Southern Voices in Cuba to Celebrate Fidel’s 80th Birthday

Artists committed to justice, dignity, and beauty hailing from Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, South Africa, Venezuela, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Puerto Rico, will be teaming up with local musicians for the "Todas las Voces Todas" (All the voices together) concert to take place December 30th at the Jose Marti Anti-imperialist Plaza in Havana.

Miriam Makeba.

Renowned musicians from around the southern hemisphere are responding to a call made by the Ecuadorian-based Guayasamin Foundation to pay homage to President Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban Revolution, on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

According to sources at the foundation and the Cuban Institute of Music, the diva of South African song, Miriam Makeba, is among the artists who have announced their participation. Makeba was in Havana last year as part of her Farewell Tour that covered 52 nations.

At the time she recalled that one of her most cherished gestures is when the Cuban government offered her a Cuban passport in the 1970s when the apartheid regime had deprived her from her South African citizenship.

On behalf of the leading representatives of Chile’s popular music, singer Pancho Villa has announced that he will perform his song "Para La Habana", which premiered last August during Silvio Rodriguez’s concert with the Tropa Cosmica in Argentina. The Illapu band, representing the new generation of Chilean folk music, are also set to take the stage.

From Argentina, Cesar Isella, who put music to the poem Cancion con Todos, written by Armando Tejada Gomez, will also be a featured performer along with Piero, known for his brand of rock with a social conscious.

Two of the main representatives of the Uruguayan song have confirmed their presence: Daniel Viglieti, about to celebrate 50 years of artistic life, and Braulio Lopez.

The list of participants also includes Victor Victor from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rican Danny Rivera and Venezuelan Lilia Veras.

Colombian singer Andres Cabas will bring his original Latin American pop rock creations to the stage, performing for the first time in Havana.

Ecuador will be represented by the Pueblo Nuevo group, one of the leading purveyors of Andean folklore of the last three decades, along with singer Margarita Laso.