Yussef González is 50 years old, a native of Havana, from the Los Sitios neighborhood. He has been in Spain for 23 years and for the past ten years has been performing with his duo, Latidos, at parties, festivities, and popular celebrations. He has also been the opening act for Jacob Forever and Gente de Zona during their Spanish tours. He acknowledges that his group is skilled, but "it's very difficult to make a living from music." Therefore, he adds, he has to combine it with another job.
We are humble, music is opportunities. Just what there isn't for artists in Spain, where he asserts that banks do not grant loans to musicians like him to record a music video or an album.
Yuseff González came from the artistic world in Cuba. In Havana, he performed with his group in the shows at three in the morning at El Turquino and at the famous cabaret Las Vegas, located in front of Radio Progreso. The music they played was well-received and they soon went on tour to the Canary Islands, to France... And on one of those tours, he stayed in Spain and did not return to Cuba.
The musical group put it together right away, but then parked the project. In the last ten years, they have been more consistent and the group already has a trajectory, people know them, and those who see them perform, hire them again. In any case, it clarifies that those who want to make a living from this, without being in the Olympus of music, have to be clear that the payments are very modest and that in this job, like in many others, vocation matters.
Next week, Yuseff González will be performing at festivals in Andalucía, in Cádiz and Jaén. There, he will bring the rhythms of Cuban salsa and bachata. No one should expect reggaeton or trap. It's something else. "It's about bringing the music of great artists to the towns of Spain."
What do you think?
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