gained popularity, with singers performing songs that were once banned.

Ballroom dance

A version of the Cuban bolero is danced worldwide (overseen by the World Dance Council) under the incorrect name "rumba," sometimes spelled "rhumba." This happened in the early 1930s when a general term was needed to introduce Cuban music to people who did not know the specific Cuban musical terms. For example, the famous song "Peanut Vendor," which is actually a type of Cuban music called "son-pregón," was labeled as "rumba," and the name became widely used for other Cuban music styles.

In Cuba, the bolero is typically written in 4/4 time, and it is also often written in 4/4 time in other places. The tempo for dancing is about 120 beats per minute. The music has a soft Cuban rhythm similar to a slow son, which is why it is sometimes called a "bolero-son." Like some other Cuban dances, the dance steps follow a pattern of three steps for four beats, with the first step of a movement starting on the second beat, not the first. The slow step, which lasts over two beats (four and one), is performed with a hip movement while standing on one foot, without a foot flick.

The dance called bolero is one of the competition dances in the American Rhythm ballroom category. The first step is usually taken on the first beat, held during the second beat, with two more steps on beats three and four (called "slow-quick-quick"). In competitive dancing, the music is in 4/4 time and has a tempo between 96 and 104 beats per minute. This dance is different from other American Rhythm dances because it requires Cuban motion, as well as rising and falling movements similar to those in waltz and contra body movement. Music used for this dance style does not need to be Latin in origin. Lists of music used in competitions for American Rhythm Bolero are available.