News

Earlier tonight at the 78th Annual Tony Awards, Natalie Venetia Belcon took home a Tony Award for 'Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical' for her outstanding work in Buena Vista Social Club. After leaving the stage at Radio City Music Hall, she checked in with BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge to share her initial reaction! Belcon is portraying the legendary Omara Portuondo in the one of a kind Buena Vista Social Club, and is beyond honored to have won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Performer in a Musical and to have been nominated for a Drama Desk Award. Broadway credits include: Matilda (Mrs. Phelps), Avenue Q (original cast as Gary Coleman), Rent (Joanne). Off-Broadway credits include: Ahrens and...

Maybe Happy Ending, a musical about two robots falling in love, was the big winner at the Tony Awards Sunday, as the ceremony also awarded a number of firsts.

The musical took home the top prize of best musical, with Darren Criss winning his first Tony Award for leading the show, as well as four other Tonys, including best director of a musical. Nicole Scherzinger won her first Tony Award for her role as Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd. in one of the most hotly contested categories, beating out six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald.

“Growing up, I always felt like I didn’t belong. But you all have made me feel like I belong, and I have come home, at last,” Scherzinger said during her emotional acceptance speech.

Sunset Blvd. also won the Tony for best revival of a musical, for Jamie Lloyd’s stripped-down reinterpretation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber classic.

The world will descend on New York on Sunday night, by way of the 78th Tony Awards. Shows set in the U.S., the U.K., Cuba, Italy, and Iran all make their way to the nominees circle. Not to mention a show from South Korea projected to win more Tonys than any other production, potentially the first one ever to premiere in Asia and win best musical.

And when I say “projected,” I mean that mathematically. Every year, I run a statistical model based on precursor awards, which categories a show is nominated in, blended critic predictions, and betting markets to project the odds that each nominee will emerge victorious in every category. After another wonderful year on Broadway, with 42 new shows opening and 29 of them receiving nominations, it’s time to get excited for the big night with a data-based forecast at who might triumph at Radio City...

“Right now, we need joy. We need to be in a space with other human beings who are having a joyful experience,” says director Saheem Ali about why the new Broadway musical Buena Vista Social Club has been resonating with audiences.

Set in Cuba in 1956 and 1996, the musical tells the story of how the Grammy-winning album of the same featuring iconic Cuban performers came to fruition, while also looking at the tumultuous period of history from which many of those songs were born. Ali and librettist Marco Ramirez spoke with Gold Derby and other journalists at the 2025 Tony Awards Meet the Nominees press event.

Before embarking on the project, Ali knew that the original album was special. He recalls, “I grew up in Kenya, and my first language is Swahili. When I was a teenager, my dad brought the CD home and I was obsessed with the album and I...

Isa Antonetti is making her Broadway debut in the new musical Buena Vista Social Club and she gives a performance that will be remembered!

The newcomer plays the role of Young Omara in the new show, which is inspired by true events and brings the Grammy Award-winning album of the same name to life.

The legendary Cuban singer Omara Portuondo actually attended the opening night performance of the musical and visited with Isa and actress Natalie Venecia Belcon, who plays the older version.

We caught up with Isa to learn more about her. Check out 10 Fun Facts below!

I love communicating in gifs over text. It makes me laugh and that’s all that matters. I love a dollar oyster Happy Hour! My first show was High School Musical 2 as Gabriella. I’m always craving Asian cuisine. Always. The first award I won was my elementary school Spanish Spelling Bee.

Isa Antonetti is making her Broadway debut in the new musical Buena Vista Social Club and she gives a performance that will be remembered!

The newcomer plays the role of Young Omara in the new musical, which is inspired by true events and brings the Grammy Award-winning album of the same name to life.

The legendary Cuban singer Omara Portuondo actually attended the opening night performance of the musical and visited with Isa and actress Natalie Venecia Belcon, who plays the older version.

We caught up with Isa to learn more about her. Check out 10 Fun Facts below!

I love communicating in gifs over text. It makes me laugh and that’s all that matters. I love a dollar oyster Happy Hour! My first show was High School Musical 2 as Gabriella. I’m always craving Asian cuisine. Always. The first award I won was my elementary school Spanish Spelling Bee.

Jennifer Lopez and her 17-year-old child Emme checked out another Broadway show this weekend and it’s one of the Tony Awards frontrunners this year!

