The most important popular music orchestra in Cuba, Formell and Los Van Van, offered a concert this Sunday, December 21, at the Karl Marx, the theater with the largest capacity on the island, and where the group had not performed for more than 15 years.
The Van Van gave a successful and successful concert. For this occasion, the group prepared an extremely select repertoire that sought to please its followers of all times.
“Since the 70s I have been going up and down, and I still love you,” says “Al Paso”, one of their songs that is a hit for the group in the last decade, and that very well describes what was experienced in this concert, a tour of great hits from all their train eras, demonstrating above all that it is impossible for them to go out of style.
The concert was the closing of the Bis Music Fest and the excuse to organize it was the launch of VirusVan Van’s new album that updates and brings back eight anthological songs from the orchestra.
Samuel Formell: “We needed to make an album like this, and I think we achieved it”
Some of the singles that make it up were part of this presentation and at the same time perfectly integrated the sense of giving the public a comprehensive look at what these 56 years of song have been.
The guests marked this same consistency. On the one hand, Pedrito Calvo, the living image of the vanvanera tradition, performing “She has something that I don’t know” and provoking debauchery with his megahit “El negro estar cooking.”
On the other, Wampi to perform with Van Van, for the first time live, the song “Chacha”, which is part of his album “El rey de La Habana”, and which shows how songo also combines with the most current trends in Cuban music.
Despite all the musical excellence, the mastery to which Van Van has accustomed us on any stage he steps on, the true protagonist of the night was the audience.
The five thousand people who on the Tuesday before the concert lined up early in the morning and in the rain to purchase their tickets made it possible for the entire capacity of the theater to be sold out in just six hours, which is marked as another milestone of this presentation and a great proof of popularity for the orchestra.
Mostly dancers who, from the little space left in their seats, or taking the aisles, received the energy that the train sent from the scene and multiplied it until it became euphoria and passion.
But most importantly, all generations of Cubans were represented this Sunday at the Karl Marx, demonstrating that Van Van is from the Cuban family, and that his music has many meanings for this people, who to begin with, have long considered him part of what we call “Cubanness.”
