Tonya is a cannon

Although her last name in English means something else, the homophony with the word that defines those war tanks in our language can give an idea of what this singer, visiting us, turns out to be on stage.

The American affronter Tonya Boyd-Cannon, in effect, "shoots" energy, positive vibes, emotional strength, magnetism and charisma in spades, to the point of "killing the audience with love".

This was the case in the two performances she gave us to full houses at the Teatro Martí and the National Museum of Fine Arts. Although this time she only sang (why else?), the interpreter, who moves between genres such as soul, reggae, funk, rock and gospel, without disdaining blues, jazz, ballads and Afro-Caribbean rhythms, is also, if we are to believe respectable witnesses, a player of several instruments (piano, organ, drums and saxophone), and also composes many of the pieces she performs.

Tonya Boyd-Cannon with Brenda Navarrete at the Teatro Martí. Photo: Pablo Massip.

Born in Mississippi and raised in Louisiana, Boyd-Cannon won Budweiser's Battle for the Crown contest, and was a finalist in the Top 20 of The Voice on NBC. He has several albums and has performed at numerous festivals in the United States.

The artist is a worthy heiress of the tradition of black song in her country, generally born in Protestant churches, although it dates back to the southern plantations, where the ancestors from Africa worked as slaves, while singing their laments and pains.

Tonya is the owner of a powerful vocal apparatus that, although of contralto string, she proudly walks through the registers and transitions from low to high notes, landing in falsetto. But not only does she use her voice, she puts her whole body into her delivery: hands, chest, waist...; she accompanies her singing with dancing, and likes to mingle with the audience she invites to the stage or with the one she shares by jumping herself to the stalls and who, standing up, enthusiastically joins the party.

Tonya Boyd-Cannon. Photo: Pablo Massip.

Here in Havana she had her group, made up of true virtuosos who fused keyboards, drums and winds to the vocal torrent of the singer, who, to be totally fair, incurred (at least in the Bellas Artes performance I attended) in some out of tune, especially when she modulated or lengthened certain sharps.

But in both cases, judging by those who also enjoyed them at the Teatro Martí, they were full and beautiful concerts, in which they also played their own songs —in the jazz, Afro-Cuban and gospel tradition— that the Superstitionby that great exponent of American music, Stevie Wonder; a well-known Christmas carol, a number with bossa nova resonances or a "sonazo" such as the Quimbara made famous by our Celia Cruz.

Tonya Boyd-Cannon with La Reyna and La Real in the hall of the National Museum of Fine Arts. Photo: Pablo Massip.

And speaking of those from the backyard, Tonya invited two young singers who successfully work with urban music, especially rap: La Reina and La Real, who joined the discourse of feminine vindication that the American singer-songwriter also emits, from the intimate and the social. At the Teatro Marti, a day before, she was accompanied by Brenda Navarrete and they say that it was an apotheosis. And in Fábrica de Arte Cubano, last Thursday, she also proved her worth once again. 

These were magical evenings, thanks to the U.S. Embassy in our country and the Instituto de la Música, which allowed us to meet this remarkable performer, and hopefully are a sign that marks the resumption of collaboration and sustained cultural exchange between the two countries.