Germany Goes To Cubadisco

For the first time, a non-Latin country—in this case, Germany—will be the invited nation at Cuba's music trade fair, Cubadisco, when the event takes place May 14-18 in Havana.

Internal changes in Germany concerning managerial shake-ups at Cologne-based trade fair PopKomm mean that a very reduced German music lineup will travel to Cuba. Even the normally abundant presence of Spanish artists through Spain's authors and publishers society, SGAE, is down from other years. But just about anybody who is anybody in the contemporary Cuban scene will be performing, including Charanga Habanera, Issac Delgado, Paulo FG, X Alfonso, NG La Banda, Sampling, Chucho Valdés, and Pancho Amat. There will also be the inaugural Cubadisco Cuban rap evening.

The main performing German act is Berlin electronic duo Rechenzentrum. Hans-Jürgen Ploenes—director of the only official German presence at Cubadisco, music export office Music Export Cologne—points out that Cologne is the capital of German electronic music, and he hopes German DJs will take plenty of electronic music—little-known in Cuba—to play at the event.