How to Find a Bilingual DJ for Your Wedding or Event

Your bilingual DJ should be both a talented DJ and a fluent speaker with a strong understanding of Latin culture. To help find this sort of DJ, there are three things you need to consider.

Assess If Your DJ is Fluent in Spanish

Your wedding DJ will most likely act as an emcee, introducing guests and making announcements. Speech is going to be critical to the performance. Therefore, you need to ascertain their fluency, as this will determine if they can convey emotional depth, warmth, and professionalism.

But your DJ shouldn't only be fluent in Spanish. He or she should also be able to translate in instances where they may need to make a statement in both English and Spanish.

Extensive Knowledge of Music Genres

Here's where you can make a clear distinction between the kind of DJ you would like at your wedding. Your DJ should know every genre of music — particularly Latin music — that would fit seamlessly into your playlist. While some DJs may be fluent in Spanish, they may not have as much depth in Latin music genres, limiting your DJ's ability to make a captivating playlist unique to your taste and vision for your wedding.

Reviews from Others Who've Hired Them for a Bilingual Event

Your wedding SHOULD NOT be the first bilingual event a DJ is hosting. Because while it may seem easy for someone bilingual, there's more to creating a playlist and emceeing an event than understanding Spanish. To avoid embarrassment or hiccups, ask your bilingual DJ about any bilingual or Latin events they've hosted before.

What to Look for in a Bilingual Wedding DJ

Beyond the aforementioned aspects to consider when finding a bilingual wedding DJ, you should also be sure you find out whether your

A Bilingual Wedding DJ Must Understands Your Culture

A bilingual DJ can either sound professional or tacky. If someone doesn't understand Latin culture, they are going to be tacky and distasteful. With an understanding of culture, a DJ can make appropriate music choices for different traditions within the ceremony so they hold their importance.

A Bilingual Wedding DJ Must Have Emcee Experience

To keep your wedding guests entertained, a DJ should have experience emceeing weddings or Latin events in both English and Spanish, which means they can easily transition between both languages and has the quick-thinking capabilities to translate speech.

A Bilingual Wedding DJ Must Have Plenty of Experience DJing at Latin Events

This has been mentioned before, but the experience is one thing couples can overlook when hiring a bilingual DJ. They may find a Spanish-speaking DJ or a DJ of Latin heritage and think that's fine. But, unless a DJ has specific experience hosting a bilingual event, your wedding essentially serves as an experiment.

At Black and White Affair DJ Services  (www.bwadj.com) in Los Angeles, you'll find the best bilingual wedding DJ to play all your latin Spanish hits too.

Not everyone can speak Spanish. What happens if you find a really good dj but his Spanish is non existent? I have been a part of many Spanish weddings. Some weddings playlist have been all in Spanish. There have been times where the bride and groom offered to have a guest make the announcements in Spanish. Most of the time they just want to make the grand entrance in their language then the rest of the announcements the dj can do. They mostly do that so that the last names are pronounced correctly.

My Spanish is ok but I do have assistants who speak perfect Spanish so if the bride and groom want that then I make sure that assistant is available.

Also what helps is to have a script of what they are going to say. Some people say they are professionals and want to wing it but I advise to have a script. When it comes to announcements I like to repeat what is being said then rephrasing it so the folks that are not paying attention can follow directions. I do not advise using google translator for the Spanish translation because sometimes its translated but it’s not the correct meaning. If a Spanish script is written then it should be translated by a fluent speaker. 

For most Spanish weddings, I like to play a lot of cumbias. It’s the cumbias that gets everyone out of their seats and onto the dance-floor. Best bet is to have a playlist from the couple with Spanish music. 

Call Black and White Affair to book your latin party. Always repping the bay and now in Southern California.