Into the groove: how Salsa music made a comeback

From US No 1 albums to viral DJ sets, the 1970s Latin party genre is having a moment in the spotlight. Kate Hutchinson speaks to those on the inside about its heady renaissance

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It’s a sunny spring afternoon in south London and a selector at an outdoor party is slamming down some of the slinkiest salsa cuts outside of San Juan. This is one of the hottest tickets in town, a party put on by respected promoter Movimientos at the Fox & Firkin pub in Lewisham. Down the front, the serious dancers sashay effortlessly, coupled up, while hipsters on the fringes have a go and try not to tread on each other’s toes. At the controls: Hong Kong-born Gia Fu, a prominent emerging selector who’s bringing salsa to new audiences. Her YouTube mixes, where she plays old records on her home setup, have had millions of views. She tours all over the world and has noticed the demographic of her DJ sets changing lately. “It’s still a shock to me that everywhere I go, there are younger people,” she says.

In the UK and other places without deep Latin roots, salsa has long been associated with the Strictly ballroom, a way to spice up your marriage, or both. “It’s not even just a Western perception,” Fu, who discovered salsa music through a teenage breakdancing competition in Hong Kong, says over FaceTime. She heard Roberto Roena’s 1970 track “Que Se Sepa” over the speakers and it kickstarted a record-collecting obsession. “When I first started doing this, a lot of my friends thought it was kind of lame,” she admits. “I think the majority of people in Europe or in Asia, when they hear the word salsa, would immediately think of ballroom dancing.”

In its heyday, salsa was gritty: “music meant for dancing in seedy nightclubs,” said