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Songs inspired by the city: nostalgia, passion, love, and social critique
Havana. Many a love song has been composed dedicated to this unforgettable city, from authors born and bred in its heart, who took their first steps in Guanabacoa, Vedado, Marianao, Luyano and Old Havana to musicians all over the world who admire its lively residents. Most foreign visitors arrive by air and make their way to the city’s heart travelling down Boyeros Avenue, past landmarks like the Ciudad Deportiva stadium complex where Cuba’s world class athletes train and the Plaza of the Revolution with its towering monument of Marti and the government ministry buildings from which the portraits of Revolutionary leaders Che and Camilo assure us with their well know words. For people arriving to Havana from other parts of the island they are welcomed at the city limits with a sign that declares “Havana: the Capital of all Cubans”. This city full of charm has inspired wistful songs full of nostalgia, love songs full of passion, and lyrics full of insightful social critique. We invite you to sample a small selection of the diversity of the city as sung by its resident musicians.
- “Sábanas Blancas” by Gerardo Alfonso
Iconic images of the city: regal lions, the capital building, the Malecón, and the Virgen del Camino. Gerardo’s sonic portrait of the everyday life of the city presented in the rhythm of rumba, a fusion of different elements that make up the genre of guaguancó, naive to Havana. A lover of the city he declares that he “I swear I’m going to die of love and of desire to walk your streets, your neighborhoods, your places…”.
The image of the city’s avenues and the white sheets that flap in the wind above us from balconies of buildings that continue to defy gravity. The same author takes on the subject of the overcrowding in in the song “Habana llena de gente”.
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“Hoy mi Habana” by José Antonio Quesada
In this song Havana is personified as a flirtatious woman sitting on her balcony, the architectural feature that seems to define the old city. The balconies of old Havana are like boxes in the opera from which one can observe and become part of it all. The voice of Xiomara Laugart has made this song legendary for its ability to make you feel part of this Havana, allowing you to observe yourself through her eyes, looking towards the sea and waiting for love.
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“Habáname” by Carlos Varela
In this love song to the city Varela’s unique voice, usually rough and rasping, adopts a sweetness that will make you fall in love as well. It is a love story in which the Spanish and Cuban intertwine and the Morro serves as a witness. Full of nostalgia as he watches “every wall of the illusion” fall before him, it is an aging photograph of the old colonial city Varela’s voice resonates with the impotence of one who dreams in vain of returning the city to its former glory.
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“Andar La Habana” by Ireno García
Dawn in the capital, two lovers walk the city in this simple song. Ireno accompanied by his guitar leads us by the hand down the streets of the city on a tour that lasts from dusk till the dawn of the new day. “Havana has moved to the Malecón”, this could be any day this year, or the last, or years from now as the city’s residents attempt to escape the heat of overcrowded city and look for perspective. This place where the waters beyond our coasts slam against the reefs and reminds island dwellers that there is nothing more beautiful than the blue of that ocean on our shores, while simultaneously reminding us that those waters connect us with far-away lands.
Ireno’s voice is like a whisper and we follow him through the most important streets of the city: G, 23, looking for that blue, Zanja, that ocean, Galiano, Central Park, Obispo, the Cathedral and once again we find the balconies of the city waiting to be bathed by Havana’s first light.
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“Hermosa habana” by Los Zafiros
A love song in five-part harmony. The Prado, the sea, the streets. Despite its flattering name (Hermosa means beautiful) the languid rhythm of the violin’s lament in this quintet’s song is full of longing. How can an ode to such a beautiful city be sung with such deep sadness?
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“Mi vieja Habana” by Liuba María Hevia
The habanera, is a genre of song with a distinctive rhythm. Danzón with the city’s distinctive stamp. Liuba sings a habanera dedicated to Havana full of love to the city and symbols of colonial past: the light streaming through stained-glass windows, wandering musicians, and cobblestones. This city lives deep within those who love her and even in death those who have lived and loved Havana will never be parted from her.
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“La Habana” by Paulo FG
Popular dance music also dedicates itself to portraying Havana with a tour of different neighborhoods that begins with the sound of the Cuban clave marking the beat: 1-2-3, 1-2. This percussive sound makes even those Cubans born with two left feet take to the dance floor. The frenzied beat of the hyper salsa of the 1990s, known as Timba, shows the impact that Havana has in Cuba and around the world. Those who love Havana never give up on her: “I am from Havana, I was born in Havana and I want to die in Havana,” Havana is the center of this world, the place where everything begins and one has the sense that if one’s connections with the city have grown tenuous that it’s time to reconnect.
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“Locos por la Habana” by Manolito Simonet
This song shows the joy of the island capital that comes to life after dark, where social status is not important and workers and intellectuals mix on the corner around a good game of dominoes. Havana is a city where the lack of resources has never limited the joy of the people who can make an orchestra good enough to dance to by banging on an empty can and a with just one bottle can bring together a group of friends. Havana is a crazy city and its residents are crazy for it.
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“Habana” by Edesio Alejandro
Havana’s rumba played to the beat of the clave by a man leaning over a conga drum in the entrance to a colonial building transformed into a tenement, full of clothes lines, tanks of water and women dancing in flip-flops. These are the images that cross your mind as the voice of the singer and the beating of the percussion enter your body, shaking your shoulders and making its way to your hips. “Havana, my Havana is so beautiful!”
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“La capital” by Gema and Pavel
This infectious tune paints a picture of Havana at the advent of the 20th century when Gema’s grandfather came to Havana, then a bustling cosmopolitan city inhabited by people from all over the world looking to prove themselves and make a life in this new frontier. A city in which the diverse cultures that its inhabitants brought with them from Spain, Africa, and China mix to become something new, Cuban.
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“La Habana a todo color” by Habana Abierta
With a touch of rock ‘n roll, the lead voice begins “Blessed be Havana, city of my emotions”. The song is an invitation to discover the city at a contagious rhythm, homage to the coast, the neighborhoods, the people and the monuments which we find around every corner of this bewitching city. There is a connection between the city and the natural elements: water, earth, light and air. The singing voice speaks to the ambivalent relationship that many people in Havana have with their beloved city that oscillate between deep love, suffering, and joy.
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“Habaneando” by X Alfonso
This artist is known for his fusion and his music is always nurtured by the most contemporary rhythms. In this song he gives birth to a new verb: Havana-ing. He suggests that there is a hidden Havana present in the sound of the guitar, and the rumba that spills out of the homes in humble working-class neighborhoods. Although everyday life might be difficult, one must maintain a sense of humor. In the end, despite its problems, the city will seduce you. Another great song about the city by X Alfonso is “Habana Blues” which makes lyrical poetry from everyday stories of families separated by immigration.
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“Hermosa Habana” by Aldo
Aldo uses the emblematic song written by the Zafiros as a background for a song that helps us to discover the beautiful city underneath the one damaged by immigration and misunderstandings. The malecón, which in other songs is highlighted for its beauty, is to this rapper a “immigration office” through which people from poor neighborhoods forgotten by bureaucracy pass. Also on the surface the city is beautiful Aldo sings about what is beyond the façade, the heart of the city which is slowly decaying.
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“La Habana mía” by Amaury Pérez
To close the list of songs is a song that is itself a list. Havana, the capital of Cuba emerges as a place full of possibilities: both the place of past sorrows and the place that allows you to forget them. The city that gives us the reasons to move on, to start over. Havana teaches us to hope, a place where dreams can come true. This city that gives us so much is a city that also inspires our loyalty. My Havana, Our Havana.
