Juanes will sing in Cuba for peace

Megaconcert is set for Sept. 20

By Michel Hernández
michelher@granma.cip.cu

From Granma

Colombian singer Juanes, an icon of Latin pop rock, will give a concert in Havana on Sept. 20, the Cuban Institute of Music (ICM) announced.

In a statement to Granma, Osmany López, vice president of ICM, said the popular singer, winner of five Latin Grammys in 2008 for his record La Vida Es un Ratico, “is greatly enthused” about this performance, whose main theme will be peace. The show’s symbolic element is the color white. Several Latin American artists, still to be named, will be invited to appear.

The author of songs like La Camisa Negra, Día Normal, and Sangre, will be accompanied by troubadour Silvio Rodríguez and Los Van Van, with whom he’ll share a stage on a public square still be to selected, López said.

Susana Llorente, the ICM’s director for international relations, said the idea of performing in Cuba was proposed by Juanes himself. “He submitted the project to us and we accepted it with great interest,” she said.

“Juanes has expressed great joy about singing to the Cuban people and presenting a concert in our country devoted completely to peace. He wants it to be a concert that manifests solidarity, love and affection,” she added.

Juan Esteban Aristizábal, 36, better known as Juanes, visited the Cuban capital in June. Here, he met with Silvio Rodríguez, toured the streets in Havana’s historic district and met with officials of the Cuban Institute of Music.

Last year, Juanes, the creator of the Mi Sangre Foundation, which looks after victims of the conflict in Colombia, gave a concert called “Peace Without Borders,” on the frontier between his country and Venezuela. He was accompanied by artists of international resonance such as Juan Luis Guerra, Miguel Bosé, Ricardo Montaner, Carlos Vives and Franco de Vita, some of whom might be with him in this performance, which will begin at 5:00 p.m. and will last about two hours.

A few days ago, the singer-composer said he wanted to dedicate the concert to the World Peace Day on Sept. 21, because “it is just in that framework that we want to go to Cuba, to celebrate it there.”