The troubadour-poet who sang "Solitudes won't stop us / Despite the autumn we will grow," and who asked us to remember April, to recall the pristine pallor of its mornings, Amaury Pérez Vidal (Havana, December 26, 1953) was awarded the 2025 National Music Prize this Monday.
"Since I began my uncertain and risky journey in music in 1969, I never imagined a moment like this would come. How could I even foresee it? For me, this prize was an unattainable honor," wrote the musician after learning the news, which was announced to him by Indira Fajardo, president of the Cuban Institute of Music (ICM).
“I have been and am a troubadour beyond any circumstantial and ephemeral label,” Amaury added. “Against hostile and capricious winds, I fought, I tried, and I achieved some songs that, I am sure, will transcend me, and that is more than a privilege… I have not been a man of ambition or vanity; I believe I was, and am, on the side of just causes."
The jury consisted of Digna Guerra, winner of the 2006 National Music Prize, who served as president; José María Vitier, winner of the 2021 National Music Prize; musicologist Martha Bonet; Beatriz Corona, composer, producer, and choral director; and musician César López.
Following the announcement, the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba highlighted, through a message on its social media, Amaury's transcendent place in Cuban music "for the depth and coherence of a body of work that has resonated with several generations through singer-songwriter music. Possessing sensitive, reflective, and profoundly human lyrics, his songs have addressed love, memory, everyday life, and the ethical dilemmas of his time with enduring elegance.
"As a composer and performer, he has managed to fuse poetic rigor with emotional intimacy, without abandoning a critical and engaged perspective on reality. His fidelity to an ethic of creation makes him a leading figure of the Nueva Trova movement and contemporary Cuban song."
A few days ago, on the occasion of the artist's 72nd birthday, the First Secretary of the Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, stated on his Twitter account: "The soundtrack of my generation owes much to a talented creator, dear friend, and great figure of Cuba: Amaury Pérez Vidal, musician, poet, storyteller, producer, director, presenter, artist in the broadest and deepest sense of the word."
The statement shared by the Cuban Institute of Music (ICM) also notes that the record producer and screenwriter "is one of the most important Cuban composers of the second half of the 20th century"; and that he has received the Félix Varela Order in recognition of his artistic career.
In film, he composed the music for the movie "Hombres del mar", directed by Manuel Herrera; and "Isla de la Juventud", directed by Juan Carlos Tabío; and for Cuban television, he composed the themes for "Mañana es domingo", and the theme for the series "Hasta el último aliento", directed by Vicente González Castro, among others.
His work encompasses not only his more than 40 albums, but also novels, short stories, and sonnets. "He stood out in the production of three seasons of the highly popular television program "Con dos que se quieran", in which he captured the essence of important figures in Cuban culture," the text adds. Amaury also received the Master of Youth Award this year, presented by the Hermanos Saíz Association.
