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Sephardic songs accompanied life from beginning to end—love and courtship, pregnancy, childbirth, weddings, and mourning. They also marked the yearly cycle with songs rooted in Jewish traditions and historical events.
Ladino, originating from 15th-century  Spanish, was the language of Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. As they dispersed across the Mediterranean, Ladino song absorbed local linguistic and musical influences.
There are two main dialects:
Ladino (Español) – Spoken in Turkey, Greece, Sarajevo, Bulgaria, Rhodes, and beyond.
Haketia – The dialect of northern Morocco.

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From Morenika Izmirlia - Judeo-Spanish songs from Smyrna, 2020 A song of parting of the bride from her family.  This is a widely spread song in the congregations of Turkey, Saloniki, Sarayevo and Rhodes. This...
From Ventanas Altas de Saloniki, 2013. This piece was taken from the piece ‘Esther’, a musical play in three acts which articulates the plot via various operatic genres: recitativo, arias, duets and choruses. Some of...
From Kanta Gayiko, Judeo-Spanish songs from Bulgaria, 2025 Kobi Zarco: voice  Yarden Erez : ud, guitar, gumbush; violin, keyboard and arrangements Zeev Yaniv : darbuqa, sonaja, bendir, cajón This is an anecdote of the early...
From Arboleras - De las altas mares, Ecos Sefardies de la isle de Rodas, cd1, 2009 The well-known romance of Delgadina deals with the incestuous love of a father for his daughter and is a...
From Morenika Izmirlia - Judeo-Spanish songs from Smyrna, 2020 The copla called The Night of Alhad (Noche de Alhad) is sung at the end of Shabbat to mark the transition to the coming of the...
From Ventanas Altas de Saloniki, 2013. From ‘Esther’, a musical play in three acts depicting the story of Purim, which articulates the plot via various operatic genres: recitativo, arias, duets and choruses. Some of its...
From Arboleras - De las altas mares, Ecos Sefardies de la isle de Rodas, 2009 A humorous story of an adulterous wife whose lover sneezes while in hiding from her husband who has come back...
From Morenika Izmirlia - Judeo-Spanish songs from Smyrna, 2020 This wedding cantiga is sung as a blessing for the bride and groom, portraying the groom’s gifts and the bride’s graceful qualities in return.
From Merendjenas, Orit Perlman, 2023 This wedding cantiga is sung as a blessing for the bride and groom, portraying the groom’s gifts, with an interesting emphasis on types of shoes, and the bride’s beauty and...
From Kanta Gayiko, Judeo-Spanish songs from Bulgaria, 2025 Orit Perlman : voice Yarden Erez : accomapanyment and arrangements This romance, La reina adúltera ("The Adulterous Queen"), recounts the story of a queen who believes she...
From Arboleras Vol. 2 - Romances Sefardies Tradicion Oral This romance, La reina adúltera ("The Adulterous Queen"), recounts the story of a queen who believes she is confiding in her lover, unaware that it is...
From Morenika Izmirlia - Judeo-Spanish songs from Smyrna, 2020 This is one of the few hexasyllabic romances whose lines do not have 16 syllables (as is more common, divided into two hemistiches of 8) but...
From Ventanas Altas de Saloniki, 2013. This tells the Purim story of Haman and Mordechai. This was the first printed copla first published around the year 1700 and reprinted until 1923. The verses are in...
From Decile a mi Amor, Judeo-Spanish songs from Tetuan, 2018. From Tetuan in the north of Morocco, this song from the new repertoire criticizes the new fashions and behaviours of young women.