Aguanilé

A salsa song that is really a santería invocation. ‘Aguanilé’ is a Lucumí chant of cleansing and protection, and in 1972 Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe built...

A salsa song that is really a santería invocation. ‘Aguanilé’ is a Lucumí chant of cleansing and protection, and in 1972 Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe built it into one of the fiercest tracks of the Fania era — Lavoe's voice riding a coro that calls the spirits down. Decades later Marc Anthony reopened it live as a tribute to Lavoe, keeping the invocation alive for a stadium generation. The sacred, smuggled onto the dancefloor in plain sight.

Composer

Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe

Year

1972

Lineage

sacred