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Frederlyn Mayora returns to Venezuela to sing Salsa Romántica to the dancing public.

Last Friday, April 22, at 7:00 p.m., a concert was presented at the Juana Sujo Hall of the Casa del Artista, in Quebrada Honda, Caracas. Tickets are already on sale at popular prices.

After several years out of the country, Venezuelan singer Frederlyn Mayora returns to Venezuela to relaunch his musical career and sing Salsa Romántica to Venezuelan dancers and music lovers.

Mayora, who has been part of the orchestras of Tony Vega, Maelo Ruiz, Jose Alberto “El Canario”, Luisito Carrion and Tito Nieves, among others, arrives in the country with a single called “Viernes Romantico” that promises to be a hit in a short time.

“I want everyone to know what I am doing and what I come to do in Venezuela”, said the singer who now has his own orchestra.

The singer will be in Venezuela until the end of his musical production loaded with romantic Salsa, ballads and merengues.

On April 1 and 2, Mayora offered a couple of concerts called “After Party de los Hermanos Primera”, that is to say, he performed in a well-known venue of the CCCT as soon as the presentation of the renowned singers Servando and Florentino was over, and it was a full house.

On Friday, April 8, at 4:00 pm, he will offer a press conference at the Doris Wells Hall of the Casa del Artista in order to announce in detail the entire agenda that he will fulfill on Venezuelan soil.

On Friday, April 22, he offered a concert at the Juana Sujo Hall of the Casa del Artista, located on Amador Bendayán Boulevard, Quebrada Honda, Caracas.

The event was scheduled for 7:00 pm. The occasion will be propitious to record a video click.

All Frederlyn Mayora’s events and presentations are in charge of her manager, Humberto Gonzalez, president of Producciones Salsayer.

A little bit of history

Frederlyn Alejandro Mayora Martínez, was born on July 27, 1982, in the populous Sucre Parish, west of Caracas, Venezuela.

He is a musician, singer and percussionist. At the age of 9 he began his musical studies, especially in percussion. He belonged to the estudiantina Héctor Pacheco and spent several years at the Bigott Foundation, where he received master classes with Professor Rodolfo González.

When Mayora turned 15 years old, he decided to focus his musical career as a singer and it is when the producer Humberto González, currently director of the Salsayer Orchestra, took him to sing in several salsa groups in Venezuela, among them, “Herencia”, “Neo Latino” and “El Combo Antillano”, among others.

In 2003 he moved to Spain, specifically to Galicia. There he became part of the orchestras “Panama”, “Filadelfia” and “Orquesta TV”, among others. His artistic commitments reached the beautiful city of Santander, located in the North of Spain, where he performed ballads, salsa and merengue.

In addition to the aforementioned orchestras, Frederlyn Mayora has been the lead voice in groups such as “Ekilibrio”, “La Junior”, “Mandinga Star Band”, “Puma Band”, “Patatín Orquesta” and the “Máquina de la Salsa” and has accompanied in the chorus, since 2002 to date, renowned singers such as “Maelo” Ruiz, José Alberto “El Canario”, Tony Vegas, Luisito Carrión and Charlie Aponte, former member of the Gran Combo de Puerto Rico.

Balance of the work carried out at the level of Social Media in Venezuela.

Publication of the Briefing

Noti-America (01-04-2022) Mexico

La Patilla (El Farandi) (02-04-2022) Venezuela

https://www.elfarandi.com/2022/03/30/briefing-vuelve-a-venezuela/

Notimundo (03-04-2022)

Press Conference

Day: Friday, April 8, 2022

Place: Doris Wells Hall of the Casa del Artista.

Attended by representatives from 10 media outlets and Instagram accounts. Examples: Venevisión, Portal La Patilla, Rumbas Venezuela, Intervez, Diario La Calle, Noticiero Digital, Analítica, El Universal, Tendencia Internacional and Radio Tiuna, among others.

