Cuban and Mexican authorities launch the “First International Live Bolero Competition”

MIAMI, United States. – The Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs of Mexico and the Cuban Embassy in Mexico launched this week the call for the “First International Live Bolero Competition” (literary and musical, in Spanish).

The competition seeks to award unpublished bolero compositions and literary writings on this musical genre, originating in Cuba and very popular in Mexico, which was inscribed as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in December 2023.

Tito Rivas Mesa, general director of the National Sound Library, told the newspaper The Sun of Mexico that the contest seeks to “promote the creation of more repertoire, which, in the case of bolero, although its practice is still alive, remains more traditional and canonical.”

“We know that new generations are creating and that we may not know them. This is a call to listen to what is being produced,” added Rivas Mesa.

The competition will focus on the “traditional bolero” and will accept compositions that respond to this style, such as works by Pepe Sánchez, Julio Jaramillo, Consuelo Velázquez and Pedro Flores.

Rivas Mesa explained: “The agreement was to have a panorama that would be useful for those who participate. It is true that the music is lively and merges with other genres, but the particular focus of this contest is the classic bolero.”

Rafael Toriz López, director of Cultural Diplomacy Exhibitions at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, detailed the characteristics of the call, which will be open until Friday, August 2. The jury will select 10 songs and 10 literary texts. The finalist songs will be part of a new recording, which will be promoted and broadcast by Channel 22, Channel 11 and their digital platforms. The finalist texts will be published in an anthology edited by the Elefanta label.