Chucho Valdés, Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Alex Cuba are the three Cubans who win Grammys 2022

April 4, 2022

Three Cuban musicians took home the 2022 Grammy Award this Sunday in their respective categories.

The winners of the 64th edition of the prestigious awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States were Cuban pianists Chucho Valdés and Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and singer-songwriter Alex Cuba.

Chucho Valdés:
Distinguished Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés won the Best Latin Jazz Album award for his album "Mirror, Mirror" alongside American Chick Correa.

The 80-year-old artist and five-time Grammy Award winner wrote on his social media after the news: "Thank you Eliane Elías for counting on me in this incredible project! How proud I am of this award!!

Gonzalo Rubalcaba

Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba won in the Best Instrumental Jazz Album category for "Skyline", in collaboration with Americans Ron Carter and Jack DeJohnette.

The 58-year-old musician also has five Grammy Awards.

Alex Cuba

Cuban singer-songwriter Alexis Puentes, known as Alex Cuba, won the 2022 Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album for his album "Mendó".

"I can't believe I just won a Grammy. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart!", the artist wrote on his social media along with a video in which he shares the emotion he felt after receiving the news.

This is the first Grammy Award for the 48-year-old artist and Canada resident. He had been nominated in the Best Latin Pop Album category on three previous occasions: in 2011 for "Alex Cuba", in 2016 for "Healer" and in 2018 for "Lo Único Constante".

At the 64th Grammy Awards, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States nominated a total of six Cubans:

Chucho Valdés, in the Best Latin Jazz Album category with the recording "Mirror, Mirror", in collaboration with Chick Corea.

In the same category, Cuban-American Dafnis Prieto, with the album "Transparency".

Also nominated was singer-songwriter Alex Cuba with his album "Mendó", in the Best Latin Pop Album category.

Singer Aymée Nuviola for her production "Sin salsa no hay paraíso", in the Best Tropical Latin Album category.

Pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba in the Best Instrumental Jazz Album category for his work on "Skyline", alongside Ron Carter and Jack DeJohnette.

In the case of Cuban Arturo O'Farrill, he was nominated in two categories: in the Best Instrumental Composition section for his project "Dreaming In Lions", with The Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble, and in the Best Latin Jazz Album category with "Virtual Birdland".

At this year's ceremony at the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Aymée Nuviola was a guest in representation of Latin American musicians.

The Cuban singer, who in 2020 won the Grammy with "La Sonera del Mundo", shone this year with her version of 'La gota fría" on the terrace of the MGM GRAND, where she got the audience present dancing.

This year the Grammy Awards included two new categories in the competition: Best Global Music Performance (Global Music Category) and Best Urban Music Album (Latin Music Category). This brought the total number of categories to 86.