Press releases published in digital media

Analitica.com (11-04-2022) Venezuela

https://www.analitica.com/emprendimiento/noti-tips/de-vuelta-al-barrio-toma-caracas-de-la-mano-del-salsero-frederlyn-mayora/

Tendencia Internacional (11-04-2022) Venezuela

https://www.tendenciainternacional.com/2022/04/11/de-vuelta-al-barrio-toma-caracas-de-la-mano-del-cantante-salsero-frederlyn-mayora/

Contraste Noticias Newspaper (12-04-2022) Venezuela

https://www.diariocontraste.com/2022/04/de-vuelta-al-barrio-toma-caracas-de-la-mano-del-salsero-frederlyn-mayora/

Vida y Arte (14-04-2022) Venezuela

http://www.vidayarte.com/farandula/cantante-salsero-frederlyn-mayora-esta-de-vuelta-al-barrio

Intervez (14-04-2022) Venezuela

Business and Destinations (15-04-2022) Venezuela

Cantante salsero Frederlyn Mayora regresa a Venezuela con “De vuelta al barrio”

La Calle Newspaper (17-04-2022) Venezuela

Mentions on Instagram accounts

@TendenciaInternalcional

@caracas_view

@augustofelibertt (Dj)

TV Programs, Portals and Radio

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Venevisión, Channel 4. Presentation in the program “Sábado Sensacional” on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary.

Thursday, April 7, 2022

Globovision, Channel 33. Interview

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Portal La Patilla. Interview. Broadcasted on April 20, 2022

Thursday, April 21, 2022

Program “Asi Suena”, Channel 8, with Rubén Jiménez. Broadcasted on Sunday 24-04-2022

Radio program 24-04-2022

“Ni tan Bravo”, with Isnardo Bravo. FM Center La Romántica 88.9 FM

This is a balance of the presence he has had in the media.

Wednesday, April 27, at 8:00 am, he was on Televen, Channel 10, in the program “Con lo actual”.

Sources

Salsayer Press Director: Yira Yoyotte, journalist. 0424-105-61-66. E-mail: [email protected]

Facebook: Frederlyn Mayora

Dislocados is a group from Ukraine that is taking Salsa to the whole world.

Dislocados Ukrainian Latin American band, exploded onto the Kyiv music scene as the Kiev Salsa Kings in November 2005.

Led by Ilya Yeresko, one of Ukraine’s most respected young pianists and composers, with – among others – Dennis Adu (named best jazz musician in Ukraine at the Dodj Competition 2009) they started playing in Kyiv’s best live music bars.

This first salsa band in Ukraine was soon joined by Karolina Patocki and Lesya Zdorovetskaya, finalizing the group’s vocal flavor, and now the 10-piece band has become a force to be reckoned with in the country.

Dislocados’ new name, literally translated as “dislocated”, plays on the crazy personality of the band, and the idea that the birth country of the musicians does not dictate their musical direction and expertise.

While continuing to perform three times a week to live audiences around Ukraine, on February 10th 2008, Dislocados made its world debut by being the first international Hard Salsa band aired on Hard Salsa Radio and on WHUT 91.9 FM in New York City with their promotional song “Resaca.”

Minutes after “Resaca” aired, emails poured in like wildfire from worldwide listeners asking for more information on this particular band from an unknown land, which led to Dislocados’ inclusion in Salsa Dura Mundial, a worldwide salsa compilation album out of New York from Latin Soul Records.

After gaining popularity in New York and Western Europe, Dislocados released the first salsa album to come out of Ukraine, with an intro written by salsa legend Andy Harlow, featuring ten original salsa tracks, inspired from Puerto Rico, New York, and Cuba.

Since its release, La Salida has enjoyed overwhelming international praise from top musicians such as Jimmy Bosch and Andy Harlow, promotion from top respected salsa review sites such as descarga.com and has led to the band’s inclusion in international salsa projects, such as the Summer Salsa Festival in Stockholm where the band played with Huey Dunbar, of DLG fame.

