Yicel Acosta González, 37-year-old singer from Camagüey, with two decades of professional career. Photos: Courtesy of the intervieweeCAMAGÜEY.- She was born into a musical home with a mezzo-soprano range. Grandfather Blas González played percussion and made the second voice of the Voces del momento quartet. Her father, guitarist Rogelio Acosta led the Girón group. Her mother, Carmen María, was in the Camagüey Professional Choir. Her sister Yelene focused on singing as a child. Everything would have been easier, but Yicel Acosta González chose to fight her way. She has been enduring for 20 years because her career has had too many obstacles.
“I started with the Ave Maria in the church of La Soledad and since then I have not stopped. In addition, my sister studied at the Luis Casas Romero Vocational School of Art (EVA). She played the piano, learned a lot of songs and every afternoon I played with her, my grandmother Ana María and my mother joined in ”.
─If you liked it so much, why did you go to a tech?
─For the follies of youth. I was studying singing at the EVA and I gave up. I finished ninth grade on the street and enrolled at the Manuel Cañete Ramos Industrial Polytechnic Institute to train as a medium technician in Metrology. I also didn't finish because I knew about an audition. It was my gateway as a music professional.
─You have been in your career for 20 years and little is known about you, what do you attribute that silence to?
─To my character, perhaps. All artists are not extroverts. I also know that my weight has influenced. Once at the Cabaret Caribe I was playing a song by the British Adele, and a woman said: “And what does that fat woman think? Adele is famous, but she is not. I'm not interested in being a diva. I want to grow as a singer, for the public to know and value my work.
─The market pressures by showing appearance and not talent, what other bitter times do you go through?
─Maybe I have had more fight than necessary. I go up on stage to offer my voice, not my body; however, there is an obvious bias when many events happen and I am not called to participate in one. The meaning of being an artist for me is to share feelings, to give up the soul.
─In terms of music, what you say is equivalent to a specific genre?
─I would like to cover all genres. The music is so rich. I have a predilection for songs in English, of course, I love my Cuban roots. This quarantine has helped me to assemble songs. I started with home videos. Then I recorded a small concert of Cuban music taken to jazz, with the independent audiovisual production company Fango Records and with Alma Records 7 Music whose producer is Dawlyn Aldana. We are in the final touches for the networks. I also made a covers album with him with 10 songs that identify me.
─Musicians from commercial catalogs have been the most affected during the pandemic. How has it been for you?
─Difficult. Thanks to God and to those who made the help possible, I have received an economic protection. Since I have two girls, I can't even look for another job. I have been able to take advantage of the quarantine to renew the repertoire, learn to sew, paint and discover makeup secrets. One has to occupy the mind and be active.
─For mothers, this time has raised the percentages of attention. Tell me about the TV-classes and you.
─The little girl is two years old. The oldest studies music, she is in fifth grade. She had just entered school when the pandemic struck. She gives appreciation, music theory, and piano. We get involved in the specialty, but we cannot leave schooling out of hand. In that case, I take Spanish and History, and dad Mathematics. Teachers care a lot, and to my joy, music is in their genes.
─Are they the reason for your return to Camagüey?
─ The first time I left Camagüey, I went to Varadero, for four years. I was jumping from one group to another. I stayed longer with Creation, at the Hotel Princesa del Mar. Then I came, I continued working until about three years ago when I worked six months in Cayo Guillermo with the Sandunga group. I got pregnant, at high risk and came back.
─That work is not well regarded. I have been in meetings where it is stated that the best of our culture is not offered in the tourist areas.
─I don't agree with that. In the keys the repertoire is varied, it ventures into almost all genres and that public is also demanding. They cannot imagine the rehearsal hours for hour and a half shows. We must entertain in restaurants. In addition there is a preshow. If you are alone at that time, as happened to me, you sing up to five songs, and then go to the show. The artists there have a merit, they are people with dignity; there will be exceptions, as you also run into here.
─Did your voice always hold up?
─ There you expose yourself to sing in front of the sea. In Varadero I had no problems. I was young and the voice had just been pulled from the nylon. In Cayo Guillermo, in the afternoons something very nice was done next to the beach. That caused a tremendous allergy that led to pharyngitis.
─In the city of Camagüey, your audience has not been that of a theater either ...
─They are different experiences. The cabarets are the places where I present myself the most. I have fixed spaces in the Alkázar Complex, in the Casablanca, in the Fotograma center and when COVID-19 appeared I began in the Casa de la Trova. In the hotels I had to do rumba, afro ... something complex for me, I'm a balladeer. Here I can sing salsa, meringue, timba. The public is different in each place. I take the best energy from everyone and I appreciate the opportunity to express myself, because I am passionate about singing.
Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez