Cubadisco 2025 presented its awards this May to the best productions of the Cuban music industry for the year.
The Grand Prize went to Rodrigo Sosa, while Issac Delgado was the most awarded artist. Liuba María Hevia won the Artistic Mastery Award.
The Argentinian quena (Andean flute) player based in Cuba Rodrigo Sosa received the Cubadisco 2025 Grand Prize for his album Olokun, on which he shares musical production with Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca.
Sosa said that this award for him represents his many years of work. “It is inevitable not to look back and remember the boy who was 12 years old and played the quena, to remember my family, my town and everything I have gone through on this path,” said the artist.
The album was also awarded in the categories of ‘Vocal Instrumental’ and ‘Liner Notes’, for the text by Joaquín Borges Triana.
The Artistic Mastery Award went to the singer-songwriter Liuba Maria Hevia, for her album Canciones que no se extraviaron. Upon receiving the award, the artist thanked the contest that has awarded 16 of her albums throughout her career.
Issac Delgado was the most awarded artist of the night, receiving the Music Producer award, one of the most important awards of the year.
The singer, composer and producer presented this year the album 100 años de la Sonora Matancera, which won in the categories ‘Traditional Varied’ and ‘Controlled Ambient Sound Design’; and received special recognition from the National Museum of Music for the work in rescuing the music of Sonora Matancera, one of the groups most responsible for taking Cuban musical identity to an international stage.
Also watch the video: Making of the album 100 años de la Sonora Matancera
For the first time, an award was given to ‘New Music Producer’, which went to pianist Rodrigo García, who held the most nominations with three record productions in competition. The pianist also won the prize for Best Full-Length Video for the DVD Confluencia de pianos 2 under the direction of José Manuel García.
Among the other most awarded productions and artists were the singer-songwriter Amaury Pérez, the group Estrellas de Buena Vista and the duo Los Hermanos Abreu.
Amaury Pérez was the winner in the Trova and Trova Concertante categories with his albums Los Dúos 1 and 2 and Amaury Sinfónico, respectively.
The group, Estrellas de Buena Vista, that defends traditional Cuban music and the legacy of the emblematic Buena Vista Social Club, won the awards for ‘Son tradition’ and ‘Non-controlled Ambient Sound Design’ for the album Live in Havana.
The album Tributes: Jazzeando a lo cubano, by young duo Los Hermanos Abreu, won the award for ‘First Work’ and ‘Musicological Notes’, co-produced by the musicologist Neris González Bello.
Among the artists and groups that received awards in more than 40 categories this year are names with a long history such as the National Folkloric Choir (Coro Folklorico Nacional de Cuba), the Ars Nova Early Music Ensemble, the Lyceum Orchestra of Havana, Joaquín Betancourt, the pianists Rolando Luna and Víctor Rodríguez, David Álvarez, Histéresis and Telmary; and also many other young people who are beginning to carve out an important place in the Cuban music scene such as Fito del Río, Enid Rosales, Cristopher Simpson, Jailen Salgado, Zafkiel KBN, Linn Fernández, Lady Laura and Annys Batista.
National Folkloric Choir won the ‘Heritage music in the Rumba and ritual tradition’ award for the album Soy descendiente. This is a live performance by Coro Folklorico Nacional de Cuba.
Telmary received an award for the album Espiritu con Sentimiento in the category ‘Alternative Fusion’.
One of the most anticipated prizes each year and with the greatest competition, the Dance Music Award, was this year given to the album Presente! by Maykel Blanco y Salsa Mayor, who won it for the first time despite their longterm popular success on the island.
Another striking moment was the awarding of the prize in the ‘Single’ category for the song Silencio by Velito el Bufón with timba superstar Alexander Abreu.
When collecting the award, Velito said that it was the first time that a reparto artist has been awarded at Cubadisco. “Reparto is the music controlling the streets and you can’t fight it,” said the artist.
Cubadisco 2025 also presented 12 Prizes of Honour to important Cuban and foreign groups and artists and six Special Awards, and the international award to 8 record productions and two albums resulting from the collaboration between Cuban and foreign artists.
The awards gala also paid tribute to four greats of Cuban music who died in the last year: Marta Valdés, Edesio Alejandro, Paulo FG and Eduardo Sosa.
The documentary Oriki por Bola de Nieve – directed by Lourdes de los Santos and produced by Francisco Álvarez under the joint label of ICAIC and EGREM – received Cubadisco 2025 award in the video category. Ignacio Jacinto Villa Fernández known as Bola de Nieve (1911 – 1971), was a famous black, gay, Cuban jazz singer-pianist and songwriter. Oriki refers to the Yoruba tradition of praise.
Cubadisco 2025, the main event of the Cuban recording industry, took place from May 12 to 19 with the awards presented on May 21. This 29th edition of the festival included concerts, conferences and activities across the island. This year’s festival was dedicated to the Cuban musical form bolero, which was declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2023.
Only music and video productions licensed by a record company or cultural institution can be submitted, this year 204 works were presented and produced a total of 141 nominations in 35 categories that are grouped into 10 competitive areas. In addition there are Special Awards, the International Collaboration and International Award.
This year the jury included specialists, creators and producers from Santiago de Cuba, Camagüey, Guantánamo, the Isle of Youth, Matanzas and Havana, and members of UNEAC, AHS and the national and provincial centres for music.
Cary Diez, president of the Award Committee, said: “Cubadisco is a party, but it is also an act to provoke deep reflections. The Prize is one of the spaces that offers us that possibility. It guides us to think about the health of Cuban music, it presents a reality that makes us think and gives us real evidence of where our time is going, what our impulses are and where our decisions can take us when we focus our gaze on areas where quality and knowledge meet, where the high points of our music enhance the prestige of traditions, and when there are expressions of great immediate popularity that do not make an imprint on cultural heritage.”
This report takes content from two original reports about CubaDisco by OnCuba here about Winners and about Nominees
Cuba 50 
You must be logged in to post a comment.