Dislocados’ internationally recognized top musicianship is now the vehicle by which they try to popularize the musical style of Hard Salsa in Ukraine in order to include their country among the list of top contenders for worldwide attention in the genre.

Awards:

Winner of the Independent Music Awards 2012 with Best Latin Song, ¨Como Tú¨.

Winner of the Independent Music Awards’ Vox Pop Award for Best Latin Album 2012, ¨Pasaporte Universal¨.

Winner of the Independent Music Awards’ Vox Pop Award for Best Holiday Song 2012, ¨Navidad en Heathrow¨.

Winner of the Independent Music Awards’ Vox Pop Award for Best Latin Song 2012, ¨Como Tú¨.

Winner of the Independent Music Awards’ Vox Pop Award for Best Latin Album 2011, ¨La Salida¨.

Facebook: Dislocados

Tromboranga Will Visit America And Europe With Their World Tour 2022

France, Norway, the Netherlands, and the United States will be some countries that will dance to the rhythm of Salsa Dura

Músicos: Joaquín Arteaga, Diego Coppinger, Freddy Ramos, Rafael “Madagascar” Arciniegas, Lorenzo “El diablo” Barriendos, Vladimir Peña, Albert Costa, Miguel Moises, Oriol Martínez, Climent Campa.

With the solid and unmistakable sound of the trombone & percussion sections and the strong influence on Salsa from the 60s and 70s, Tromboranga with their Hot Salsa will visit France (Festival Corazón Latino 2022 – Bordeaux), Norway (featuring the trombonist, Jimmy Bosch at Kafe Sync – Oslo), the Netherlands (Summer Breeze Latin Night 2022 – Amsterdam), Spain (Pamplona and Barcelona), the United States (The Great Colombian Festival Miramar – Florida), and Ecuador (Guayaquil ) with its World Tour 2022 from May to September.

The friendly musicians residing in Barcelona (Spain) will offer a series of performances to captivate Latin audiences in Europe and America to celebrate their tenth anniversary on the music scene.

The orchestra will play all their hits including Agua que va caer, Alabanciosa, Humildad, Mi china Colombiana, Ah Caraj, Palo pa’ la campana, Charrupi, Como la marea, Sangre sudor y Salsa, Esclavo de tu apariencia, Que linda que estás, likewise the nine unreleased songs from their album Te voy a contar, released to the Salsa scene in 2019.

Te voy a contar has the participation of the Jazz and Salsa master, the trombonist Jimmy Bosch in the song Te perdono. Oscar Hernández (the Spanish Harlem Orchestra leader and winner of several Grammy awards) arranged the Latin Jazz theme, Sal de la Cueva. In addition to this, Huracán no me tumbas (dedicated to the Island) was recorded in Puerto Rico, and they shared voices with one of their idols from the Fania All-Stars, Ismael Miranda.

The followers of Tromboranga call themselves “Salseros Tromborangueros”.

During the pandemic in 2020, Tromboranga http://www.tromboranga.com/en continued with their new record production Salsa Terapia. Melodies such as El cuero del tambor, Devuélveme mis discos, Pachanguera y El mundo al revés are part of this album that has gone viral in choreographies on social networks in addition to being reproduced as multimedia content by Latin radio stations around the world.

“Our success is the dedication and love in selecting the songs, most of them are my authorship, I carry out the general production and the concept of each album”, said the Venezuelan musician Joaquín Arteaga (Director of the orchestra and known for his extensive career as a percussionist and Timbales expert).

In 2021, this Salsa Dura orchestra released the single “Baila Africa” sharing with African artists such as Msaki (voice of the promotional theme) while they toured South Africa (2020). The authorship of this salsa melody was in charge of the leader of Tromboranga, Joaquín Arteaga.

Telling a little about their history, the orchestra made up of ten Latin and European musicians released their first studio album in April 2012 titled Salsa Dura, rated among the top ten of that year by DJs, dancers, and specialized bloggers of the genre.

