One of my student’s favorite artists is the young bachata star Prince Royce. Geoffrey Royce Rojas was born in 1989 to Spanish-speaking parents, who raised him in the New York City borough of the Bronx. Royce’s bachata tune “Culpa al corazón”, or “Blame the Heart” was released in January of 2016, and I quickly converted this catchy classic into a song warm-up and exam for a February Valentine’s theme.
Royce’s tunes are incredibly catchy, which lends itself well to one of my favorite aspects of teaching Royce's songs; teaching students basic bachata moves to go along with the music. His songs are meant for dancing, and teaching the basics of bachata is a great way to help students engage with the beat, language and culture of his tunes.
I usually teach the bachata around "Day 8" of the song cycle, before the exam, to promote engagement in the tune and encourage studying for the exam the next day.
I love to show students the creative music videos that go along with most songs that I teach, as I find that it enhances student’s engagement in the text. I usually screen the music video in class the day before the song exam, and have students analyze the music video by describing the scene in Spanish.
Although the music video for “Culpa al corazón” is once again very creative and well done, unfortunately I would not recommend screening this music video for your class. The music video was filmed with Prince Royce and his girlfriend, Shadowhunters star Emeraude Toubia, and could be seen as inappropriate for the classroom. Often in a case like this, I would censor the racy scenes and still show a segment of the music video, but unfortunately the design of the music video is such that these scenes are spread throughout the video, making the “censoring” of this music video difficult. Just a warning – screen at your own risk!
I have posted my resources for "Culpa al Corazon" by Prince Royce on the links found below: