Daymé Arocena (born January 1992) is an Afro-Cuban

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

singer from

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, who has been described as

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

's "finest young female singer." She won the 2015

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

for the best jazz album, as a member of the jazz band Maqueque performing with Canadian musician

Jane Bunnett Mary Jane Bunnett, (born October 22, 1956) is a Canadian musician and educator. A soprano saxophonist, flautist and bandleader, she is especially known for performing Afro-Cuban jazz. She travels regularly to Cuba to perform with Cuban musicians. ...

''.'' Arocena is on National Public Radio's (NPR) list of 50 favourite albums of 2015, with the album ''Nueva Era''. Describing Arocena's voice, NPR host Felix Contreras called her "a cross between

Celia Cruz Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso (21 October 1925 – 16 July 2003), known as Celia Cruz, was a naturalized Cuban-American singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Cruz rose to fame in Cuba during t ...

and

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With ...

," saying that Arocena's name "deserve to be alongside those two legendary voices." Arocena began performing semi-professionally when she was eight years old; at the age of 14, she became the lead singer of the band ''Los Primos''. She is considered a musical prodigy, and is a trained composer, arranger, choir director, and band leader, in addition to being a singer. Arocena is a strong believer in Santeria, an

Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...

religion based on

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

principles; to mark her faith, she frequently performs wearing a turban and dressed in white.

Discography

;Studio Albums *Nueva Era (2015) *One Takes (2016) *Cubafonía (2017) *Sonocardiogram (2019) *Alkemi (2024)

References

Living people Afro-Cuban jazz singers Cuban Santeríans 1992 births 21st-century Cuban women singers Musicians from Havana {{Cuba-singer-stub