The stellar and Sabrosa Salsa reunion will be from May to September.

In 2013, Tromboranga recorded Al Mal Tiempo Buena Salsa, rewarding them with their first international tour in Europe and Latin America. During that same year (November 2013), they released the Special Edition Vinyl “Solo para Coleccionistas Vol. 1” exclusive for 300 people.

The sum of the rest of their recordings reaches a total of five albums published in successive years: Como La Marea (2014), Sangre, Sudor Y Salsa (2015), Golpe Con Melodía (2015), Tumbando Fronteras (2017), Una Noche En Bangkok (2018).

Current news in the San Francisco Bay Area

What is happening now?

Tito Garcia-The Doctor of Salsa, the renowned colorful bandleader and timbalero of Tito Garcia y Orquesta Internacional passed away on Saturday, April 23rd after a long battle with cancer. Tito has performed Salsa and Charanga in the 1970’s with the seminal SF based bands Ritmo 74 and later Charanga Rene Del Mar. He later spearheaded the band “Orquesta Salsa Dulce” in the late 1980’s which morphed into the first edition of his band La International featuring a young Julio Bravo on coro in the early 1990’s. La Internacional were remembered for their explosive performances by dancers and aficionados.

Tito was a staple at the late, famed salsa palace Cafe Cocomo with his monthly “Mambo Saturdays” during the early 2000’s. I often was the DJ during those hot nights. His band featured fine musicians and vocalists such as former Batachanga vocalist Ricky Rangel, congueros Eddie Borrero and Sandy Perez of Los Muñequitos De Matanzas and keyboardist Coto Pincheira who relocated to New York.

Tito García had been fitghing against, cancer, which took his life at the end

Tito resurfaced after his bout with Cancer in 2020 to relaunch La Internacional but the comeback was short lived due to his health issues. He later hosted some outdoor rumba sessions near his new home of Vallejo but those dates were limited due to COVID restrictions. He relapsed during his recent trip to Costa Rica and died due to complications with his recovery. He will be sorely missed.

Don’t forget coming up on Friday, May 6th at 8 pm with be the tremendous Cuban music double bill of “El Tren De Cuba”…Los Van Van and Alexander Abreu y Havana d’Primera at the UC Theatre, 2036 University Avenue in Berkeley. Two of the powerhouses of Cuban Popular music are appearing together for the first time in the US and on only certain dates of the tour…SF Bay Area residents are blessed to have this double bill play here! DJ Antonio will spin in-between sets. I will be your MC for the evening. Run to get your tickets because they’re going fast! For more information, go to jaffeevents.com

Salsa superstar Oscar D’Leon and his orchestra will visit the SF Bay on Saturday, May 21 at Roccapulco, 3140 Mission St. in San Francisco. Oscar is still one of the dynamos to watch perform live…a tremendous show! Guayacan Orquesta from Colombia will also play on Friday, May 13 at the Mission Street hot spot. Also coming to Roccapulco Sat. June 11th…the Homenaje A La Musica Cubana featuring Mayito Rivera, Alain Perez, Yeny Valdes, Lily Hernandez “La Amaona” and Julio Cesar “JC Five” plus DJ Walt Digz (SF) and DJ Jimmy Rumba (LA) and on Thursday, July 7th…the explosive sounds of Pupy Y Los Que Son Son direct from Cuba.

Oscar D’ León will be in the San Frrancisco Bay Area on 21 May

SF JAZZ and the San Francisco Jazz Festival are featuring an impressive array of Salsa, Cuban and Latin Jazz starting Wednesday June 8 with Pacific Mambo Orchestra. Followed by Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Grammy nominee Aymee Nuviola 6/9; Chucho Valdes with Dianne Reeves and Joe Lovano 6/12; Changui Majadero 6/13, Danilo Perez Global Messengers 6/14; Issac Delgado’s Con Tumbao Project w/Miguel Zenon, Oscar Hernandez, Pedrito Martinez, Alain Perez, Tony Succar and more 6/18. SF JAZZ and Stanford University co-presents Eddie Palmieri and Arturo Sandoval at Stanford’s Frost Amphiteater on July 23. Info: www.sfjazz.org.

