Island inspiration
Cuban singersongwriter mixes styles from homeland with outside influences
Dworking on music. I wait for it to come to me.”
Arocena draws inspiration from the intertwining musical legacies of her native Cuba.
She is a singer, a composer and a choir director.
She is also a bright-shining performer carrying the flame for a new generation of Cuban musicians.
On her sophomore album, “Cubafonía,” she approaches jazz, soul and classical influences with an innate sense of rhythm.
With her home country’s rich musical traditions serving as the album’s springboard, she uses its different musical styles as the basis for each of the album’s tracks, finding outside influences, from her tours of the world these past two years, to build on them.
Arocena was born and raised in Havana. aymé Arocena has been compared to Aretha Franklin and Celia Cruz.
Yet the 20-something Cuban singer doesn’t pay too much attention to those comparisons.
She says she is influenced by many types of music and she pushes herself with music.
“I’m a songwriter,” she says in a recent interview from Rome. “I’m always
Her conservatory training was combined with an upbringing grounded in Cuba’s own musical foundations. Accepted age 9 into one of the country’s prestigious music schools, she studied a choir-directing course rooted in Western classical tradition.
Meanwhile, she grew up with the dayto-day schooling in folkloric music that’s common in Cuban households.
At regular, intimate get-togethers celebrating the island’s Santería religion, dancing and singing are the gatherings’ mainstays — a combination that’s meant she sees its deep-rooted traditions in a wider musical context.
“I was born to be a singer,” she says. “My mom says I was a musical baby. Growing up, TV didn’t hold my attention, so I began singing around the house. I was born in the ’90s, and in Cuba that was a time of economic struggle for the country. There wasn’t enough petrol or electricity. My family used music as a way to brighten up the grim situation. I think that’s where I got my understanding of songwriting as well. I enjoy telling a story of hope.”