The music superstar caught a performance of the new musical Buena Vista Social Club on Saturday night (April 5) at the Schoenfeld Theatre in New York City.

Inspired by true events, the new Broadway musical brings the Grammy Award-winning album Buena Vista Social Club to thrilling life—and tells the story of the legends who lived it. A world-class Afro-Cuban band is joined by a sensational cast in this unforgettable tale of survival, second chances, and the extraordinary power of music.

Jennifer went backstage after the show and met with the stars, including lead actresses Natalie Venecia Belcon and Isa Antonetti, who portray legendary Cuban singer Omara Portuondo at two points of her life.

“You guys did such an amazing job tonight. The show was so beautiful,...

The new musical Buena Vista Social Club is now open on Broadway and a star-studded group of celebs attended the special performance!

Lupita Nyong’o, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Eva Longoria, Ariana DeBose, and so many more attended the opening event on Wednesday (March 19) at the Schoenfeld Theatre in New York City.

Inspired by true events, the new Broadway musical brings the Grammy Award-winning album Buena Vista Social Club to thrilling life—and tells the story of the legends who lived it. A world-class Afro-Cuban band is joined by a sensational cast in this unforgettable tale of survival, second chances, and the extraordinary power of music.

Lin‘s father Luis Miranda is one of the show’s producers, alongside Orin Wolf, John Styles, and Tony winners Lachanze and John Leguizamo, who were all at the opening.

Lupita was at the event to support her childhood friend Saheem Ali, who is the director of the new musical.

From a young age, Ángela Aguilar always knew that her purpose was to keep traditional música Mexicana alive. It’s a family affair, really: Her grandfather was ranchera hero Antonio Aguilar and her father is the renowned singer Pepe Aguilar.

The 20-year-old singer continues to invigorate traditional sounds as she releases her latest album, Bolero, on Friday. The nine-track project captures the singer giving new life to romantic classics, backed by castanets and the soothing plucks of guitar, on tracks like “Piensa En Mi,” “Somos Novios,” and “Luna Lunera.”

With the album,...

Cuba is roughly 1,300 miles away, but in a rehearsal space in downtown Manhattan, it doesn’t feel all that far. Cradling their percussion instruments, horns, and guitars, a ten-piece band of musicians, some from Latin America, preparing to play a sinuous piece of son Cubano, as a theater crew — director, writer, actors and choreographers — hover around.

“Nothing like this has been attempted before,” says music supervisor Dean Sharenow. “It’s important that this is the real thing, not a Broadway musical production.”

Welcome to the next iteration of the enduring...

Rolling Stone witnessed all of the action at this year’s 24th Annual Latin Grammy Awards in Spain.

This year’s ceremony moved overseas to Seville for the first time ever, and our Senior Music Editor Julyssa Lopez and Video Producer and Host Ilana Woldenberg caught up with some of the acts who walked the red carpet before the awards show.

We got to chat with Peso Pluma and Nicki Nicole (who made their red carpet debut as a couple), Juanes, Gale, Maria Becerra, Ana Del Castillo, and more. Watch their interviews,...

Last year at the Grammys, Bad Bunny’s LP Un Verano Sin Ti made history as the first Spanish-language project nominated for Album of the Year, and his song “Moscow Mule” got a nod under Best Pop Solo Performance. These all seemed to be signs that the Recording Academy was broadening its view of Latin music and art and considering it for major categories, rather than siloing it to genre-specific categories.

But sadly, it’s back to bad habits this year. No Latin artists appear in the Big Four, despite...

Alvaro la Fuente’s year has been a whirlwind — a product of a budding, but frenetic musical career that has taken him across the world. Prior to releasing his first LP, La Cantera, which came out in May, the Spanish singer, who records under his stage name Guitarricadelafuente, was touring with only a handful of songs under his belt. Many of those tracks were acoustic-driven melodies dressed in La Fuente’s low-hum, classical drawl. But after realizing he wanted to make a full-length album, la Fuente joined forces with Raül Refree,...

Natalia Lafourcade received a standing ovation at Carnegie Hall before she uttered a single note.

The singer-songwriter filled the venue with her unmistakable voice during a dazzling performance on Oct. 27, appearing onstage in a shiny black dress with a long train, her loose hair a complement to the flow of the fabric. Shortly after the show began, David Byrne, dressed in a dapper black suit, joined her and recited an English translation of “Muerte,” a key track from De Todas Las Flores — Lafourcade’s first album of original music in seven years.