The Yerba Buena Gardens Festival will begin Saturday, May 7th from 1 to 2:30 pm with a free concert featuring local treasure Jesus Diaz y Su Habana Afro-Cuban Ensemble featuring a lineup of heavyweights from Cuba and the SF Bay including Ariacne Trujillo Duran, Leider Chappotin, Raul Pineda, Roberto Junior Vizcaino, Karl Perazzo, Jeff Cressman, Melecio Magdaluyo and Julio De La Cruz. The Yerba Buena Gardens is located on Mission Street between 3rd and 4th Streets in San Francisco. Visit ybgfestival.org for more information. There will also be an after party featuring Jesus Diaz and the Habana Afro-Cuban Ensemble and DJ Carlitos Way at the Elbo Room, 311 Broadway in Oakland.

The San Francisco Carnaval and much more

The annual Carnaval San Francisco is back on the streets of San Francisco on Sat, May 28 and Sun. May 29th with the theme Colores De Amor. The two day festival will take place on Harrison between 17th and 22nd Streets from 11 am to 6 pm. The grand parade will take place on Sunday, May 29th starting at 9:30 am on 24th and Byrant Streets. Scheduled to perform will be Jesus Diaz y Su QBA, Momotombo, Sambada, Javier Navarette & His Socially Distant Friends, Dos Four, Puro Bandido, Namorados da Lua, Annette Aguilar & West Coast Stringbeans, Susanna y Orquesta Adelante, Magna Fresq, Los Allegres Callejeros, Aqua Pura, Mariachi Juvenil, Azul Latino and more. Headliners TBA. Food, Beer, Crafts, DJ areas and Cannabis gardens on the grounds. Free! For more information: carnavalsanfrancisco.org.

There is a new Salsa scene happening on Thursdays starting May 12th at Charley’s LG, 15 N Santa Cruz Ave, Los Gatos presented by your friends at International Salsa Magazine. Opening night at this state of the art club will feature the swinging sounds of the multi-talented vocalist/conguero Edgardo Cambon and Candela. I, Luis Medina from KPFA/WSR and International Salsa Magazine will be your DJ. World Salsa Radio DJ El De La Clave will also be in the house. Dance lessons by Migi & Angel starts at 8:00 pm. Music starts at 9 pm. The upcoming schedule is the following: Julio Bravo and Salsabor 5/19, Manny Martinez and La Rebeldia 5/26 and the Charanga sounds of Orquesta La Moderna Tradición 6/2. Thursday nights just got hotter in the South Bay…be there!!

Edgardo Cambón at The Seahorse Restaurant, Sausalito

The Ramp at 855 Terry Francois Blvd in San Francisco continues to present Salsa orchestras on Saturday afternoons starting at 5 pm. The night is closed on June 7th for a private event, The Ramp’s first Salsa festival featuring 2 bands: Gary Flores y su orquesta Salsa Caliente and Eric Rangel and Orquesta America 5/14, The Latin Rhythm Boys 5/21 and Louie Romero and Mazacote on May 28th. DJ Mendy spins in-between sets and after the live music from 9 to 11 pm. The Ramp has a great patio overlooking the SF Bay and serves food and drinks.

The Seahorse located at 305 Harbor Drive in Sausalito features live music plus KPOO-KPFA DJ Jose Ruiz on Saturday and Sundays. Sat, April 30th features La Clave Del Blanco, Rene Escovedo Salsa Band with Ric Feliciano Sun 5/1; Edgardo Cambon & Candela Sun, 5/8; Orquesta Timbalero Sat, 5/14; Louie Romero & Mazacote Sun, 5/15; Susanna y Adelante Sat, 5/21; Orquesta La Original w/Alexis Guillen 5/22; Pepe Y Su Orquesta Sat. 5/28; and Orquesta Taino Sun. 5/29. Enjoy the fine Italian cuisine, beer, wine and ambiance both indoors and the outdoor patio at this scenic spot just crossing the bridge to Marin County.

