Telmary is one of the most unique artists to emerge on the international music scene in a long time. A jazz poet 'rapera' from Havana, Cuba with uncanny communication skills, Telmary has gained a growing number of devoted fans around the world since the release of her debut album 'A Diario'.
Charismatic, trained in both theater and journalism, Telmary has proven time and again how capable she is of communicating to audiences of all languages. In 2007 alone - from Havana to Madrid, from Tokyo to Montreal, from Bogota, Colombia to London, England - Telmary has won over fans and media with her unique blend of poetry, rapping skills and total command of the stage. 'Dangerously charismatic' is how NOW Magazine critic Jason Richards described her.
Appearing with her band of crack Cuban musicians who blend traditional Cuban styles of rumba and salsa with the international sounds of jazzy funk and hip-hop, Telmary embodies the 'next wave' of Cuban music that has emerged from the island since 2000.
Telmary Diaz was born in Havana, Cuba and is considered the most authentic rapper of the island. Her studies of English Language and Literature, Theater, Photography and Screenplay writing shaped her as an artist and helped to reach her ultimate goal, to communicate with an audience..
Telmary's first band was Free Hole Negro (1999), one of Cuba's first hip-hop groups that mixed rap and jazz music with audiovisual performances to great success on the Island.
In 2002 Telmary joined Interactivo, a collaborative project featuring the biggest names on the Havana alternative music scene including singer songwriter Yusa, pianist Roberto Carcasses, singer/songwriter William Vivanco, and sonero Francis del Rio. Together they performed many concerts and recorded an album that won several awards for the Cuban Music Awards of 2005..
Telmary's membership in Interactivo propelled her into the elite of Cuba's music scene, where she made guest appearances with Gema & Pavel, Pío Leyva, Issac Delgado, Gerardo Alfonso, Giraldo Piloto, Lucía Huergo, X Alfonso, and Kelvis Ochoa - and with international hip-hop and electronica artists such as Afrika Bambata, (USA) DJ Kassim (Brazil), DJ Raphael Seebag of UFO(Japan) and Quadrasonic (Canada)
'A Diario', her debut album, marked the coming-together of her ideas and the first opportunity to demonstrate her work to a wider audience. Recorded largely with the help of her fellow collaborators from Interactivo, Yusa and Roberto Carcassés and with other friends, 'A Diario' was released internationally on the DM Ahora label of Afro-Cuban All-Stars leader Juan de Marcos Gonzales.The album featured appearances from Cuba rapper Kumar, members of Los Van Van and Spain's Ojos de Brujo.
In May 2007 'A Diario' was awarded the Cuban Music Award for best hip-hop album. In Europe it went as high as #15 on the European World Music charts, gaining rave reviews in Germany, the U.K and Spain.
In Canada, Telmary has appeared at the Montreal Jazz Festival, Luminato in Toronto, Harbourfront, at Jane Bunnett's Global Diva Concert, with Cuban music icon Pedrito Calvo at Lula Lounge, and held a reunion concert with her old group Interactivo in London England. She also showcased at WOMEX in Spain.
With tremendous self-assurance, what Telmary does best is communicate, speak, express her feelings. She sings and writes as she lives, controversial and combative but at the same time seductive and captivating. If new Cuban music has an enchantress, then she is surely it.
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