How Estrellas Buena Vista y Mas are bringing Cuban music back to its cultural home in the Middle East

Pancho Amat explains how his group's repertoire is rooted in the Arab world

Estrellas de Buena Vista y Mas features original musicians from the Buena Vista Social Club alongside a new generation of Cuban performers. Photo: Estrellas de Buena Vista y Mas

When Estrellas de Buena Vista y Mas take the stage of Dubai World Trade Centre on Wednesday, it will feel like a homecoming.

For Cuban band leader Pancho Amat, the rustic swing of his tres guitar, the bright double-stringed instrument at the heart of Cuban folk music, traces back to the ouds of medieval Andalusia before their bright sound travelled with Spanish ships across the Atlantic centuries ago.

Speaking from Havana, he says performing in the Arab world feels like bringing the music back to where it began.

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“It’s no secret how important Arab culture has been for humanity,” he says. “The contributions in science, mathematics and the arts are immense. It really excites us to bring our music to you.

“The tres, which I play, came through the Spanish tradition and was inherited from the Arabs. It uses double strings, like the Arab lute. So Arab culture is in everything we do. It excites us to return to the Arab world considering what we have received from it.”

That sense of continuity also shapes the band he leads. Formed in 2021, Estrellas de Buena Vista y Mas brings together original members of the Buena Vista Social Club with a new generation of Cuban musicians.

With classics such as Chan Chan and Dos Gardenias alongside his own works, Amat’s collective is more than a colourful show – it is a living form of cultural memory.

It is also about maintaining a sound that has been passed down through generations of families and communities, from the countryside to the Havana clubs and now to the world.

“That transmission from generation to generation maintains the authentic values of Cuban music,” he says. “It is a form of what you can call music of the peasants, but children and relatives are taught to improvise and add their own touch to it, the same way it happened with our rumba music, and it became popular.

“When we play on stage, we have great fun, but we do it humbly because we are also using the performance to repay the people who taught us this tradition and to make sure it stays alive.”

Amat says Cuban lyricism also carries these Arab influences through its poetic structure. The decima, a ten-line verse form rooted in Arabic poetry and central to improvised Cuban folk songs, travelled from Andalusia to Cuba via the Caribbean.

“The vocals in Cuban folk music also have a strong Arab influence,” he says. “That way of making rhyme connects with the Arab tradition. You can hear it in the folk music and Cuban dance songs like the rumba. It came through Spain, through Andalusia in particular and the Arab tradition in poetry and music arrived, and we still use it.”

Amat often hears these echoes beyond Cuba on tour. “I find young people who play the tres in Finland or in Germany or in Japan,” he says. “Suddenly they make a melodic or rhythmic phrase that feels Arab. And I say, look how, through Cuba, this music born in the Arab world keeps travelling. It shows the capacity of human beings to build bridges. A Japanese person can enjoy Cuban songs, and through it, elements of Arab music.”

Estrellas De Buena Vista y Mas perform on Wednesday at Dubai World Trade Centre. Doors open at 7.30pm; tickets from Dh200