Festival runs September 29-October 1.

GuadaLAjara Film Festival (Glaff) will honour Latinx star Xolo Maridueña and Rosario Dawson at this year’s event in Downtown Los Angeles, running September 29-October 1.

Maridueña will receive the Arbol de la Vida Trailblazer Award on opening night for his achievements as an actor, breaking down barriers, and inspiring the next generation of Latin talent. He has played the lead in Netflix series Cobra Kai for the last five seasons.

Dawson will receive the Arbol de la Vida Artist and Advocacy Award on closing night in recognition of her activism and philanthropy work. Her credits include the Sin City franchise,...

Festival runs September 29-October 1.

GuadaLAjara Film Festival (Glaff) will honour Latinx star Xola Maridueña and Rosario Dawson at this year’s event in Downtown Los Angeles, running September 29-October 1.

Maridueña will receive the Arbol de la Vida Trailblazer Award on opening night for his achievements as an actor, breaking down barriers, and inspiring the next generation of Latin talent. He has played the lead in Netflix series Cobra Kai for the last five seasons.

Dawson will receive the Arbol de la Vida Artist and Advocacy Award on closing night in recognition of her activism and philanthropy work. Her credits include the Sin City franchise,...

Over a drumroll reminiscent of a march or religious procession, the massive blue velvet curtains came falling down like a waterfall, and the stage at Madrid’s WiZink Center arena on Saturday turned into a dim lit club, complete with small tables, a bartender, a full orchestra and the evening’s master of ceremonies: the Spanish singer, rapper and songwriter C. Tangana, dressed in a double breasted striped suit and dark shades. “Thank you for being part of the most important gig of my fucking life,” he told the 15,000 fans...

Most people know Matt Dillon as an actor who grew up in front of the cameras. He won two Indie Spirit Awards for “Drugstore Cowboy” and for “Crash;” that one also yielded a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Dillon also made a strong directing debut in 2003 with moody thriller “City of Ghosts” co-starring James Caan, Gerard Depardieu, and Stellan Skarsgård.

None of that addressed an all-consuming passion for world music with a vast collection of vinyl and shellac 78s (sorted alphabetically by artist or label), and making a documentary about Cuban scat singer Francisco Fellove that took him 20 years to complete. “The Great Fellove” debuted to rave reviews at San Sebastian 2020, and more recently, Telluride 2021.

in the film, Cuban rumba performer Chan Campos describes Fellove: “He was a drum from his feet to his head.” (See our clip below.) Dillon’s documentary captures the scat maestro who gave us the original “Mango Mangue,...

Most people know Matt Dillon as an actor who grew up in front of the cameras. He won two Indie Spirit Awards for “Drugstore Cowboy” and for “Crash;” that one also yielded a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Dillon also made a strong directing debut in 2003 with moody thriller “City of Ghosts” co-starring James Caan, Gerard Depardieu, and Stellan Skarsgård.

None of that addressed an all-consuming passion for world music with a vast collection of vinyl and shellac 78s (sorted alphabetically by artist or label), and making a documentary about Cuban scat singer Francisco Fellove that took him 20 years to complete. “The Great Fellove” debuted to rave reviews at San Sebastian 2020, and more recently, Telluride 2021.

in the film, Cuban rumba performer Chan Campos describes Fellove: “He was a drum from his feet to his head.” (See our clip below.) Dillon’s documentary captures the scat maestro who gave us the original “Mango Mangue,...

Actor and filmmaker Matt Dillon has released two clips from “The Great Fellove” [“El Gran Fellove”], a long-gestating documentary chronicling the musical career of Cuban scat singer and showman Francisco ‘el Gran’ Fellove and the recording of his last album, “Fellove & Joey.” The film is world premiering at the San Sebastian Film Festival and is being sold by Nick Shumaker of United Talent Agency.

It is Academy-Award nominee Dillon’s second feature film in the director’s chair. In 2003 he co-wrote and made “City of Ghosts” in which he starred alongside James Caan, Gerard Depardieu, and Stellan Skarsgård.

Through a series of interviews, archival photos and videos, as well as new footage, “The Great Fellove” recounts Fellove’s life as a struggling musician in Cuba, his eventual success in Mexico, and the contagious love he had for music until the very end.

The Cuban soul star was born on Oct.

Could your weekend playlist use a little more seasoning? Rolling Stone Latin selects some of the best new music releases from Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Keep track of the latest in Latin via our playlist on Spotify.

