There are loves that bloom and others that leave marks. Between these two extremes lives Flores y Fuego, the new album by Diana Fuentes, a collection of songs where the Cuban artist looks squarely at the experiences that changed her and turns them into an intimate conversation with those who listen to her.
After years without a full-length album, the composer returns with a production that brings together sensitivity, Cuban roots and new musical textures, accompanied by artists such as Vicente García, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Jencarlos Canela, Carlos Varela and Kelvis Ochoa. Under the production of Latin GRAMMY® nominee Marcos Sánchez alongside Ángel Arce “Pututi”, the album organically fuses genres, rhythms and influences, creating a soundscape full of nuances that reflects the artistic evolution and versatility of Diana Fuentes.
“Cosas de Valientes”, the theme that occupies a central place in this project, takes that idea one step further: it talks about the courage to leave, heal and recover one’s voice after pain. Diana Fuentes spoke with Noticia NY about love, loss, music and everything that had to burn for these songs to be born.
After years without an album, what did Diana Fuentes have to experience, lose or transform to be able to write Flores y Fuego?
Live… let’s say live at the highest intensity possible. Live accepting losses and accepting everything I gained in experience through those losses. Suddenly I can say that, in my specific case, many losses turned into gains. Many hurt a lot, but I made songs out of all of them—the ones that left a bad taste and the ones that left a good taste.
So, in the end, the balance ends up being positive, right? Everything becomes, in some way, a compilation of experiences lived over seven years, finally transformed into an album.
This album talks about love in all its forms, but also about pain and learning to leave. Is there a part of you that had to heal in order to sing these songs?
Sure, yes. I believe that we are in a healing process all the time. Losses, no matter how prepared we think we are, always leave a void, a gap that we have to learn to heal ourselves and, in most cases, I think that ends up being the healthiest thing.
Yes, I had to learn to heal, and fundamentally to heal with myself.
“Cosas de Valientes” is a song about regaining dignity and choosing a new life after a relationship marked by violence. What led you to turn such a painful topic into a song of hope?
Precisely because dignity was the only thing that was not lost. It was what remained intact in the midst of the storm and what saved me from those experiences.
Transforming something so painful into a song was my way of honoring life, turning it into learning, and offering a message of resilience to those going through similar situations. I believe that the most beautiful way to live is to find beauty even in the most difficult times.
Throughout your career you have sung many stories, but in Flores y Fuego it seems that you let Diana see more, not just the artist. What part of yourself did you feel you were finally ready to show?
All. I think almost everything. Specifically, being able to turn personal experiences into songs.
I think it’s an album in which I didn’t limit myself to saying how I think, to expressing myself or showing my way of seeing life. In the end, art also has that intangible side where people don’t always feel or see the same thing.
I wanted to contribute my grain of sand and tell, from my perspective, how I see things and how I understand life.
After more than two decades in music, Latin GRAMMY® nominations, important collaborations and a career built step by step, what things about that young Diana who started in Cuba are still intact and what no longer exist?
I believe that almost all of them remain intact, and they remain intact because I try to maintain the ability to surprise myself with life. I try to remain as naive as possible in the best sense of the word.
I don’t know what I could tell you that hasn’t stayed the same, because even my ability to love remains the same.
Maybe what I’ve gained is a little more experience, and that’s what has allowed me to tell the stories this way. But I can tell you that, in essence, the Diana of almost 20 years ago is still there.
The title Flowers and Fire speaks of two opposing forces: what blooms and what burns. Looking at your personal and artistic life, what things have been flowers and what have been fire on this path?
In my artistic life, music constantly flourishes. And in my personal life the opportunity to start a new story flourishes every day. Every day is a new opportunity.
Your music has always had a very present Cuban root, but it also dialogues with contemporary sounds. How do you manage to maintain that connection to your roots without getting stuck in a single musical label?
I think it’s something I do without much awareness. It is something that is very intrinsic to me and that comes very naturally.
The music and the place where I come from come spontaneously. And, in some way, the most contemporary sounds are also part of the evolution of who I am as an artist and the evolution that the music of my country has had.
I always try to do it in the most honest and natural way possible.
If Flores y Fuego is a letter written from a more mature woman, what would Diana Fuentes say today to the Diana who began dreaming of making a living from music?
That we are doing incredibly well, extraordinarily well, and that we still have a beautiful road ahead of us.
A path full of precious experiences, learning and extraordinary moments.
