inspiration //

albita 

 

Being with Albita is being with the Piaf Cubana.

 

Seductive. Fragile. Perfectionist. More than a singer, Albita Rodriguez is a legend in the making. Just as Edith Piaf sang from the depths of the French working class, Albita Rodriguez is giving a new voice to the Cuban soul. After just one year in the United States, she already has a hit song, Que Manera, included on the soundtrack of the film starring Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone, The Specialist. Albita's show at the Centro Vasco, in the heart of Miami's Little Havana, has become the most talked-about show in the city. She embodies both the picturesque Cuba of the 1940s and the fantasy of a future Cuba.

 

A prodigious composer and lyricist, she has revitalized traditional Cuban music, the guajiro style, with new arrangements, jazz flute, modern beats and sophistication. Shy and extremely modest offstage, she takes no credit: "I'm not discovering anything, I'm rescuing things that were hidden away." Born into a family of singers, she grew up surrounded by Cuban country rhythms. By reviving this music with a youthful touch, she became Fidel Castro's favorite singer and a superstar in Cuba and Colombia before expatriating to the United States in 1993. "I'm from a poor family, that's why we believed in the revolution. But the reality of the human being is revealed over time. The minister's son doesn't live the same as you. That's normal anywhere, but in Cuba it was supposed to be different." During a visit to Mexico, at the height of their success in their country, Albita and her band decided to take a chance and, with only the clothes on their back, they crossed the Rio Grande on foot and arrived in El Paso. "I want to show that Cuban music is worthy at any level, without being merengue or salsa." And there is certainly no doubt that she has achieved her objective.