Cuban musicians record Queen anthem to face coronavirus confinement

April 7, 2020

Cuban musicians are preparing a version of the Queen band anthem, "We Will Rock You," focused on supporting people during social isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic and making everyone feel more united than ever, despite the distance.

Composer and singer David Blanco was the promoter of this idea, which has been adopted by artists based inside and outside Cuba such as Osamu Menéndez, Jorgito Kamankola, Ernesto Blanco, and filmmaker Asiel Babastro, among others.

David Blanco wants this song to be taken as a message of encouragement and hope for all people who are living through this time of tension due to the coronavirus pandemic. He says it's about cubanizing Queen's anthem and continuing to rock from home to face this social confinement.

"Musician and rocker friends don't want to abandon music despite this moment. We don't want to stop rocking and it seemed excellent to us to reclaim the strength of this song that has accompanied humanity's celebrations for decades. Now we'll try to cubanize it, to bring it to our own interpretation of the meaning of its music," Blanco told OnCuba.

Asiel Babastro is a filmmaker with a work of wide recognition on the island. Babastro studied guitar before dedicating himself to directing video clips, a creative field in which he has won several Lucas awards, the largest competition for audiovisual filmmakers in Cuba. The creator is now in the city of Miami, where he will film "We Will Rock You".