The Australian duo Air Supply recalled this month their legendary concert in Havana as one of the most memorable performances of their career, in a video posted on Instagram by the Cuban Amanda C. Gonzalez Perez, who asked them in English about their visit to the island.
In the clip, one of the group members confidently declares, "but we really love Cuba," fondly recalling that experience in front of the Havana audience.
The concert being referred to took place on July 7, 2005 at the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribune in Havana, in front of an estimated crowd of between 60,000 and 175,000 people, according to different sources.
The event took place under the direct threat of Hurricane Dennis, which struck Cuba during those days, with strong winds that caused a slight delay in the start of the show, although they did not prevent the performance from being completed successfully.
Graham Russell, one of the two members of the duo alongside Russell Hitchcock, remarked at the time that the Cuban audience had "almost total mastery of almost all our songs," a statement that reflects the immense popularity of their ballads on the island.
The second concert, scheduled for July 8, had to be canceled due to power outages caused by the hurricane.
Far from leaving their fans empty-handed, the duo performed an impromptu acoustic set by candlelight at the hotel where they were staying, for the fans who were also lodged there, an anecdote that became one of the most cherished memories of their time in Cuba.
Air Supply was one of the first prominent Anglo rock and pop groups to perform in Cuba, just two months after Audioslave held the first open-air concert by an American rock band on the island at the same venue.
The video published this April by Amanda C. Gonzalez Perez generated a wide response on social media, with over 55,000 views and 7,000 "likes," reflecting the affection that Cubans have for that historic concert from more than twenty years ago.
The memory of that night at the Tribuna, with tens of thousands of Cubans singing ballads like "All Out of Love" and "Lost in Love" in the midst of a hurricane, remains one of the most remarkable episodes in the musical history of the island.
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