MADRID, Spain.- The Cuban comedian and actor Alexis Valdés premiered the song “Mi Isla Bella”, together with the singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés (1943-2022) and his daughter, Haydee Milanes.
When sharing the song this Thursday on YouTube, Valdés referred to this collaboration as “a miracle, something magical.”
“When I was singing it in my head I felt that I had to write some new verses, and I imagined that Pablo should be there, that the voice, style and greatness of Pablo Milanés would be the ideal climax for the song,” he explained.
He specified that originally, the theme was planned only with him and Haydée Milanés, but when he sent it to Pablo with the new verses, he liked them a lot.
“When they sent me their recorded part, I was shocked,” he said about this, one of the last works of the renowned musician, who died last November.
The day before, when announcing the premiere of the theme, the theater director had also said from his account on instagram: “As you will understand, it is a wonderful project for me. Something I am deeply proud of. I want you to listen to this song that will stay in your hearts”.
He also commented that “Mi Isla Bella” is a song to our land, full of emotion and nostalgia where he tried to express those strong feelings that many feel.
“I am from a colonial balcony, I am from a kiss and a memory, I am from a doorway chair,/ where my dead await me./ I am from there I am from there/ from my beautiful island./ My beautiful island/ my big house/ my long footprints from so much walking./ My old photos/ my sea of foam/ My beautiful island/ My beautiful island/ I miss you… Cuba”, says a fragment of the song.
“My Beautiful Island”, Haydée’s latest work with her father
“Alexis invited my father and me to collaborate with him on this song, and what we did not imagine was that this would be the last time we would unite our voices to sing,” said Haydée Milanés this Thursday when announcing the song’s premiere. in their social networks.
The singer also pointed out that the song “talks about feelings that affect every Cuban; the love for our island, its colors, the memory of our experiences, our customs, our childhood games. But this song also talks about the feeling and the most heartbreaking fact of all, that of not being able to return to your land”.
“I did not think that the day I saw the video of @karollwilliam It would be the day we said goodbye forever. I get a lump in my throat when her voice enters, that voice that seems like a heart that sings to you. I keep thinking when I hear “I miss you, Cuba”, the last phrase that we curiously sing; what a deep feeling, so personal and at the same time so widespread throughout the world… I did not think when we recorded this song that its text would make so much sense to me”, were other of her moving words.
Pablo Milanés, one of the founders of Nueva Trova, passed away in Spain on November 22, 2022 at 79 years of age. Among the great songs that Pablo Milanés left to music are “Yolanda”, “To live”, “Don’t ask me”, “Poor singer”, “I will step on the streets again” and “The brief space in which you are not ”.
