It’s been more than half a century since any musical artists living in Cuba have performed at the White House. But los cubanos will take the stage there Thursday night – and it turns out many Americans will recognize the tunes.
Eighteen years ago, a group of mostly elderly Cuban musicians known as the Buena Vista Social Club hit the top of the U.S. charts. Their 1997 album “Buena Vista Social Club” – and a 1999 film by that name – featured tracks like the elegant, haunting song called “Chan Chan.” And it introduced rich strains of Cuban music like son to millions of Americans cut off from the communist island by the U.S. embargo.
So it’s fitting that the Buena Vista Social Club will be the first Cuban group invited to play at the White House since the 1959 Cuban Revolution. As part of his effort to normalize U.S.-Cuba relations, President Obama has asked them to perform there October 15 on the tail end of their U.S. tour, which finishes October 22 in Miami at the Arsht Center.
This may not be welcomed by hardline Cuban exiles in South Florida. In 1998, a bomb threat forced the evacuation of a Miami performance by the late Buena Vista star Compay Segundo.
But that was another time. Now the Buena Vista Social Club gets to show one of the most exclusives audiences on earth how timeless its music is.