The Cigar Bar, 850 Montgomery St. in San Francisco is a favorite spot to dine, have drinks, enjoy a cigar in the courtyard and dance to hot Salsa music. The calendar for May includes Manteca 5/6, Orquesta Timbalero 5/7, Somos El Son 5/13, Josh Jones Latin Jazz Ensemble 5/14, N’Rumba 5/20, Edgardo y Candela 5/21, Orquesta Taino 5/27 and La Clave Del Blanco 5/28.

René Escovedo will perform at the Seahorse Restaurant, Sausalito, on May 1

DJ Walt Digz has a hot Wednesday night Cuban scene “El Timbon” happening at the Slate Bar, 2925-16th Street in San Francisco. Digz also hosts his own livestream called “El Timbon” featuring the latest Timba, Cuban Salsa and Cubaton videos every Tuesday night from 7 to 9 pm on Twitch. He also keeps busy by hosting the monthly Fresquecito Saturday nights at La Furia Chalaca in Oakland and the outdoor El Timbon En El Callejon Sundays from 3 to 8 pm at Vida Cantina, 56 Belden Place in San Francisco. Digz also continues his original Friday La Tropi-Cal monthly at Il’ Pirata in SF with Añejo Productions now going on their 21st year!

Berkeley’s Ecology Center will present the Berkeley Farmer’s Market Salsa Festival on Saturday, May 21 from 10 am-5 pm. This free event will feature Christian Pepin and Orquesta Bembe, Afro-Cuban and Afro-Peruvian keyboardist Erick Peralta and Band, Berkeley High School Youth Ensemble and the Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble. Dance performance and Dance lessons by Rebecca Galindo. Food, crafts and more. For more information, visit www.ecologycenter.org.

Don’t forget to check out my radio programs: Con Sabor now in it’s 25th Anniversary Year on KPFA 94.1 FM every Saturday night from 9 to 11 PM PST and Sabiduria Con Tumbao every Wednesday night 5 to 7 pm PST on WorldSalsaRadio.com.

That’s it for this month! Ciao 4 now!

Cuban singer Daymé Arocena and her pride of being Afrocuban

This is our conversation

Here we are with Cuban artist Daymé Arocena who lives now in Canada. How are you, Daymé? Nice to meet you and great to have you here today.

Hello, nice to meet you. Thank you very much for the invitation. It is my pleasure to be here talking to you.

I understand that your musical career started at the age of eight. What made you start walking this path? What was the experience that made you make that decision?

I never made the decision to become a musician. I think it was part of the package. I never said that this is what I wanted to do because I’ve always done it. From the age of eight, my parents began taking me to music lessons and preparing me to came to the art and music school and the conservatory of music. I started singing with the choir in the community of 10 de octubre, where I came from. That’s how I started performing and getting up on stage as a soloist of a choir.

Daymé Arocena was born in Havana, Cuba

Considering that you come from a musical family and that music was always present at home, I imagine that also influenced your interest in making a career of it.

My family is profoundly musical, but they are not professional musicians. My dad is a music lover, but he is not a musician. My mother is a health care worker, qualified as a child cardiovascular surgeon. Actually, these are people who have a very nice sensibility for music, but they are not professionally dedicated to it.

I grew up in an intense environment. My house had many people; when I was born, there were already 22 people living at home, but some of them found more comfortable spaces to move and we became a family of 14. I was born in the 90’s, which was when the big crisis occurred and big power cuts were more frequent. There were electricitiy for very few moments during the day, so we couldn’t listen to the radio or TV. Then, my uncles and cousins kept singing, so I grew up watching the family sing and dance. In fact, several of my cousins today are folk musicians who went on to play in various traditional musical groups. It was a deeply spontaneous issue. I saw people enjoying and trying to alleviate the sufferings and shortages they were experiencing.

