Artists like Los Zafiros
Kindred artists that sit next to Los Zafiros on the star chart — same era, adjacent sound, or overlapping influence. Tap any card to open its full page.
Beny MoréartistBartolomé Maximiliano Moré Gutiérrez, better known as Benny Moré, was a Cuban singer, bandleader and songwriter. Due to his fluid tenor voice and his great expressivity, he was known variously as "El Bárbaro del Ritmo" and "El Sonero Mayor". Moré was a master of the soneo – the art of vocal improvisation in son cubano – and many of his tunes developed this way. He often took part in controversias with other singers, including Cheo Marquetti and Joseíto Fernández. Apart from son cubano, Moré was a popular singer of guarachas, cha cha cha, mambo, son montuno, and boleros.
Los Tres Diamantesartist
Omara PortuondoartistOmara Portuondo Peláez is a Cuban singer and dancer. A founding member of the popular vocal group Cuarteto d'Aida, Portuondo has collaborated with many important Cuban musicians during her long career, including Julio Gutiérrez, Juanito Márquez and Chucho Valdés. Although primarily known for her rendition of boleros, she has recorded in a wide range of styles from jazz to son cubano. Since 1996, she has been part of the Buena Vista Social Club project, touring extensively and recording several albums with the ensemble. She won a Latin Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Tropical Album in 2009, a Latin Grammy Award for Best Traditional Tropical Album in 2023, a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, and she received three Grammy Award nominations in 2019 and a nomination in 2024.
Ibrahim FerrerartistIbrahim Ferrer was a Cuban singer who played with the group Los Bocucos for nearly forty years. He also performed with Conjunto Sorpresa, Chepín y su Orquesta Oriental, and Mario Patterson. After his retirement in 1991, he was brought back in the studio to record with the Afro-Cuban All Stars and Buena Vista Social Club, in March 1996. He then toured internationally with these revival groups and recorded several solo albums for World Circuit, before his death in 2005.
La Sonora MatanceraartistLa Sonora Matancera is a Cuban band that played Latin American urban popular dance music. Founded in 1924 and led for more than five decades by guitarist, vocalist, composer, and producer Rogelio Martínez, musicologists consider it an icon of this type of music. Notable singers to have sung and recorded with the band include Bienvenido Granda, Daniel Santos, Myrta Silva, Miguelito Valdés, Leo Marini, Celia Cruz, Nelson Pinedo, Vicentico Valdés, Estanislao "Laíto" Sureda, Alberto Beltrán, Carlos Argentino, and Celio González.
La Lupeartist
Afro-Cuban All StarsartistAfro-Cuban All Stars is a Cuban band led by Juan de Marcos González. Their music is a mix of all the styles of Cuban music, including bolero, chachachá, salsa, son montuno, timba, guajira, danzón, rumba and abakua.
Compay SegundoartistMáximo Francisco Repilado Muñoz Telles, known professionally as "Compay Segundo", was a Cuban trova guitarist, singer and composer.
OrishasartistOrishas are a Cuban hip hop group from Havana, Cuba, founded in 1999. The group was first called "Amenaza", "threat" or "menace" in Spanish, and appealed to the Cuban youth. The choice of this name for the hip hop group is a way of creating a direct link between this band and the African diaspora. The group is based in France where they made a deal with a record company, although they visit Cuba frequently. In 1999 Fidel Castro threw a party for them and had a meeting with all the musicians. It was the first time the Cuban government showed support for hip hop music. The group was and still is popular in Europe and Latin America. Yotuel Romero and Ruzzo Medina, who moved from Havana to Paris as part of an international studies program, joined Roldán González and Flaco-Pro to form the band in 1999. Their work is influenced by the hip hop movement as well as Cuban and other Latin rhythms. As of November 2024, they had produced a total of five studio albums and a greatest hits album; their latest album is Gourmet. In 2009 they participated in the concert Paz Sin Fronteras II in Plaza de la Revolución, Havana, Cuba. Orishas reunited to record new material in 2016.
Eliades OchoaartistEliades Ochoa Bustamante is a Cuban guitarist and singer from Loma de la Avispa, Songo La Maya in the east of the country near Santiago de Cuba.
Carlos PueblaartistCarlos Manuel Puebla was a Cuban singer, guitarist and composer. He was a member of the Trova movement, who specialized in boleros and patriotic songs.
Alci AcostaartistAlci Acosta is a Colombian bolero singer, pianist, and performer of Latin American music including pasillos, corridos, valses, and rancheras.
- Mongo Santamariaartist
Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez was a Cuban percussionist and bandleader who spent most of his career in the United States. Primarily a conga drummer, Santamaría was a leading figure in the pachanga and boogaloo dance crazes of the 1960s. His biggest hit was his rendition of Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man", which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. From the 1970s, he recorded mainly salsa and Latin jazz, before retiring in the late 1990s.
Franco de Vitaartist
Pérez PradoartistDámaso Pérez Prado was a Cuban bandleader, pianist, composer and arranger who popularized the mambo in the 1950s. His big band adaptation of the danzón-mambo proved to be a worldwide success with hits such as "Mambo No. 5", earning him the nickname "The King of the Mambo". In 1955, Pérez Prado and his orchestra topped the charts in the US and UK with a mambo cover of Louiguy's "Cherry Pink ". He frequently made brief appearances in films, primarily of the rumberas genre, and his music was featured in films such as La Dolce Vita.
Juanesartist
La Santa CeciliaartistLa Santa Cecilia is an American band based in Los Angeles, California that plays a blend of cumbia, bossa nova, and boleros, among other styles. The group is named after Santa Cecilia, who is the patron saint of musicians. The band seeks to represent a US bicultural identity, both immersed in modern music but still close to their Latin American influences and Mexican heritage.
Los Tres Caballerosartist
Joe Cuba Sextetartist
Los PanchosartistLos Panchos, originally known as Trio Los Panchos, are a trío romántico formed in New York City in 1944 by Mexican musicians Alfredo Gil and Chucho Navarro, and Puerto Rican musician Hernando Avilés. The trio became one of the leading exporters of the bolero and the romantic ballad in Latin America.
Joe BataanartistBataan Nitollano, also known as Joe Bataan, is a Filipino-American Latin soul singer, songwriter and musician best known world-wide and in the Hispanic and Latino music scene as the "King of Latin Soul".
Héctor LavoeartistHéctor Juan Pérez Martínez, better known as Héctor Lavoe, was a Puerto Rican salsa singer. Widely regarded as one of salsa's most important and influential vocalists, Lavoe played a pivotal role in popularizing the genre throughout the 1960s, '70s, and '80s. His charismatic persona and artistic vision propelled him to become one of the most successful Latin music artists of all time.
Los Angeles NegrosartistLos Ángeles Negros are a Chilean pop ballad band formed in San Carlos de Chile in 1968. The band's best-known line-up consisted of singer Germaín de la Fuente, guitarist Mario Gutiérrez, keyboardist Jorge González, bassist Miguel Ángel "Nano" Concha, and drummer Luis Ortiz. Their music is a blend of boleros, psychedelic funk and rock music, known as Balada rockmántica.