Mayito Rivera
Singer with Los Van Van: for about twenty years, from the early 1990s to 2011, Mayito Rivera was one of the band's lead singers.
About
Mario Enrique Rivera Godines, known as Mayito Rivera, was born on 19 January 1966 in Pinar del Río. Before Los Van Van he played bass in the group Moncada.
He joined Los Van Van at 26, around 1992. In the late 1990s he was one of three lead singers, alongside Pedrito Calvo and Roberto Hernández. With the band he won a Grammy.
- Well-known songs: Normal, natural, Voy a publicar tu foto, Un socio, De La Habana a Matanzas, El tren se va, Llévala a tu vacilón and Soy todo.
Afterwards
After leaving in 2011 he sang on tribute albums to Cuban musicians. On Para bachatear. Chapotín, an album about Félix Chapottín, he sings every track.
📝 Sources
Songo is the direct bridge between traditional Cuban music and timba. Developed by Los Van Van in the early 1970s, it rewired Cuban popular music by absorbing funk, rock, and jazz into the Afro-Cuban rhythmic foundation — and laid the groundwork that timba would build on.
Lees meer >Timba, the explosive and rhythmically rich genre of Cuban dance music, transformed how the bass functions in popular music. In Timba, the bass is not just foundational — it’s fiery, funky, and free.
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