The Cuban singer-songwriter Melanie Santiler, 25 years old, stated in Havana that "in Cuba, there are no swans, nor freedom," while discussing life on the Island.
"It is complicated to talk about that and it is complicated to be Cuban, to live here," she stated in an interview with the agency EFE, conducted in Parque Cristo in Old Havana, regarding her first visual album "Los Cisnes."
Released on September 25 under its own label MamiFinaRecords, "Los Cisnes" brings together ten compositions that traverse alternative music, Latin pop, and distribution.
The title track of the album was recorded alongside the singer-songwriter Carlos Varela and incorporates the Cuban national anthem in a minor key, a device that Santiler described as a melancholic commentary on the reality of the Island.
"It speaks a lot from the pain, the sadness of having many people at a distance," the artist explained about this theme, which she dedicated "to all Cubans around the world."
Santiler defined the project as a work done "in Cuba, from Cuba, and by Cubans," and emphasized that it reflects "who I am as a person, as a Cuban, as a woman," addressing themes such as solitude, love, romantic relationships, and everyday life.
The artist also pointed out the structural difficulties of producing music independently on the Island. As she explained, the scarcity of record labels that fund specific projects, artists, or producers complicates the development of their careers: "It's a super complicated process that you have to push through on your own," she stated.
Before returning to Cuba to present the album, Santiler completed a tour of Spain that included the cities of Huesca, Burgos, Valencia, Las Palmas, Tenerife, Barcelona, and Madrid.
With 167,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and over 300,000 followers on Instagram, the performer —who debuted in 2023— was featured in 2024 by Rolling Stone en español in a selection of emerging artists from the Caribbean, and in 2025, by Billboard Latin among 31 representatives of the Cuban artists.
In May, upon arriving at a concert at the Meliá Cohiba in Havana, she announced that "the album is coming," after a period away from social media while preparing her musical material. She described the event as "both a closure and a commencement" of a new phase.
Known artistically as La Mami Fina, the young woman has gained international recognition in recent years, although in her country she has faced censorship due to the content of her songs.
In December 2025, she revealed that she had faced "many problems" due to her song "Buen Provecho," which includes the line "In Cuba, people go hungry". Despite the pressure to omit that verse in her performances, she refused: "The day they tell me I can't go to an event because I won't sing it, I simply won't go."
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