Juan Formell y Los Van Van

EL TREN DE LA MÚSICA CUBANA

- ¡Vívela! Salsa Tour 2023 -

The legendary orquesta known as the "Cuba’s musical bullet train"

Juan Formell y LOS VAN VAN
Returning to Japan with a total of 16 members!
This summer, VAN VAN whirlwind is coming again!

Biography

Cuba's legendary salsa Orquesta is widely recognized as a genre-creating band. Alongside artists like The Beatles, Aretha Franklin, and Creedence Clearwater Revival.Los Van Van is distinguished as a band that changed the course of popular music for an entire generation. They toured globally in the ensuing years and wowed audiences in Europe and the United States as well as throughout Latin America and even Asia. There were primarily two Cuban groups experimenting with mixing pop, funk, rock, and soul with their native traditions.

LOS VAN VAN have been at the vanguard of Cuba's music scene for five decades, keeping the Caribbean nation dancing with a musical message that continues to encourage and inspire everyone and anyone through good times and bad. LOS VAN VAN’s instantly recognizable trademark sound fuses the music of Cuba and the Caribbean with rock, jazz and the latest instrumentation to create a musical form known as "songo." The band’s contagious dance grooves feature a syncopated combination of driving percussion, blasting trombones, hypnotic violins, mesmerizing piano riffs and catchy vocal hooks. LOS VAN VAN won formal international recognition with a Grammy for the 1999 album, "Llego Van Van," but fans throughout the world have long since known about Cuba’s musical legend, also known as “The Train.”

LOS VAN VAN stunned audiences throughout Japan, Australia and South Korea on previous Vivela Salsa! tours organized by Fukuoka-based NGO Tiempo Iberoamericano, performing their inspirational music to an even wider world stage and enhancing their global reputation in the process. The band’s 14-date 2006 tour, which attracted more than 17,000 fans, included dates in three Australian cities and Seoul in addition to Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and other locations in Japan. On that tour, LOS VAN VAN also played at the Tokyo Jazz Festival as part of a lineup that included Chick Corea, Hank Jones and Marcus Miller. LOS VAN VAN’s performance gained a standing ovation among jazz fans, showing that fans of all kinds of diverse musical tastes can easily board Cuba’s musical bullet train.

  2000 GRAMMY Awards
Best Salsa Album  "Llegó Van Van"

  Grammy Awards Nominations

2017 - Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album  "LA FANTASIA"
2019 - Best Tropical Album  "LEGADO"

  Latin Grammy Awards Nominations

2012 - Best Contemporary Tropical Album  "La Maquinaria"
2005 - Best Contemporary Tropical Album  "Chapeando"
2004 - Best Salsa Album  "Van Van Live at Miami Arena"
2003 - Best Contemporary Tropical Album  "En el Malecón de la Habana"
2000 - Best Salsa Album  "Llegó Van Va"

Tour Schedule

Ticket Information

Advanced ticket sales will be announced soon.

General Information

Title: Juan Formell y LOS VAN VAN - ¡Vívela! Salsa Tour 2023
Artist: Juan Formell y LOS VAN VAN (Cuba)
Music genres: Cuban salsa, songo, timba
General Organizer: NPO Tiempo Iberoamericano
(3F Daimyo11511 Bldg., 1-15-11 Daimyo, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka 810-0041) 
Support: ■ Cuban embassy

¡Vívela! History

Each summer since 2002, Latin culture center NPO Tiempo Iberoamericano based in Fukuoka-Japan, has been organizing a Asia-Pacific tour of the world's top-ranking salsa bands. "Enjoy life through music!" is the tour concept we want to shout out, encouraging people to do just that, and creating a space for genuine communication among people. Also embodied in the idea of a "salsa tour" is not just the musical genre "salsa,"but also the original meaning of the word, "sauce," which in this case implies a cultural mix of nationalities, generations and genders that draws beyond cultural divides to create new values in the heart of Asia-Pacific.

