Brazilian Zouk is a dance that is know across the world. It spread more or less together with “kiz” dance (European versions of kizomba: “fusion”, etc), probably because there was a period in the 2010s where both Brazilian Zouk and “kiz” used the same music (ghetto zouk).
After a while, “kiz” dancers typically start trying to know more about real kizomba. They hear about “Zouk” music, and questions appear: is this the same as Brazilian Zouk? If not, what is the difference?
In short: Brazilian Zouk is a dance without its own music. Zouk is music, from the Caribbean – and also has its own dance. The reason why they “share” a name is an accident of history: Brazilians ran out of Lambada music just as Zouk music appeared.
Zouk was born in the Caribbean
The music style named Zouk appeared with the song in 1984: “Zouk-la sé sel médikaman nou ni“, by the band Kassav’. A band from Guadaloupe, in the Caribbean, and a song with French Creole lyrics and Meringue feeling.
It was such a huge hit, that the first word of its title turned into the name for the music style. Even The New York Times wrote about this first zouk hit and the ensuing fever.
Kassav was hugely influenced by the existing style Kadans (AKA Konpa) from neighboring Haiti, but also brought in other French Caribbean influences, like Gwoka and Biguine. And then other Caribbean bands started using the name Zouk to try to distinguish themselves from Kadans/Konpa, even if some say that all of these styles are basically the same.1
Over 40 years later, Kassav still fills today stadiums across the world!
So what about Brazil?
The 80s were also the years when lambada dancers in Brazil were running out of lambada music, so in the 90s they started using the existing Zouk music for their dance – and that combination, Brazilian dance with Caribbean music, is what turned into what now some call Brazilian Zouk2.
In a nutshell: Zouk appeared as Caribbean music (with its own dance) in 1984, while Brazilian Zouk appeared in the 90s as a dance without its own music.
Slowing down…
Zouk kept evolving in the 90s, from its hard Carnival party beginnings to slower / simpler / more romantic versions like Zouk Love. It had such a strong influence in Africa and Europe that it spawned other related genres – like Afro-Zouk in many African countries, and Ghetto Zouk in Europe. And looks like this evolution towards slower music matched well what Brazilian Zouk dancers wanted, to the point that in the 2010s in Europe, Brazilian Zouk parties seemed to be mostly about Ghetto Zouk and similar styles.
During those early 2010s, a kind of kizomba-flavored dance was also extending through Europe. Angolans had it very difficult to travel after their civil war, so the ones teaching “kizomba” in Europe were mostly Europeans with limited contact with actual Kizomba music or dance. At the same time, Ghetto Zouk music was all the rage, and so for a few years it was easy to find parties where Brazilian Zouk dancers and “pseudo-kizomba“ dancers shared the dancefloor while Ghetto Zouk music played.
In fact, some artists like Kaysha embraced this marketing opportunity: 2 birds, one stone! He was well known in the pseudo-kizomba scene with his Sushi Raw brand (similar to how Ghetto Zouk was a brand) – but openly courted the Brazilian Zouk scene with the same songs. Like in his video “Something going on”, which is full of BraZouk dancers… dancing among billiard tables. What could ever go wrong?😬
As you might imagine, this was a difficult era for learners to understand what was or wasn’t Kizomba 😅. Fortunately, little by little actual Kizomba instructors (even Angolans!) started appearing in Europe; and around 2015 a group of French instructors finally adopted the naming of Urban Kiz for their style, which helped separate things a bit.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that all of the pseudo-kizomba instructors in Europe immediately started agreeing with each other and clarifying what they taught. And the forces of marketing never sleep! But at least it helped distinguish real Kizomba from Urban Kiz and from the bunch of slightly different “kiz fusions” that were somehow connected to them (or not).
To know more about the disconnection between Ghetto Zouk and Kizomba, and about their connections to Zouk, there’s another article about that.
- Kadans and konpa are so similar because they were born copying each other in Haiti. But zouk’s case is different; the name got so famous that it commercially eclipsed other names. For example, a Haitian musician complained in the 80s that he had been playing the same music all his life and now people were calling it “zouk” because it was the fashion. (I need to find the quote!). Reminds me of how Tito Puente complained against the marketing of his music as “salsa”! ↩︎
- With its own history of substyles and names, which I won’t try to cover. ↩︎
Expanded from a Facebook post published originally on February 23, 2021