Maluma feat. Lenny Tavárez, Justin Quiles, “Parce”

Surprise! Colombian singer-songwriter Maluma dropped his fifth studio album on Friday morning, titled Papi Juancho. After playing the “Pretty Boy” in his Grammy-nominated album, 11:11, this summer the Medellín heartthrob resuscitates the “Dirty Boy” persona that first garnered him his global fanbase … and the occasional spell of controversy.

“You can tell a Cuban by the way they laugh,” says Omara Portuondo.

Just hours shy of her Friday night concert in Manhattan’s Sony Hall — halfway through her last-ever worldwide tour, dubbed the ‘Last Kiss’ — one of Cuba’s most exalted singers turned heads as she let burst a throaty cackle. The 88-year-old not only has a natural gift for music, but for conjuring smiles wherever she goes. “Cubans make big laughs,” she tells Rolling Stone. “What defines our people is our happiness.”

Portuondo had been celebrated in her home country for decades,...

Lucy Walker’s documentary usefully fills in gaps left by the wildly successful 1999 Wim Wenders film about the band and its few ageing survivors

This thoughtful if somewhat scattered documentary takes a last look at the hugely influential Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon, a project that started out as an album recording tracks by ageing Cuban musicians brought together by British impresario Nick Gold and produced by American musician Ry Cooder. Director Wim Wenders made a wildly successful documentary in 1999 that helped increase sales the album, while the artists it featured (most of whom had never worked with each other before) became near household names in metropolitan, world-music-curious households across the world.

Here, director Lucy Walker interweaves interviews with many of the surviving band members and archive footage to provide biographical, political and historical background. That usefully fills in gaps the first documentary left unsaid, but then part of the...

Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This August will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.

To sign up for a free two-week trial here.

Tuesday, August 1

Tuesday’s Short + Feature: These Boots and Mystery Train

Music is at the heart of this program, which pairs a zany music video by Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki with a tune-filled career highlight from American independent-film pioneer Jim Jarmusch. In the 1993 These Boots, Kaurismäki’s band of pompadoured “Finnish Elvis” rockers, the Leningrad Cowboys, cover a Nancy Sinatra classic in their signature deadpan style. It’s the perfect prelude to Jarmusch’s 1989 Mystery Train, a homage to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the musical legacy of Memphis, featuring appearances by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Joe Strummer.

Cuba has just been opened up to Americans, but twenty years ago musician Ry Cooder saw to it that a vanishing music tradition was preserved for posterity. Wim Wenders followed up with this rough & ready documentary that became almost as popular as the best selling album of mambos, boleros and cha-chas.

Buena Vista Social Club

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 866

1999 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 105 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 18, 2017 / 39.95

Starring: Compay Segundo, Eliades Ochoa, Ry Cooder, Joachim Cooder, Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo, Rubén González, Orlando ‘Cachaíto’ López, Amadito Valdés, Manuel ‘Guajiro’ Mirabal, Barbarito Torres, Pío Leyva, Manuel ‘Puntillita’ Licea, Juan de Marcos González.

Cinematography: Jörg Widmer

Film Editor: Brian Johnson

Written by Wim Wenders, concept Nick Gold

Produced by Deepak Nayar

Directed by Wim Wenders

Looking for something new and invigorating, in the late 1980s Paul Simon collaborated with South African vocalists for a refreshing pop hybrid album...

Exhibitions, rooftop folk music, Blondie at Kew – plan some capital entertainment with these events recommended by London listings website Run-Riot.com

See our new interactive London city guide

Mary Hampton: Secret Gardens and Enchanted Follies, 15 June, Queen Elizabeth Hall roof garden

This is the first live event in the roof garden of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and it also launches Mary Hampton's Secret Gardens and Enchanted Follies tour, all taking place under a rising, eclipsed full moon. Based on Mary's fascination with the possession of beauty through the pursuit of idealism, this event will see her performing new repertoire from her forthcoming album, Folly. Hailed as one of the true originals of the "new" folk scene, Mary has a fragile, haunting voice that perfectly conveys the surreal satires, bittersweet romanticism and incisive wit of her songs.

• tickets on sale 23 May, £15, southbankcentre.co.uk, themagpiesnest.co.uk, myspace.com...

