The day of her second Santeria birthday – April 24 - , Daymé Arocena was not in Cuba, but rather in London. The capital of the United Kingdom, with its aura of rainy and refined city, did not seem like a proper scenario for an Afro-Cuban celebration. However, Daymé was there: taking out her shells – each in its bag -, putting up an altar with old abandoned record boxes, in a sort of “home” that previously was the venue of Brownswood Recordings, the record company that represents her today. The rest seemed simple: going out to buy flowers, sweets, fried rice, rum, honey and cigars; inviting friends, among them Gilles Peterson, the owner of Brownswood and Daymé’s adoptive father in the British city. Everything was ready by 10 in the morning. Later Daymé would fall asleep and would dream a song: “It’s Not Gonna be Forever,” the tenth theme of her new album Cubafonía. And it appeared to her exactly the same as it appears today on the record; the lyrics and music, everything in one same combo. Because Daymé Arocena composes in dreams. She has that ashé (luck): “The song was a birthday present. It’s catchy, people listen...