She is a favorite in La Voz Kids Uruguay. She is Cuban. She is a girl. She has a voice that reverberates the stage and excites. For this reason, her mother does not understand in the networks the hate of some profiles that have decided to “break” the magic of this moment.
Saidys Calzado has reached the final! She, the 15-year-old Celia Cruz! The Uruguay’s biggest sauce boat Got Talent now in another talent show 4 thousand miles from your country!
What did you think about participating in La Voz Kids Uruguay?
In Cuba this program is very famous and I watched it since I was little. I never imagined being here, nor singing on a stage like this. This has been an unforgettable experience.
And when they told me that I was staying to participate, we formed a riot in the house. I don’t even know how they didn’t kick us out of the cooperative.
***
Saidys arrived from Cuba 5 years ago, crossing borders with her grandparents. She now lives in Cerro de Montevideo, an independent town where many immigrants live; in a community that her mother was able to help build from the ground up.
They tell me that he has not studied in a music academy, neither in Cuba nor in Uruguay. It is his grandmother who has the heavy hand in that education, they say. And everyone laughs because he is relentless.
How was the process? Tell us about La Voz Kids inside, about what we cannot see and what you have had the joy of living.
It is very, very, very fun and exciting too, because as you laugh with the participants, you see how they leave. We auditioned 60 in total and now we are eight finalists. And you make friends there and it’s quite sad to know that they have to leave.
How have the coaches and participants welcomed the Cuban woman?
So far so good, everyone gets along very well with me. There is no competition. Nor that you are better than me. On the contrary. We spent our time singing in rehearsals. Very good.
***
When Saidys talks about the scenarios, about what she is experiencing, she expresses the emotion with her eyes. Her innocence ignores—or she seems to ignore—the concerns of her mother, Saima Reyes.
Concerns about haters who are looking for her, who never get tired, who have proposed, among other things, that she return to Cuba: ‘Let’s vote no to Saidys’. ‘A Uruguayan wins in La Voz Kids Uruguay’. ‘You are going to ruin your daughter.’ “We have a campaign so that she does not win.” ‘Saidy is not a girl.’
For Saima it is very difficult for the teenager to be exposed to the networks. She confesses that they are not ready to assimilate that such people can exist. She tries to protect her. And although it is difficult, she transmits security: in that woman there is a lot of strength.
Saidys sees the glass completely full: he only cares about his music and his friends. And that unconditionality is reciprocal, according to what she tells me.
When choosing the songs… How is it? Do you associate with Caribbean genres?
I was on Got Talent and I sang only salsa there. Then they explained to us that the production of La Voz Kids was looking for another side of me, to show that I could sing another type of genre.
So, now they chose me ballads in English by Beyonce, Andra Day, that type of singers… Now my favorite song is “Rice up”, by Andra Day.
***
Uruguay Got Talent was his debut, at just 12 years old. She made it to the semifinal as well. The Uruguayan public already recognizes her, applauds her, bets on her, sees in her Cubanita a face that promises her.
“Got Talent was another great experience. I was 12 years old nothing more. What was I to know that two years after arriving from Cuba I was going to be in a scenario like that?
“And it was pure emotion too, pure emotion. After that, imagine, I started with 12 subscribers on Instagram and came out with 1,800. Unbelievable. People on the street told me: ‘are you the Cuban from Got Talent?’, ‘how beautiful you are’… They asked me for photos. I felt like Beyonce, really.
What has been the most difficult thing for you to assume on stage?
I think that for me the most difficult thing so far has been to have more confidence in myself. Because many times I know what I am capable of doing but I feel self-conscious.
The producers encourage me and tell me: ‘come on, Saidys, you can do it’. ‘You already went through that on Got Talent’, ‘Trust it, believe it more’. Because most of them are from Got Talent and they know me.
And the easiest thing has been to enjoy it because it is inevitable not to enjoy Voz Kids Uruguay.
***
“Do you know that there are many people who see you in Cuba? No?” I assure him. And I tell him about the package. Also, how Cubans on the island are aware of what happens beyond their borders and the pride that overwhelms us all when she represents our homeland on stage.
He laughs a lot and says that he can imagine. That her father has shown the videos to everyone there.
“I thank you, because even though you cannot vote for me from Cuba, you are also supporting me: many share my Facebook posts. For this reason, I want to send a greeting to the entire Cuban community”.
It is very easy to empathize with this girl. Not because the countrymen are apprehensive with everything that smells of Cuba. She has charisma and enormous talent. Saidys has nobility and the gift of music and entertainment. She has a bomb and can’t hide it.
But some people in these virtual worlds are implacable in the face of the victories of the emigrants. They ignore that behind this show there are no passports or homelands, only children with dreams and opportunities. Children.
I commit to Saidys to publish their Voice presentations on my networks. I tell her that in our community we are going to put all our energies into her show this Monday. And I predict that we will receive her call with the best of news, even if it is not so necessary, because we already have it.
