“Music has saved us at all times; it was crucial during the pandemic and it still is as things go back to normal,” Cuban singer Eme Alfonso said on the occasion of the start today of the 2022 Havana World Music Festival (HWM), held online in the last two years because of the pandemic.

Ms. Alfonso, who is also one of the founders of these events, gave details about both the program of the venue—Havana’s Club 500—and the Primera Base contest, the winners of which participate and compete for an award in the HWM.

“This year we bring back the usual event with foreign performers, in this case those who were scheduled in the 2020 edition, namely from Germany, Canada, Brazil, Italy and Colombia,” she added. “The new HWM portrays our life in these years of complications caused by COVID-19 and economic crises that forced everyone to live within their own personal world and wear a mask all the time to endure the situation. (…) I’m happy that the Festival is here again, as a normal life is really liberating."