miami.cbslocal.com [includes video]
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MIAMI (CBS Miami) — The day has come for the Rolling Stones historic concert in Cuba.
The legendary group is the first major international rock group to perform
on the communist island.
on the communist island.
The band is officially in Cuba.
“Thanks for welcoming us to your beautiful country,” Mick Jagger said in Spanish in a video posted online.
.
The legendary band caps off a historic month for the island nation, one that saw its first visit by a sitting U.S. President in almost a century, and its first Electronic Dance Music concert ever.
DJ and music producer Diplo got nearly half a million people dancing in the streets of Havana.
He told co-host of “CBS This Morning” Charlie Rose why he brought his music to Cuba.
“The most important thing we can do in America is bridge the cultural gap,” Diplo said. “Because that’s the one thing we have a lot of capital in is what we’re doing as creative people.”
As for the Rolling Stones, singer Mick Jagger, guitarist Keith Richards, drummer Charlie Watts and guitarist Ronnie Woods arrived in Havana Thursday evening – a place that once banned groups like theirs.
“That’s what happens when you ban things,” said Keith Richards.
Jagger said those days are long past and the country is starting to change, open up and embrace the outside world.
“Obviously something has happened in the last few years,” said Jagger. “So, time changes everything and so we are very pleased to be here and I’m sure it’s going to be a great show, tomorrow, I think it is, God is it really tomorrow? We better get ready!”
The band was greeted on the tarmac at Jose Marti Airport by UK Ambassador to Cuba Tim Cole and Cuban Cultural Ministry officials.
Nicholas Cull, a professor of public diplomacy at the University of Southern California (USC) says music breaks barriers.
“You have a moment that’s in some ways unexpected and spectacular that is about energy and emotion and shows how people are coming together and that’s the magic of these public events,” Cull explained.
,” Cull explained.
In 1984, Wham! took its Freedom Tour to China, bringing pop music for the first time to the Middle Kingdom.
In 1979, Elton John pierced the Iron Curtain with concerts in Moscow.
And some say Billy Joel may have helped hasten the fall of communism when he toured the Soviet Union in 1987.
Cuba is the last stop on the Rolling Stones Latin American tour.
The communist country once banned music by the Beatles, only changing its tune in 2000, when Fidel Castro unveiled a statue of John Lennon. Now rock royalty is set to thrill fans in the heart of the communist island.
“We’ve played in a lot of incredible places,” Jagger said in an onlinevideo. “But this concert in Havana will be historic for us.”
. “But this concert in Havana will be historic for us.”
The free concert will take place at the Ciudad Deportiva De La Habana. It was supposed to happen last Sunday, but it was pushed back because of President Obama’s visit.
If a million people do attend as anticipated, that would mean 1 out of every 11 Cubans on the island would be there.
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