Machel Monday 2019 “The Greatest of All Time” welcomes Havana, Cuba to T&T in a bid to promote Caribbean identification and Caribbean Unity.
This was announced by the soca king of T&T Machel Montano during a media conference held at the National Carnival Commission’s VIP Lounge, Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain.
Montano said he recently visited Cuba upon an invitation from the Cuban Ambassador in T&T and was able to share soca music to the locals there and able to get a taste of their culture in return.
“I am starting to expand, finding something new and exciting and what the world deserve I am finding it in Caribbean identification and identity…This is the greatest of all time,” Montano said.
“Island music will have its greatest moment. Soca is based in unity. We are converging on each other organically it is happening and we are part of the happening. I feel that the purpose of this has to be service to be humanity feel it is time to offer soca music to the universe. Lets see what it will do…it will contribute to unity,” he added.
Joining the cast of top artistes local, regional and international will be Cuban artiste, Cimafunk who’s crash landed on the music radar with “Me Voy.”
The singer, composer and producer makes music built on a fusion of Afro-Cuban rhythms with funk, blues and reggae—musical styles that he says he wishes to reunite because, as Cimafunk mentions, they all have a shared history of slavery and resistance. It’s apt that his artist name refers to the Cimarrón people from Panama, enslaved Africans that escaped and lived as outlaws.
According to the website okayafrica.com, Cimafunk’s latest music video and single for “Me Voy” is a “jolting dose of energetic guitar riffs and Afro-Cuban percussion.”
As the artiste and his team explained, the website stated, “Me Voy” is “inspired by Nigerian Afropop and Pilón (a traditional Afro Cuban carnival rhythm),” as Cimafunk’s team explains in an e-mail. “It also borrows it’s harmonics to the funk especially for the guitar and the bass. It is a musical claim of blackness. The song spread all around Cuba thanks to its lyrics, full of double meaning which reflects Cuban culture’s essence, to its irresistible rhythm and to the video’s humoristic and unexpected aesthetic.”
Side Bar
Other artistes to grace Machel Monday’s 2019 stage on February 25:
Ashanti
Jacob Desvarieux (Kassav)
Cimafunk
Ding Dong
Hoodcelebrityy
Skinny Fabulous
Farmer Nappy
Patrice Roberts
Motto
Nadia Batson
Nessa Preppy
Calypso Rose
Super Blue
3 Canal
Shal Marshall
Problem Child
Lil Natty & Thunda
Mr. Killa
Teddyson John
M1
Holla Bak
Dloxx