La Dame Blanche

With her always expanding and singular mix of hip hop, female empowerment, dancehall, and catchy beats, singer, flautist, and percussionist Yaite Ramos Rodriguez, aka La Dame Blanche, delivers a powerful and compelling sound that summons the spirits.

Born and raised in Pinar del Rio, the westernmost province of Cuba, her mother wanted a girl and after three boys, Yaite was born. “As a child, I didn’t realize how poor we were”, she said, but she knew she was “loved and happy with little like any happy Cuban child”. She was the daughter of Jesús “Aguaje” Ramos, the artistic director of the Buena Vista Social Club orquestra, her days on the island filled with dancing and singing, though it was in Paris that she began sharing her music with artists around the world.

“My dad was the person that I always wanted to impress”, she tells, while confessing that “the entire world knew me as HIS daughter and that is one of the reasons I called this album ELLA (HER).” This fourth album by La Dame Blanche is a tribute to her mother, and all of the women that inhabit La Dame Blanche. “My mom makes everything shine, from the floors of the house to the music in my soul”.

This is the reason that “ELLA” has such a powerful and rebellious spirit, and is above all a tribute to women, with ten songs that represent all sides of the artist.

This Cuban living in Paris creates blends in every aspect; between Latin and Urban, Cumbia and Hip-Hop, the strong and the sensual, and the stage lights a show and the flame of a candle in a ritual.

MIDEM’s Artist Accelerator 2018 — globalFEST 2018 — SXSW 2017 — WOMEX 2017 official selection

During the last 7 years, she performed nearly 500 shows, in 36 countries of 5 continents.

Including Vive Latino (MX) Paleo Festival (CH) Festival International de Jazz de Montréal (CA) Summerstage NYC (USA) Sziget Festival (HU) SXSW Austin (USA) Feria Internacional del Libro Guadalajara (MEX) globalFEST (USA) California Worldfest (USA) Rototom Sunsplash (ES)
Carnaval de Bahidora (MEX) WOMAD (UK) BAM Barcelona (ES) Rudolstadt Festival (DE) Sommerfestival der Kulturen Stuttgart (DE) Festival Couleur Café (BE) Festival MED (PT) Wild Mint Festival (RU) Masala Weltbeat Festival (DE) Festival Rec-Beat (BR) Festival Shambala (UK) Ariano Folk Festival (IT) Antilliaanse Feesten (BE) Gwangju World Music Festival (KR) Ariano Folk Festival (IT) Jazzmandu Festival Kathmandu (NP) Kulturpark Košice (SK) Parkteatern Stockholm (SE) Festival Mundial (NL) Sommarscen Malmö (SE) Fusion Festival (DE) Festival Sound-Ports (TR) Africa Festival (DE) Union Scene (NO) …

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Candeleros

Psychedelic afro-caribbean Cumbia

Drawing from influences like Cumbia, Merengue, Dub and afro-caribbean rhythms, Candeleros surrender to a sort of exorcism full of differents sounds in which they reach altered states of consciousness. All of this includes percussion sounds coming from the beyond, Andean echoes, cinematic atmospheres and tunes that seem to come from an old episode of The Twilight Zone. Candeleros music is like digging into a postmodernism hole to find the very pure of tropicalismo.

Candeleros is a plurinacional group of six people that come from Colombia and Venezuela. They have their operational center in Madrid, from where they try to expand a multicoloured psychedelic sound to dance. “Echar una candela” is commonly known as the improvised reunion around the tobacco, fire and music. “La candela” also is the measurement for the lights units and their intensity. “Candela” and “fuego” are also used as metaphors for passion, hit and love.

Candeleros goal is to unify the afro-caribbean sounds as a proof of identity, folklore and modernity. William, Fernando, Urko, Sergio, Alex and Andrés come from places where we can listen to rhythms like Cumbia and Son. They have mixed these rhythms alongside with percussion sounds and guitars to create a sort of psychedelic ritual.

During their seven years of musical trajectory, Candeleros has performed in differents shows around Europe and United States. They have performed in important festivals such as Sonorama Ribera, Trans Musicales de Rennes (France), Sziget Festival (Budapest), BAM Festival (Barcelona), SXSW (Austin).

In addition to all of this, Candeleros music can be found in music platforms such as KEXP radio, FIP Radio, Radio Gladys Palmera and Sofar Sounds Madrid.

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Damas Gratis

Damas Gratis (Spanish for “Ladies’ Night”, literally “Ladies for Free”), creators of the “cumbia villera” (from the word villa, the Argentine equivalent of Brazilian favelas) is undoubtedly the most important cumbia band in Argentina.

Debuting in 2000 in San Fernando on the northern outskirts of Buenos Aires at the hand of Pablo Lescano, Damas Gratis is considered by many Argentinians as the “Maradona of Cumbia” and is today one of the great names in Latin American cumbia; for its history, its trajectory and the popular craze at each gig.

Eight studio albums, three live albums, almost two million fans on Facebook, sold out concerts in the four corners of the continent and collaborations with the greatest Latin artists are amongst their achievements to date.

Dozens of groups have been inspired by this great band; commonly called “cumbia villera”, having spawned the diffusion of this undercurrent of cumbia, from Mexico to Patagonia, converting it as a standard bearer of the demands of the popular classes. This cumbiera villera, a soundtrack of Argentine ghettos, has for nearly two decades taken the place that the hip-hop movement occupies in our suburbs. Music has become the means of expression of the underprivileged classes.

Pablo Lescano is also the first cumbia artist to play in the famous River Plate stadium “El Monumental” in front of 80,000 people, invited by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs in 2008.

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