Silvio Rodríguez Domínguez was born in San Antonio de los Baños. He is a Cuban poet and singer-songwriter who emerged, like many others, from the Cuban Revolution. He was co-founder of the Cuban Nueva Trova. He has been an educator, draughtsman, writer, composer and politician. He has written almost six hundred songs, including Días y flores (1975); Cuando digo futuro (1977); Al final de este viaje (1978); Antología (1978); Mujeres (1978); Rabo de nube (1980); Unicornio (1982), which includes Canción urgente para Nicaragua, a tribute to the Sandinista revolution, and ¡Oh, melancolía! (1988). In 1992, the album Silvio was released as part of a trilogy, followed by Rodríguez (1994), dedicated to his father and Domínguez (1996), dedicated to his mother. In 1998 he published a fourth album, Descartes, dedicated to both. In 1994, he released Butterflies, with the collaboration of his partner, the flautist and clarinettist Niurka González, who also contributed to many other albums.
In 2003 he issued Cita con ángeles, dedicated to his children and his first grandson, which includes songs about the world situation, including one about the Iraq War, and Cita con ángeles, from which the album takes its title, a tribute to Salvador Allende. He released Amoríos in 2015. In 1976 he fought with the Cuban Internationalist Brigades in the Angolan Civil War, and went into combat twice. Since 1993 he has been a member of the Cuban National Assembly of People’s Power. He has won numerous awards, including: Luigi Tenco Award (1985); UNESCO Artist for Peace (1997); National Music Prize, Cuba (2004); Latin Lifetime Award, Spanish Academy of Arts and Music Sciences (2006), and the Alba Award (2010). He holds honorary doctorates from the National University of San Marcos (Peru), the Veracruzana University (Mexico) and the National University of Córdoba (Argentina). He has also been awarded the Alejo Carpentier Medal, the Order of Felix Valera and the Order of Julio Antonio Mella, as well as the Neighbourhood Award, bestowed by the Defence Committees of the Cuban Revolution, in recognition of his concerts in the humblest neighbourhoods of Havana. He was named the best Cuban composer of the 20th century, an honour he shares with Ernesto Lecuona, and the best Spanish-American singer-songwriter, along with Joan Manuel Serrat. In 1997 he was declared UNESCO Artist for Peace.
LiberPress Song Award 2016
Silvio Rodríguez received the 2016 LiberPress Song Award for his impeccable career as an artist, his solidarity and immense humanity; for his sensitivity and his commitment, which have led him to be a singer of the marginalised and the poor, a poet of the revolution, but also a poet of love, so often censured by dictatorships and the supporters of imperialism.