Beverly Hills, CA . .¡Sí Cuba! SoCal,. a multi-venue Southern California festival celebrating the culture of the island nation through art, dance, film, music and discussion, runs now through Sunday, October 2, 2011. Building on the momentum of the ¡Sí Cuba! festival currently in New York, .¡Sí Cuba! SoCal. will be presented by seven Southern California-based organizations and will include three exhibitions, hand-silkscreened film posters, political cartoons, and photographs documenting Cuba.s history; performances by the renowned Ballet Nacional de Cuba in Costa Mesa and Los Angeles; a film series with filmmaker Q&As; and a concert by the Buena Vista Social Club® orchestra.

The following is the .¡Sí Cuba! SoCal. calendar of events:

Cuban Film Posters: From Havana to the World

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Grand Lobby Gallery, Beverly Hills

Now . August 28

www.oscars.org/sicubasocal

This exhibition will showcase 125 hand-silkscreened posters from Cuban and international films created by...

Cuban singer Omara Portuondo celebrates the award for Best Contemporary Tropical Album at the Latin Grammy Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 05 November 2009. The Latin Grammy Awards honor artistic and technical excellence in the recording arts and sciences and has become the height of achievement in Latin music recording. Epa/Paul Buck American musician Alicia Keys (R) and Spanish musician Alejandro Sanz perform at the Latin Grammy Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 05 November 2009. The Latin Grammy Awards honor artistic and technical excellence in the recording arts and sciences and has become the height of achievement in Latin music recording. Epa/Paul Buck Brazilian singer Daniela Mercuryperforms at the Latin Grammy Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada,...

Ry Cooder's plaintive, sinuous guitar work has been an indispensable contribution to the films of Wim Wenders and Walter Hill. With "Buena Vista Social Club", gifted German director Wenders returns the favor via a loving, vivid documentary that not only explores Cooder's music, craftsmanship, culture and roots but becomes a meditation on creativity.

The spellbinding work, a special screening at the Berlin Film Festival, should tap an appreciative audience that will respond strongly to its soulful celebration and sense of wonder. "I've been making records for 35 years. I never know how the public is going to respond, but this was most enjoyment I ever had," Cooder says early on. In 1996, during a visit to Havana, Cooder sought out the surviving members of Cuba's vibrant pre-revolutionary music scene to collaborate on an album. "In Cuba", Cooder says, "the music flows like a river." The finished work, "Buena Vista Social Club", was a critical and commercial phenomenon.

Wenders, operating with a small, guerrilla crew (the movie was shot on digital video and Beta camcorder), showcases 1998 concerts staged in New York and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Like Jonathan Demme's "Stop Making Sense", the portrait is deeply humane, evoking detailed texture and an emotionally riveting examination of the 13 Cuban singers and musicians that complemented Cooder's usual sidemen.

Denied overt political or ideological "insights," "Social Club" exists on a deeper, direct level of camaraderie and musical kinship. One feels like an anthropologist bearing witness to a forgotten, buried world.

Wenders' excursion into the exotic, desperate streets of Havana transcends conventional documentary form, providing voice and shape to the compelling personalities. Cooder functions in the background, willingly assimilating his voice into the collective. The dominant figures are two incredible subjects: Compay Segundo ("a Cuban Nat King Cole," Cooder says), an astonishing 91-year-old guitarist and singer with an expressive face and liquid eyes, and chanteuse Omara Portuondo, daughter of a prominent Cuban baseball player, whose deep-lined face and electric voice are magical and transcendent.

In Wenders' fiction films, the road is unstable and rootless, a place from which people are constantly fleeing. However, the Havana that Wenders conjures seems trapped in space, with 1950s shark-fin convertibles and once-elegant facades of crumbling architecture illustrating the elusive, mysterious Soneros music scene.

"Social Club" puts a human voice to a world that for many existed only in the abstract. In deft visual and cinematic language, it transports us to an exciting time that the world should be privileged to experience, at least for one night.

BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB

Road Movies

A Wim Wenders film

Producer-director: Wim Wenders

Directors of photography: Jorg Widmer, Robby Muller

Editor: Peter Przygodda

Color/stereo

With: Ry Cooder, Joaquim Cooder, Compay Segundo, Ruben Gonzalez, Ibrahim Ferrer, Eliades Ochoa, Omara Portuondo, Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal, Orlando Lopez "Cachaito", Barbarito Torres, Manuel "Puntillita" Licea, Raul Planas, Felix Valoy, Richard Egues, Maceo Rodriguez

No MPAA rating...