14ymedio, Havana, 11 September 2021 — Cuban singer Willy Chirino said he was very satisfied with the result of Que se vayan ya [Get Out!] after Thursday’s release of the song’s music video. The song, said the composer, had a first version in 2008 with the title Que se va ya and alluded to Fidel Castro. It was precisely that year that Castro announced that he was resigning as president of Cuba and affirmed that he did not accept “the position of Commander in Chief.”
The salsa singer appeared on América TeVé on Friday and said the song had been a part of his album Pa’lante. “We decided to change [the lyrics] and make it more up to date — ‘que se vayan’ — because in reality, there is more than one henchman” on the island. [Ed.note: va is singular and vayan is plural]
In the audiovisual that promotes Que se vayan ya, Chirino and reggaeton artists Lenier Mesa, El Micha, Srta Dayana, El Chacal and Osmani García appear dressed in a pristine and symbolic white broken only by Chirino’s guitar stamped with the Cuban flag, and Srta Dayana’s braid of the same colors.
The song’s choruses, recorded at Mars Music Studio in Miami, include phrases such as ‘let the wall fall down’, ‘there is no more going back’ and ‘what the people want is freedom’. The production was led by Chirino, Lenier, Mauro Bertrán, Albareda and Nelson Martínez.
Chirino said that he is satisfied with the new version and very proud of each of the interpreters who performed in the song: “Each one did their part in a spectacular way.” He also acknowledges that there was “a very great affinity not only when we made the song but also when filming the video.”
The winner of the Grammy and Latin Grammy awards and an icon of the Cuban exile in Miami, note that 30 years have passed since he wrote his hit Ya viene llegando [(Our Day) is Coming], which has accompanied opponents of the Cuban regime for decades and speaks of maintaining the hope to regain the country they had to leave.
“There has not been a day that I have not felt optimistic over the years, I think that can never be lost, the desire to return to the homeland, to make this happen, each one in what they know how to do,” he confessed. “You have to have been born in Cuba to have experienced what it was like, to have known it before the Castros and to know the true beauty of the homeland before them and what a free Cuba means for all of us.”
Regarding the impact of his music, he said that both the artists who participated in Que se vayan ya, as well as many followers, tell them that they had to listen to his songs in silence because on the island they could not be heard, “it was illegal to listen to them and many of them they paid a high price for doing it,” but that risk helped them to “understand a little of the Cuban reality.”
“We are artists and it is up to us to use our art to reach people and communicate the Cuban tragedy. That cannot be lost and it is what I have felt over the years, even before Ya viene llegando, since the beginning of my career, since I came to Miami 60 years ago.”
The song Que se vayan follows the path started by Patria y Vida, released in February 2021, which became an anthem of the Cuban opposition. The song, by Gente de Zona, Yotuel Romero and Descemer Bueno with Maykel Castillo ’Osorbo’ and El Funky, was released to honor the San Isidro Movement and has paved the way for others such as Libertad, by Emilio Estefan, and Libertad y Amén , by Amaury Gutiérrez .
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