The Cuban behind “Bonito, bonito”: Anier Cruz and Thiago Navarro, the “cafecito” singer who doesn't exist

October 26, 2026

The “cafecito riquito, riquito” song playing under thousands of TikTok, Instagram and YouTube videos has an unusual backstory: its singer, Thiago Navarro, isn't real. He is a virtual performer built with artificial-intelligence tools, and the person behind him is Cuban songwriter Anier Cruz Revilla, according to song credits reviewed by Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.

Spotify labels Thiago Navarro an “AI Persona,” and YouTube tags the official video as “Created with AI.” “Bonito, bonito” came out on August 3, 2026. By late September the video had passed 8.3 million views and the Spotify profile had about 1.5 million monthly listeners, El Tiempo reported.

Cruz Revilla has said the human part is the lyrics: he writes them, then uses several apps to generate the melody, the voice, the character's face and the music video, a process he told La FM took about two days, as Ecuador's El Comercio recounted. He has described the technology as a complementary tool rather than a replacement for artists.

Before Thiago Navarro, Anier Cruz Revilla was already credited on CubaniPro, a catalog of songs about Cuba and Cubans living abroad, releasing music since February 2025.