As the U.S. and Cuba re-establish diplomatic relations, Latin music execs are scouting the island for crossover hits.

Ivan Giroud, president of the Havana Film Festival (3-13 December 2015, Havana) is now considered one of the most qualified specialists in Latin American Cinema.

NEW YORK — In 1973, a group of mostly classically trained musicians formed a band that changed the direction of Cuba's music and reached the American mainstream for the first time since the U.S. had severed diplomatic ties with the government of Fidel Castro in 1962. With a virtuoso technique, the group smashed together an explosive mix of traditional Cuban influences, Afro-Cuban rhythms, funk, jazz rock and classical.

"This is the time for curiosity and for skepticism, for openness and for critical thinking, for inspiration and for action" announces the spot promoting the TEDx festivals. This event comes to Cuba for the second time in its edition Futurisla with the purpose to facilitate a world communication about a shared future, and it is created from TED (technology, entertainment and design), a non-profit organization dedicated to those ideas that are worth to be spread.

At last! A serious analysis in English, not just of what Cuba did to put culture at the centre of its revolution more than 50 years ago, but also with the valid aim of looking at what we, outside of Cuba and in particular in Britain, could learn from it. A British academic, Gordon-Nesbitt believes that the value of art begins with the actual experience of culture and the arts rather than some of the effects such as the art market and the wealth potential of the ‘creative industries’, unlike the policies of past and present Tory governments. Withdrawing the state from the arts and encouraging market forces to dictate our own culture, erodes the idea of art as essential to society.

Writer, critic and painter Pedro de Oraá has been awarded the National Fine Arts Award 2015, granted each year in Cuba to an outstanding creator for the lifetime achievement.

On 27 October the US General Assembly voted on the resolution against the blockade by the US against Cuba: 191 votes for the resolution, 2 votes (USA and Israel) against. No abstentions for the first time ever, but the blockade largely remains in place despite the talks since 17 December 2014.

The programme for the first Havana-Glasgow Film Festival includes film screenings at Glasgow Film Theatre and Gilmore Hill including UK premieres, Q&A talks with Cuban filmmakers, and is linked with a book launch at the CCA and other events.

Watch this video clip for the song 'Juntemonos' (Let's get together) by Team Cuba de la Rumba. How many stars do you recognise? Enjoy!

The Cuban singer Silvio Rodriguez gave this interview in the same week in September that he was celebrating the fifth anniversary of his tour of free concerts for the poorest neighbourhoods in Cuba. Silvio reflects on the challenges which Cuba faces in its relations with the United States; he analyses the challenges of Cuban culture in the face of economic reforms which are being developed in the country; he makes an impassioned defence of poetry and expresses his desire to make a tour of Spain after 9 years of absence from Spanish stages.

Cuban musicians Alain Pérez and Iván "Melón" Lewis , along with the Septeto Santiaguero, were nominated last week for the 2015 Latin Grammy Awards, convened annually by the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences of the United States.
This contest, the most important of the Iberian-American sound context, showed in its nominations for this 16th edition some of the island's instrumentalists and composers with great reputation in the international market.
Iván "Melón" Lewis, a pianist, a composer and a jazz musician of exceptional caliber, stood out for his nominations in the categories of Best New Artist and Best Latin Jazz Album, with the piece Ayer y hoy, under the label of Cezanne Productions.
In the category of Best Traditional Tropical Album, he mentioned, among proposals for the award, the discs Tributo a Los Compadres, No quiero llanto and El alma del son – Tributo a Matamoros, by Josè Alberto, El Canario, & the Septeto Santiaguero and Alain Pérez, respectively.
The first of these albums was recorded by the label Los Canarios and the second one by Warner Music Spain S.L. / Peermusic.
Finally, in the sections devoted to audiovisuals, the video clip Ojos color sol, a theme featuring Calle 13 with Silvio Rodríguez, was nominated in Best Short Form Music Video.
Mexican singers Leonel García and Natalia Lafourcade lead with six and five nominations each the nominations for the Grammy Awards of Iberian American music in the United States, followed by Dominican singer Juan Luis Guerra and Spanish musician Alejandro Sanz, who will compete in four categories including Album and Recording of the Year.

From 25th September until 18th October the theatres in the Cuban capital will celebrate the ‘Human Voices' (Las Voces Humanas/Les Voix Humaines) festival.
Organised by the office of maestro Leo Brouwer, the event aims to give the opportunity for different voices from all over the world to come together in a call for peace and to take care of the environment. It will include more than 30 foreign and national groups, together in a remix in homage to the grandees of popular song.

Raisa Valdivia Hernandez is a passionate Catholic who regularly attends Mass. But she is also a "santera," a practitioner of the Yoruba faith that slaves brought to Cuba from their native Africa centuries ago.

The Cuban Recordings and Musical Editions Company (EGREM by its Spanish acronym) and its American counterpart Sony Music Entertainment signed in Havana on 16 September contracts for large-scale international distribution of Cuban music, including the catalog of this national label.

Watch this poetic short film 'Ensayo sobre lo fluide' (an essay on fluidity) by Hector Zamora for this year's Havana Art Biennial about a performance project at the Havana art school 1960s amazing buildings with composer Wilma Alba.