Cuban Singer Omara Portuondo to be Awarded at Caribbean Festival

Together with the diva (84) five other singers will receive the distinction: Masekela (South Africa), Ronnie Butler (Bahamas), Jimmy Cliff (Jamaica), Emile Straker (Barbados) and McCartha 'Calypso Rose' Sandy-Lewis (Trinidad and Tobago), all considered high-calibre artists.

The prize recognizes each year the Caribbean artists and from other latitudes who have an outstanding career inside and out of their countries of origin.

Portuondo is qualified as one of the best voices in Latin America and is even frequently named the Cuban Edith Piaf for her musical talent. Along her extensive career she received several important awards inside and out of her native Cuba, among them the National Prize of Music 2006.

The Caribbean Muzik Festival will pay tribute in its new edition to the 30th anniversary of the Nassau Agreement, which paved the way to put an end to apartheid in South Africa and the excarceration of Nelson Mandela.

The special guests of the cultural venue are the gospel choir of Soweto and the Cuban ballet of the Tropicana Nighclub.

The festival celebrated for the first time in 1994 will bring to state singers and Caribbean music bands interpreting the calypso, the reggae and the junkanoo, among other rhythms.