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Cimafunk: “Super happy and grateful for this UNESCO initiative”
With this conviction, Cimafunk and his band will arrive at the Worldwide Music Expo, WOMEX, to be held in Porto, Portugal, from 29 to 31 October. Their musical proposal combining Funk and Afro-Cuban sounds was one of the winners of the UNESCO Transcultura-Womex Call, which invited Caribbean music groups to apply for a place to perform, under the auspices of the UNESCO Transcultura Programme, at Europe's largest world music event.
Cimafunk made a major impact on the Cuban music scene in 2018 with his debut album Terapia, and since then his popularity continues on the rise. Although his name already appears alongside the world’s Funk greats and on stage in the United States and Europe, participating in WOMEX is an opportunity he highly values.
The UNESCO Transcultura-WOMEX Call was launched precisely to provide new opportunities for young Caribbean artists and music professionals to access the international market.
Transcultura is a programme implemented by the UNESCO Regional Office for Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean, funded by the European Union and supported by UNESCO offices in the region, which aims to create opportunities for young artists from 17 Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) in order to enhance the role of culture in the sustainable development of their countries and boost their careers. Opportunities like these can transform people' s lives.
The call, in addition to taking the four winning groups to WOMEX, subsidised 58 applications made by Caribbean bands. Cimafunk confesses that the music of the region is at the root of everything he does and says he is grateful for this new door that opens in his career.
