Jorge Ramón Ibarra García

Singer-songwriter who is making his way by winning over Cubans. With a structure that allows him to defend his musical proposal, having a pop rock base, Yoyo's musical group possesses the Cuban touch and an approach to world music.

Yoyo studied at the Superior Institute of Design (ISDi) specializing in Visual Communication. His design career has served him to work on visuality and establish identity; the trovador tradition that gave birth to him in the world of music imposes a language on him, that need to express with beauty, whatever the rhythm, and at this point in his journey he feels like a singer-songwriter without limits for creation, who dreams of taking his music throughout Latin America.

In 2011, after three years in the professional world as a guitarist, composer, and vocalist, he consolidated his own musical group. The group is made up of six musicians: pianist, bass, guitar, drums, percussion, and Yoyo as singer and accompanying guitar.

It is a structure that allows him to defend his musical proposal, having a pop rock base composed of drums, bass, and piano; and percussion that gives him the Cuban touch and an approach to world music. With this musical structure he also has the possibility of creating an acoustic format in accordance with the venues and the intention of certain compositions.

Having his own group gave Yoyo Ibarra the opportunity to open the Young Film Festival within the Latin American Film Festival. He has participated in relevant concerts with groups like the Dúo Buena Fe and artists like Raúl Torres and David Blanco. The prestigious singer-songwriter José Luis Barba included them in the Cubanos II project, which in its first edition featured figures of the caliber of Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, and Carlos Varela.

He obtained the endorsement as musician, instrumentalist, and composer granted by the Cuban Institute of Music in 2009.

Performances with the Javi Santana Group, MUSICUBA Agency. At Casas de la Música, Cabaret Turquino, Hotel Habana Libre, Cabaret el Chévere, and others from 2009 to present.
Invited to the Piña Colada Festival 2010.
Performances with the Shamela group, at Casas de la música, Arte en la Rampa, popular festivals in various provinces.
Collaborations with the Lego group and Yerba Buena belonging to the Center for Promotion of Popular Music.
Performance with the Dúo Buena Fe, at the Peace concert on April 4, 2011 on the steps of the University of Havana.
Performance and entry into the "Cubanos" Project directed by José Luis Barba.
Performance with Raúl Torres, at the Student concert on November 17, 2011 on the university steps.
Opening Concert of the Young Film Showcase 2011 with his band.
Concert at La Tribuna Antiimperialista on April 4, 2012 by Cuban Youth.
Concert at the Steps of the University of Havana in Solidarity with the 5 Heroes in 2012.

Yoyo Ibarra has a first album, where David Blanco is the musical producer and Emilio Vega is the arranger for several tracks. Among the guests are David Blanco himself, Eme Alfonso, and Adrián Berazaín. It is a production that includes Latin pop, alternative rock, electronic music, and traditional Cuban music such as trovador, bolero, feeling, and son. After filming his first music video under the direction of Roberto Chile and Daniel Chile, he also has a second video that is his directorial debut, where he shares direction with three other graphic design colleagues, Liván Valdés, René Pedroso, and Alejandro Seguí.

Awards and Recognition
Poetry and short story contest. Chocolate Flute. UNEAC Award. 1998.
Participant in the national Spanish Language contest. 2000.
First place Trovador Festival 2004 IPVCE Lenin.
Invited to the Gala for the FAR anniversary. 2007.
Grand Prize for Music at the ISDI University Festival. 2010.
Gold Medal Trovador Festival. ISDI 2010.

2013
Yoyo Ibarra launches his first solo album Se Subasta. In this phonogram under the EGREM record label, the singer-songwriter delivers 12 of his own compositions that move through the genres of pop and rock fused with Cuban music. They are also framed in a conceptual projection with coherent aesthetics, deep lyricism, and singular thematic composition. Se Subasta was licensed by SONY MUSIC ESPAÑA. With the song I Kiss You he ranks for the first time among the 10 most popular artists in Cuba.

2014
He performs a National Tour to promote the phonographic production and later has various performances as part of the promotion of this CD in Spain, France, Venezuela, Panama, and Colombia.

2015
He releases his single Olvídame in collaboration with maestro Manolito Simonet and Su Trabuco, a prestigious orchestra within the popular music scene. This song, which fuses cumbia and Cuban music, repositions him in the Top 10 of the most popular artists on the island, as a result of being one of the 5 most-played songs in Cuba that year.

2016
Yoyo Ibarra releases Candela pa la vela, a song that opens his second album Tropical under the EGREM label, where he tries to approach different Latin American model matrices such as salsa, cumbia, bachata, bolero, son, and rumba. The song Candela pa la vela became the most-played song in Cuba in 2016. That same year, the widely followed American reality show Keeping Up with the Kardashians filmed one of its episodes in Havana and invited Yoyo to participate in the program performing his popular song. The renowned and controversial music producer Kanye West expressed his admiration for the musical production and composition of the single performed by the Cuban artist on the program.

Sony Music ATV included two tracks from this phonogram in its compilation The Best of Cuban Music: Rumba and Candela pa la vela.

2017
Yoyo presents Lo prometido es deuda, a song that once again places him among the 10 most popular artists on the island, this time in his fourth consecutive year. In this single, the artist aims to fuse the most contemporary trends—urban and electronic music—with more tropical and traditional sounds.