Daymé Arocena: A New Afro-Cuban Sound In Exile

The Show On The Road with Z. Lupetin

This week we bring you an intimate talk with rising Cuban roots-pop singer-songwriter Daymé Arocena. Known for her honey-voiced records that honor Cuba’s joyous folk and jazz traditions, her newest Alkemi’ takes a sonic leap into the powerful pop and suave R&B music that she admired as a girl - Sade, Whitney Houston and even Beyoncé - while also paying homage to her grandmother’s lifelong practice of Santeria.

Born to a musical family in Havana where she shared a two bedroom house with twenty-one extended family members (her mother and grandmother sang locally and dad owned a night club), she was accepted into a prestigious music conservatory at age ten and has been off to the races since, co-founding and the all-female Cuban-Canadian jazz collective Maqueque in 2014, which toured internationally and earned a GRAMMY nomination and releasing four solo albums. Cubaphonia from 2017 is a favorite of this listener.

Like many artists caught in Cuba’s long history of repression and poverty - she was forced to leave the island to protect the safety of her husband, a photojournalist whose coworkers had been imprisoned. Canada was their only option at the time due to travel restrictions, but after three years living there, the pandemic pushed her to look for a new home again.

She was advised to contact Grammy-winning producer Eduardo Cabra, better known as Visitante Calle 13, he invited her to come to Puerto Rico to spend a few days in his house - and a new album and a new home base was found. Sometimes you just need that island energy to make you feel whole again.

Listen to the deeply spiritual (yet still catchy as hell) “American Boy” - about her finding her happiness and power even without the love of her life being by her side. For someone who grew up as a dark-skinned girl feeling invisible, what’s clear is Daymé wants to be seen and understood more than ever before.