Yotuel announces the return of Orishas with new members

September 29, 2023

Cuban rapper Yotuel announced the return of the group Orishas for 2024 with new members, all Cuban, although for now he did not specify the names of the new members.

"We're coming back next year. We're preparing a new album. I'm very happy to return with Orishas," said Yotuel in statements to the Efe agency in which he only anticipated that one of the new members lives in Spain and the other in the U.S.

However, on social media there is speculation that the chosen ones could be rapper Hugo González -known as Doble 9- and Enyel Cuba, a sonero based in Madrid.

"No one is indispensable in anyone's life. Every person has a defined time in your life and a special character in your story. Whoever leaves, may they do well, whoever arrives, welcome. Feelings die. Feelings are born. Friendships end and others begin. I just want to be happy in this life that God gave you," Yotuel wrote in recent days next to a fragment of Enyel Cuba giving voice to one of Orishas' classics.

"For now, I prefer to focus on celebrating that the Patria y Vida video is nominated for the Latin Grammy. It's a new call to attention to the situation that the Cuban people are experiencing, especially Osvanys [Osorbo], our partner in the project," Yotuel indicated in statements to Efe when directly questioned about the new members of Orishas.

The rapper did anticipate that he will travel to Seville to participate in the Latin Grammy awards ceremony, which will take place on November 16.

The stages of Orishas
Orishas became known in 1999 with an unprecedented musical proposal that combined traditional Cuban music with hip-hop and rap.

Yotuel and Hiram Riverí Medina -known as Ruzzo- were former members of the hip-hop band Amenaza, while Roldán González was the voice of the traditional group Rico Son.

With a total of six studio albums and five short productions, Orishas went on to sell millions of records internationally. They won four Latin Grammy Awards and one American Grammy. However, in 2010 the group announced their separation.

Five years later, in 2015, they reunited to continue a second stage that ended definitively in January 2021. The separation of Orishas was announced just weeks before the explosive premiere of Patria y Vida, the song that became an anthem for democracy in Cuba.

Yotuel then revealed as the cause of the separation that the three had different interests in music, that they wanted to continue as solo artists, and that they did not want to "keep forcing something that no longer existed."

"I think COVID also came to make us reconsider many things and each of us wants to pursue his career as a solo artist. Only God knows if Orishas will return someday, in five, ten or fifteen years, I don't know," he said.

In mid-2021 -when Patria y Vida's premiere was a reality- disagreements between Yotuel and his former Orishas bandmates came to light.

Meanwhile, the artistic representative of Ruzzo and Roldán threatened legal action against Yotuel for over a million dollars and launched very serious accusations against the author of Patria y Vida.

Canal -from the Spanish company Staff 69 Producciones- denied that Ruzzo and Roldán have released any song against Patria y Vida, in reference to the musical theme "Cuba," in which both artists participated, and took the opportunity to reel off a long list of grievances, one of them being that Yotuel maintained total rights over the brand of the Orishas group.

"There are no lifetime contracts, in perpetuity. Those in Spain and anywhere in the world are null contracts," the businessman stressed.