Kizomba is a genre of dance and a musical genre originating in Angola in 1984 Kizomba means                                                          "party" in Kimbundu, an Angolan language.

The origins of Kizomba can be traced to late-1970's Africa, with influences variably attributed to Angola. Kizomba is characterised by a slower, romantic, more sensuous rhythm than the traditional Angolan Semba dance.Kizomba music emerged as a more modern music genre with a sensual touch mixed with African rhythm and Haitian Compas. Most kizomba songs are sung in Portuguese.

Original influential music styles from Cape Verde are Funaná, Morna, Coladeira and Batuque. Thanks to the French Antilles Zouk music and the strong influence of semba (from Angola), Cape Verdean singers have developed significantly Kizomba and Zouk (mixing it with Coladeira) known as cabo love or cola-dance. Moreover, every lusophone country has developed its own Kizomba music flavour.

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Kizomba is known for having a slow, insistent, somewhat harsh yet sensuous rhythm as the result of electronic percussion. It is danced accompanied by a partner, very smoothly, slowly and sensuously, and with neither tightness nor rigidity. There are frequent simultaneous hip rotations coordinated between dance partners, particularly in the quieter refrains of the music. Several individuals with a love of the Kizomba culture have been promoting it in other countries

Zouk is a musical style originating from the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique and popularized by the French Antillean band Kassav' in the 1980's.[Very rapid in tempo, the style lost ground in the 1980's due to the strong presence of Compas / Kompa and Kadans, the main music of the French Antilles. Today, zouk is the French Antilles Compas (Kompa),also called Zouk-love.

The Creole word Zouke, Sekwe, or Zouke, etc. from the French verb Secouer meaning "shake intensely and repeatedly" was used by Haitian artists who toured the French Antilles during the late 1970's and 1980's.

The word Zouk has, over time, come to mean "party" or "festival" in the local Antillean Creole of French.

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Zouk was an attempt to develop a proper local music that would lessen or even eradicate the Meringue-Kadans or Compas influence from the French islands. When the MIDI technology came out, Kassav' used it fully, creating new sound in both their fast carnival beat and compas. The Antilleans were all over with Zouk but as other bands from the Caribbean and Africa added the MIDI technology to their music and people got used to it. Because it was a jump up beat the fast zouk béton faded away In the same 1980's and Antilleans would continue to play and dance meringue-cadence or Compas. After all, French Antilleans and Dominicans are important players of the style. However, the problem is that musicians from Martinique and Guadeloupe have calculatedly labeled Compas as Zouk in order to remain on the map (keeping in mind Compas was created in 1950 by Haitians); creating a big confusion in Africa, Cabo Verde, Angola, Brazil, Portugal and other places. Kassav', the originator of the Zouk béton, is a Compas music band that has taken Compas to many places, and is the only band that continues to include Zouk béton in its repertoire, though to a lesser extent.

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