‘Man, you’ll never feel a love like that,’ Walshy Fire tells EW.
Musicians, too, are starting to embrace the newly invigorated ties.
Fires family is from Jamaica, and Jillionaire hails from Trinidad.
Credit: Shane McCauley
Both Diplo and Fire grew up in southern Florida, where large Cuban and Caribbean communities thrives.
Man, youll never feel love like that, Fire says of the show.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Take us through the process of setting up this show.
Shane McCauley
How long was it in the works?
It took about 14 months.
What gave you the initial push to set it up?
Shane McCauley
Im from Miami and Diplo is from Fort Lauderdale.
We grew up with a lot of Cuban and Haitian friends.
Logistically, how tricky was it to pull off?
Shane McCauley
There were a lot of dos and donts.
But at the end of the day, that warm welcome feeling was 100 percent there.
Was it important to you to be the first group to do this?
Shane McCauley
We will pay for it ourselves.
We just want to bring the kind of enjoyment that we know we can bring.
Would you go back?
How would you feel about doing a music festival there?
It would be a natural step.
You mentioned there are a number of places youre looking to build ties through music.
What other locales are on the list?
For me personally, Id say Haiti.
What did you learn about Cubas music scene while you were on the ground?
Well, I learned a lot about Cuba in general.
A lot of them are shooting high definition videos and have their music playing all over the place.
Its kind of weird.
Youll always get Puerto Rican reggaeton, or youll get Panamanian music.
How are you feeling coming away from the performance?
Were you nervous about any lingering political tension?
All of the Venezuelans in Miami were sending these hateful messages, saying we were supporting the government.
Thats what I experienced.
you’re free to see that they still have a long way to go, but the people?
Man, youll never feel love like that.
Ive been everywhere in the world, and Ive never felt that much love from the people.
Would you say thats the biggest takeaway when you look at the shows youve done in other countries?
Yeah, no question.
If theres anything that would unite the world, it would be music.
I have a saying: I make a run at make the world smaller by making the party bigger.
I just feel like I did that.
It for sure felt like a million people, and there was only a handful of police out there.
It was just everybody in the street partying.
Im still on a high.
Im still riding that wave and riding that energy because it was strictly love.
Did you have an existing fan base in Cuba?
How would we know, right?
If that many people came out, Id assume we did.
The Rolling Stones are also set to do a show in Cuba later this month.
Whats behind this larger effort to play the country?
Theres not really a larger effort.
We dont really have a game plan.
There was no long-term concept.
We just wanted to get this done and show complete love, complete unity.
There havent been any larger conversations.
We have our circle of musicians, and theres for sure that conversation has happened there.
We love Rolling Stones but weve never spoken to them.
Why do you feel music is a significant step for softening the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba?
I wouldnt just say U.S. and Cuba, I would say anywhere in the world.
Music is a major part of everything.
Conversation stops ignorance, and music is the bridge for that conversation.
