Laritza Bacallao is a talented singer who conquered the Cuban public a few years ago with a big hit that put her overnight on the map of the national music scene. Titled “Que suenen los tambores” (Let the drums play), the single invited her fellow Cubans to enjoy themselves and dance to the beat of the drum, as a way to forget their misfortunes.
An emerging star, Bacallao has just returned from a tour of Europe, after performing in the United States, and is getting ready for a big concert for what she called her “natural public”: Cubans. The concert will take place on September 4th, at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana.
The show will be directed by Rudy Mora, and will feature performing companies like Free Dance and PMM, and singers Candido Fabre and JG, who will join Bacallao in her interpretation of “Hello baby,” one of the most popular songs in local radio stations right now.
“There’s going to be a lot of positive energy and happiness there that day because that is what we want to convey to the public,” said Bacallao, who will also be using the occasion to launch her new disc, “You only live once,” recorded with Planet Records, and that is to be distributed in Cuba by the EGREM record label.
The new disc is built around the message that has made Bacallao popular: “Enjoy life and always look forward to better times.”
Although her beginnings are linked to traditional genres, today Bacallao likes mixing Caribbean rhythms, such as merengue, bachata and rumba.
Her repertoire includes singles by renowned Cuban composers, like Descemer Bueno and Osmany Espinosa.
She started as a singer at a national radio station called Radio Progreso, where she had the opportunity to perform with some of the biggest bands of traditional music, such as Sensacion and Aragon. It was with the latter that she recorded her first disc, in which she was introduced as “The Princess of Cha cha cha.”
“That’s when I started going on tours. I performed in a big concert in Japan, along with other important Cuban musicians,” she said.
Asked about her experience in the United States, she replied that she has done great so far. “I imagine that my experience is very similar to that of other Cubans who have performed there: we haven’t reached the American public as we think we have, but rather the Latinos living in that country, people from Peru, Chile, Cuba… We still have work to do. Traditional Cuban music probably has more chances to get to that audience,” she told OnCuba.
