Kizomba is originally from Angola. The term "kizomba" comes from the Kimbundu language, the meaning of which is "fiesta" (celebration). Although Angola already danced a dance known as "Semba" in the 1950s and 1960s, which can be considered a precursor to kizomba, the development of kizomba as a dance only took place in the 1980s.

Music

Kizomba as a music originated in Africa sometime in the late 1970s, with influences variously attributed to Angola. Kizomba is characterized by a slower, romantic and more sensual rhythm than the traditional Angolan music of semba. Kizomba music originated as a fusion of semba, Caribbean music and other African rhythms, including POP music. Eduardo Paim is internationally recognized as the "Father/Creator of Kizomba Music", as he and his band played a major role in the development of the musical style. Some older people criticized them for saying that what they play is not semba, and when the question came, what do they actually play, considering that they wanted people to have fun with their music, the answer was Kizomba.

In the mid-1980s, the musical group Kassav came from the French Antilles and created their own musical style strongly influenced by Zouk. Specifically, the song "La Sé Sel Médikaman Nou Ni" (the party is the only medicine we have) baptized this genre. It was such a great international success that several musical groups in Africa started creating their own style of zouk mixed with traditional African rhythms. Eduardo Paim with the group S.O.S started their "Kizomba journey" before zouk appeared, but the fact is that zouk had a huge influence. This Angolan direction of Zouk creation was baptized by Kizomba, just as Cola-Zouk was created in Cape Verde. Many other countries have adopted the name Afro Zouk.

Dance

The beginning of kizomba as a dance can be attributed to several "PALOP" countries (African countries whose official language is Portuguese). Each of them has its own traditional popular rhythms, but if we talk about kizomba, some of them should be highlighted: Angola - Semba, Cape Verde - Coladera, Guinea Bissau - Gumbé, Mozambique - Marrabenta, Sao Tome and Principe - Puíta. Kizomba as a couple dance was very minimalist in the beginning. People mostly danced side basic and walking. And it was the Angolans who started to dance more creatively and the basic 3 and also "saídas" (exit from the basic position) were born.

At the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century, new musical styles began to appear and, subsequently, new ways of interpreting them in terms of dance, such as the Angolan production of Tarraxinha, or the Cape Verdean production of Guetto Zouk. The music was more modern, with a slower tempo, a stronger beat and following the global trends of POP, Hip Hop and electronic music. Around 2013, when new versions of music appeared heavily influenced by DubStep and remixes, naturally the dance also underwent changes and the Urbankiz dance started to emerge.

From the beginning, there were many different dance styles, but they were always called Kizomba. Similar to other social dances (salsa, bachata, tango,...) there was also a need to create name tags such as Traditional Kizomba, Urbankiz, Fusion, Tarraxo etc.