Sebastián Yatra performed "Óleo de mujer con sombrero," one of the most iconic songs by Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez, in an intimate performance accompanied by piano as part of the musical program SongBook.
The moment was captured in a reel posted yesterday by the official SongBook account on Instagram, which garnered over 177,000 views, 30,131 likes, and 1,587 comments in just a few hours.
The program captured the moment with a phrase that sums up the emotional weight of the video: “@sebastianyatra singing 'Óleo de Mujer con Sombrero' by @zurron_del_aprendiz and we understood why that song holds such a special place for him.”
The viral excerpt is from the first episode of the third season of SongBook, recorded on March 4, 2026, in which Yatra was the main guest for an hour and 26 minutes of conversation and music.
SongBook is an intimate format program hosted by Mexicans Dany Dayz, Joe Demikeli, and El Mijo, produced by Sensei Media. Dany Dayz and Joe Demikeli previously formed the pop-rock duo Madison.
In the performance, Yatra recited some of the most memorable verses from the piece: "Cowardice is a matter for men, not for lovers / Cowardly loves do not..." and concluded with the final passage: "But then you cried for me / And now I cry / But then I cried for me / And now I cry for watching her die."
Yatra's connection to this song is not recent. In November 2020, while serving as an advisor on La Voz España, a contestant performed the song after consulting him, which already showcased her admiration for the work.
«Oil of a Woman with a Hat» was composed by Silvio Rodríguez in 1970 and officially released in 1978 in the album Al final de este viaje.
Its origin combines two sources of inspiration: a painting by the Belarusian artist Marc Chagall featuring a woman with a white hat and a red feather, and a woman whom Silvio met at the carnivals in Havana.
Silvio himself clarified at the time that the song was not dedicated to any specific person and that it arose from a combination of pictorial imagery and personal experience.
The work was meant to be part of a "Tetralogy of the woman with a hat" that never came to fruition, and it is regarded as one of the most representative pieces of the Cuban Nueva Trova.
Yatra's performance, stripped down and supported only by the piano, highlights the poetic density of lyrics that, more than fifty years after their composition, continue to find new voices that make them their own.
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