A colleague recently wrote that Cuerda Viva, more than a television program or a festival, is a launching pad for young Cuban talent.
For 19 years they have been demonstrating it and the 2021 edition of the contest, recently completed, is full of examples: new faces, brand new, with diverse proposals and as young as the creators themselves, took Pabexpo by storm during the filming days of the galas that will soon be broadcast on Cuban Television.
The awards have already been announced. A jury chaired by the expert Carlos Fornés selected from the good, the best in each category of the contest, while the public also made their choice.
The Shepal was the most popular band and received the Egrem award, which consists of making a video clip and promoting their music on this label. The joy with which The Shepal received this award, we have it first hand thanks to the alliance between CubaSí and the Cuerda Viva team:
Norberto Carbajal is the director of the group that has achieved number 1 in the public’s preference. Merging various genres such as rock, indie, funk and ballad has been his bet in recent years. This time, with the theme Oil, they also won the category of Pop.
From this year’s Agrupación Novel we already had exclusive statements in Cuba Yes, it is the VANFEX duo (Vanessa Expósito and Félix Sotolongo). On the theme that led them to the contest, Blue Hell, Vanessa commented:
“It is a song that has brought us many joys, it is dedicated to that youthful love and that way of projecting ourselves as young people, of believing in what we do, a blue hell because everything has its color and everything has its nuances”.
In the ROCK category the award went to the SOMOS PROJECT with the theme Windmills, meanwhile SALOMA took home the METAL trophy with Dragon’s fire.
CONTEMPORARY SONG was for While, from Km 0. In JAZZ, ROBERTO GARCÍA Y SU LATIN WAY triumphed with Calypso and in the ALTERNATIVE music category, TOPOP won with the song Me fatten.
DJ DHANY G. with Momo, was awarded in ELECTRONIC MUSIC; LANDO LAVARRA rapped “I will remember you” and took the palms in HIP HOP. Amores, by CELESTINO ESQUERRÉ won in the TROVA section and We are at war, by OMAR VALI in URBAN music.
The section for COVERS AND VERSIONS was for LOS LOCOS TRISTES with Héroes del Silencio and that of POP ROCK for CHRISTOPHER SIMPSON & ELEVACION by different.
Annie Garcés was awarded in the TROPICAL category, in REGGAE the DUO 7SELLOS and EL MUNDO DE SOFIA in INSTRUMENTAL, meanwhile the FLAMENCO award was in the hands of MAYTE SEGURA Y CUBANDALUZ for the song Let us save love.
Collaterals …
The group EJASI competed in Cuerda Viva with a song that went out of their comfort zone, musically different from what they usually do, but life led them to Sera, a song inspired by the hard moments of the pandemic although its author, vocalist and leader of the band, this song began to haunt him before:
“In March, COVID arrived in Cuba and in January I had started to write a song that at that time apparently did not make sense and already in the middle of the pandemic it was that I ended it, when I began not to see my friends, everything closed, families devastated because they lost loved ones and then it is a call for calm, because in the end all that had to end and look, it seems that yes, it is already happening. “
As it turns out, in addition to hopes and strength, Will brought them a special award dedicated to the subject of COVID in this edition of the Cuerda Viva festival.
As for the rest of the collaterals, the AHS recognized the work of BOCARRIBA, the Campaign join KIALO and Pista Cubana awarded the ALTERNATE ANGLE theme.
End and beginning …
Here the general director Ana Rabasa and her team closed a cycle, but at the same time a new stage is open in which to continue playing the alternative string, the youngest string in Cuban music.
That there is space and a voice for everyone has been one of the merits, that the new ones dream of vibrating on that string and that many have seen themselves grow on it is another indisputable reason to celebrate the first 20 years of Cuerda Viva in 2022.
