Orishas uses Silvio Rodriguez song in their new video Ojalá pase

January 27, 2020

The Cuban group Orishas and Spanish singer Beatriz Luengo premiered the song "Ojalá pase" this week.

The song addresses issues that affect the daily life of Cubans such as lack of food, the transportation crisis, and the decline of the health system. It also references the government's propaganda apparatus that sells a paradisiacal image of the island. The song features as its chorus a fragment from "Ojalá," by Silvio Rodríguez, founder of the Nueva Trova movement.

Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez stated that he did not authorize Orishas to use his song "Ojalá" and that it seems to him "a regrettable act of parasitism."

"I did not authorize it. They did not ask for authorization," wrote Rodríguez this Saturday on his blog Segunda Cita after being asked about the new song "Ojalá pase" by Orishas and Beatriz Luengo.

Regarding this, Silvio argued:

"For some days now several friends have been asking me about a song by the group Orishas that uses a rather extensive fragment of my song Ojalá. Everyone wants to know the same thing: whether I authorized the use of my song within another song. I did not authorize it. They did not ask for authorization. What do I think of this flagrant violation of my rights as the author of Ojalá, something well-known for 50 years? It seems to me a regrettable act of parasitism."