Latin artist brings 'crazy mix' of rock and soul

WEDNESDAY, JULY 6: Grammy-nominated Latin pop artist Alex Cuba, sporting his “natural, valuable” afro, will perform at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess Happy Hour on Friday.

Cuba  — who was born in Cuba, but currently lives in Canada — will perform songs from his latest album, Alex Cuba. He’s also in the studio working on a new record, which he hopes to release next year.

Last year he won a Latin Grammy Award for Best New Artist, a BMI Latin Award and this year he was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Latin Pop Album category.

He’s the first international artist to perform at the Princess Happy Hour, which takes place every Friday on the Princess Patio from 5pm to 9pm. Admission is free and there’s a cash bar. Cuba will perform from 6pm — 6:45pm and 7:15pm to about 8:30pm. A DJ will spin tunes in between.

Cuba — who describes his music as Cuban soul rock— said: “We have this crazy mix of music, people seem to enjoy it — they love what we play. We just did a festival down in the Canary Islands and we played for about 8,000 people there. The cool part about it was that it was a complete new audience, the majority had never heard of me before. It was quite cool because we were the closing act of the festival and we got this massive encore — we had to go back to the stage twice.”

Cuba will be in Bermuda with his band, bass player David Marion and drummer Max Senitt.

This is his first visit to the island and he can’t wait to see our “beautiful country”.

We had to ask: “What about that hair? And the awesome sideburns?”

He laughed (after showing his afro up close on the Skype camera): “I just went with the vibe in Canada, I’ve been in Canada for 12 years now… and it seems to be a country where people like stuff in a natural way, so I was getting used to the culture  and the environment and the vibe of the country.”

“I started realizing that something natural is very valuable, very beautiful in that country, so I let my hair grow, and I liked it and people were loving it too.”

“Also, I was able to charge some money for people to touch my hair, so I got another stream of income from that!”

He added: “We are very excited to go to Bermuda, it seems like a very cool sort of show, right in the middle of summer.

“All the conditions are set for us to deliver a beautiful show.”