Septeto Santiaguero

Cuba
Sep.20 - Sep. 22, 2022
3 concerts in 3 cities
Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka

Elito Revé y su Charangón

Cuba
Aug.20 - Sep. 1, 2019
10 concerts in 9 cities
Sapporo, Yamagata, Miyagi, Gunma, Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka and Fukuoka (Isla de Salsa)

Maykel Blanco y su Salsa Mayor

Cuba
Aug. 29 - Sep 2, 2018
4 concerts in 4 cities
Tokyo, Nagoya, Fukuoka (Isla de Salsa) and Okinawa

TROMBORANGA Salsa Orchestra

Spain
Aug 20, 2016 - Aug 28, 2016
6 concerts in 5 cities
Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka (2 days at Isla de Salsa) and Okinawa

Maykel Blanco y su Salsa Mayor

Cuba
Aug 8, 2015 - Aug 16, 2015
7 concerts in 6 cities
Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka (2 days at Isla de Salsa) and Shanghai

EL GRAN COMBO de Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico
Aug 30, 2014 - Sep 14, 2014
10 concerts in 9 cities
Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka (2 days at Isla de Salsa), Shanghai, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane

HAVANA D'PRIMERA

Cuba
Aug 24, 2013 - Sep 1, 2013
7 concerts in 7 cities
Tokyo, Naogya, Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka (2 days at Isla de Salsa), Sapporo, Sydney and Melbourne.

EL GRAN COMBO de Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico
Aug 30, 2014 - Sep 14, 2014
10 concerts in 9 cities
Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka (2 days at Isla de Salsa), Shanghai, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane

CALLE REAL

Sweden
Aug 06, 2011 - Aug 11, 2011
5 concerts in 5 cuidades
Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka (2 days at Isla de Salsa).

Juan Formell y LOS VAN VAN

Cuba
Aug 3, 2010 - Aug 15, 2010
7 concerts in 7 cities
Tokyo, Nagoya, Fukuoka (2 days at Isla de Salsa), Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney (Sydney Opera House).

Juan Luis Guerra y 4.40

Dominican Republic
Aug 9, 2009 in Fukuoka (Isla de Salsa)
Aug 11, 2009 in Tokyo
Special guest: YUMURI (Cuba)

LA-33

Colombia
Aug 8, 2008 - Aug 17, 2008
7 concerts in 7 cities
Tokyo, Miyagi, Nagoya, Kanazawa, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Fukuoka (2 days at Isla de Salsa).

Oscar D’ Leon

Venezuela
Aug, 9, 2007 - Aug 18, 2007
9 concerts in 8 cities
Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Miyagi, Gunma, Hiroshima and Fukuoka (2 days at Isla de Salsa).

Special performance: Aug 17 at Melon Ax, Corea del Sur organized by A & A.

Juan Formell y Los Van Van

Cuba
Aug 10, 2005 - Aug 21, 2005
10 concerts in 8 cities: Tokyo, Sapporo, Nagoya, Osaka, Miyagi, Gunma, Kanazawa, Hiroshima and Fukuoka (2 days at Isla de Salsa).

Aug 3, 2006 - Aug 21, 2006
9 days in 8 cities: Gunma, Tokyo, Miyagi, Kanazawa, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka (2 days at Isla de Salsa).

Manolito y su Trabuco

Cuba
Aug 21, 2003 - Aug 31, 2003
8 concerts in 7 cities: Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Kitakyushu, Kumamoto and Fukuoka (2 days at Isla de Salsa).

Aug 5, 2004 - Aug 22, 2004
10 concerts in 8 cities: Tokyo, Sapporo, Nagoya, Osaka, Miyagi, Gunma, Kanazawa, Hiroshima and Fukuoka (2 days at Isla de Salsa).

David Calzado y su Charanga Habanera

Cuba
Aug 8, 2002 - Aug 18, 2002
6 concerts in 5 cities
Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kumamoto and Fukuoka (2 days at Isla de Salsa).