Dancehall act Sean Paul is among the acts named for Cuba’s first musical festival organised by a United States entity since the two rekindled diplomatic relations in 2014.
Sean Paul, Cuban singer Pablo Milanés, Cuban band Los Van Van, and other artistes have been named for the event being put together by the New York-based Musicabana Foundation, which announced this week that it will host a four-day festival in Havana in May. The festival will bring together musicians from Cuba, Jamaica, Brazil, France, Cape Verde and the United States. That will include the Jamaican rapper.
Musicabana’s founder, Cuban-born producer Fabien Pisani, is quoted in USA Today as saying he got the idea from concerts he went to while growing up in Havana. He said those stopped after the collapse of the Soviet Union plunged Cuba into an economic depression, which left the island’s finances in tatters and Cubans unable to put together such elaborate shows.
Fabien Pisani
Pisani hopes the concert will revive the idea of the music festival in Cuba and re-establish Havana as the cultural centre of the Caribbean.
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