I imagine that musical and artistical growth in this context was very difficult. What challenges did you face in Cuba in becoming the artist you are today?

The mere fact of being born in Cuba is a challenge, but I had to face things beyond the fact that I was born on an island ruled by a dictatorial regime and all that that means. There was a lot of deep racism and a way to slyly to deal with social classes. For all these years, I have tried to purge my energy of resentment and pain caused by the situation and turn all these feelings into light and creativity. In my case, A lot of things happened like feeling uncomfortable in my own skin and not knowing how to deal with my skin color, my hair and my race. Today, I am deeply proud of my blackness and defend it to the death, but I went through a very hard and aggressive process before that.

The young and not so young prople have to know that you can make art and music through your own essence without having to please the eyes of a few.

So you would say that those things that were an obstacle are now part of your cover letter.

Totally. And proudly, too.

Daymé is deeply proud of her blackness

After leaving Cuba

When you left Cuba, what kind of support did you receive? What was the hardest moment?

Although I’ve spent years touring and working for years, I made the decision to leave Cuba a couple of years ago. I received a lot of international support that made my music visible, but it started playing long before I left my country. In Cuba, there is a control mechanism for artists consisting on a permit issued by the minister of culture to be able to practice that profession.

You can graduate from art school with full honors in the world, but that’s irrelevant because you graduate to be a music teacher, not a musician as such. In order to go on stage and get paid for your work, you need a permit issued by the Minister of Culture himself. To get it, you have to go through a lot of bureaucratic barriers such as commissions, auditions, among others. I didn’t have that permit to sing and profit from my singing when I met the record label that launched me as an artist. One day, I was singing in a deeply underground space without anyone’s permission. When I started to sneak into those spaces, my mom always told me to sing with energy because I never knew who was going to listen to me.

One day of those, a person named François Renié was watching me from the audience. This man was the creative director of the Havana Cultura platform. At that moment, they asked me to make a record with international DJs and singers. They invited me to do a casting, I showed up there, was selected and recorded the album despite not having permission to sing. When I was invited to the realease of the record in England, I showed them the music I Wrote and they offered me to sign with them officially.

You have been compared to Celia Cruz, Nina Simone and other artists of this stature because of your style, what do you have to say?

I had no idea who Celia Cruz was and it’s something I’m ashamed of. When I was compared with Celia Cruz, I wondered who she was. I think I really knew her following those comparisons.

Daymé thinks new generations have to know who Celia Cruz was

I think it has to do with that idea of homogenizing Cuban music into one thing. It was when I was compared with Celia that I started to find out about her and knew that she was the most universal of Cuban artists. She had a phenomenal way of petforming, transmitting, impacting and being as authentic. Musicians who do have access to Celia must do their utmost to let the new generations know who she was. If they can’t listen to her on the radio or TV, they can go online to listen to her and find out who La Guarachera de Cuba was.

How do you think Canadians perceive your music?

I have done very few concerts in Canada as a soloist. In fact, I’m not even there at the moment, but in Puerto Rico. I can’t provide an overview of how Canadians perceive me, but I do think that they are super friendly, docile and open to all kinds of music. They appreciate, dance and enjoy whatever you play. I must thank my ancestors for the expansion of my music beyond the Canadian framework, so I don’t rely on that market for a living.

Do you plan to stay in Puerto Rico permanently?

I came to Puerto Rico to record my next album. I’m super happy and honored to be able to do it on this island so similar to mine because it has so much culture and colorful art. Here, I found the industrialization and visibility that Cuba doesn’t have. I still don’t know if I’m going to stay here for the rest of my life, since Canada enters into my plans in some way, but this is the stage I must live now.

Daymé Arocena is now living in Puerto Rico and recording her new album