Buena Fe, hugely popular all over Cuba and known for their heart felt anthems, said on their facebook page in advance of the concert that it would be a concert for emotion, laughing, memories, dancing, singing and to set up bridges of unity.Singer Israel Rojas, who leads the duet along with Yoel Martinez, said that the worst thing that could happen is that they could end voiceless as consequence of the flu, but he was in perfect health and ready to sing.The concert, attended by thousands of fans in Miami, faced the pressure by local extremist anti-Cuba circles, but authorities said no law prevented them from giving their concert.
Local media Miami Herald reported objections to the concert on the basis Buena Fe were pro-Cuban government and had performed at Fidel Castro's birthday party in 2011.
OnCuba magazine reported interviewing Israel Rojas before the show about his politics
"Everyone has some political position, some with more participation, others less. I simply make my songs, and my main political activism is in them. Of course I have an active participation in the society in which I live in my neighborhood, with my colleagues, with my family.
But I'm not exactly a politician; I just do not do that. I do not make my living doing politics as a profession. Nor am I an apolitical, not someone who flees to the term. I am part of a society that cannot escape politics as any other society.
The problem is not in politics itself, but the positions taken in a city like Miami, where the media are quite aggressive in approaching at the time of addressing trends and painting things as good and bad, as if they could paint world into good and bad, with no gray.
In Miami they only see you with good eyes those media and those groups who hear you say what they want to hear. And every day I have more desire to say what they do not want to hear. Because every time you say what you think they say you are a slave to someone that preconditions you. I say what I think. If tomorrow I change my feeling, I'll say it too.
Because it cannot be that every time you say something in favor of things in this country, you're wrong. I am part of the best of this country. I'm not the worst part. And for some in Miami, all I try to be part of the best, what exalts, what builds, is seen, unfortunately, as the enemy of the good ideas, of affection, of love.
As somebody said "what others think of me, it's their problem." I do my job and I'm doing really well here. It must there be a reason for us to have an audience that respects us, that loves us, goes to concerts and learns the lyrics.
There is another audience that does not like our work, that disqualifies us that do not share our aesthetic. And we respect this audience."
See the video below of Buena Fe performing 'CubaVa' in Miami.
Meanwhile Issac Delgado, hugely popular Cuban timba/salsa singer of the '90s in Cuba, who left to live and make music in Florida and Puerto Rico in 2006, returned to Havana this July. Last week he performed in the big high profile multi arts festival 'Habanarte'.
Issac Delgado, known as "El Chevere de la Salsa", decided to return to his native land permanently and is discreetly seeking to get back into the national music scene.
The artist said that he has begun to "insert myself slowly again in Cuba, after 8 years away. Through EGREM and the Musicuba agency I'm performing in different spaces while maintaining several international commitments."
The singer already has a concert orchestra, conducted by Maestro Germán Velazco, with whom he has been preparing a whole new repertoire, including a promotional recording. "Later we will record a video that should be ready for the last quarter of the year."
Extract from OnCuba report:
Reminded that the Cuban music scene missed him, Delgado corrected us when he said, "No, it is me who needed the Cuban scene and have received the love from people, many musicians, orchestra directors and people. You realize that they receive you with much love and affection. I will feel part of the people, "he said.
Reports from OnCuba magazine, Havana Times, Miami Herald and Cuban News Agency
Cuba 50 