The most important source of music in Latin America and with a cultural heritage derived from both Africa and Europe, Cuba’s roots rhythms of rumba and son are the building blocks of modern salsa and have also had a huge influence on global styles as diverse as American jazz and Congolese soukous.

The spectacular success of the Buena Vista Social Club led to a boom in interest in the traditional styles of pre-revolutionary Cuba but away from the nostalgia for a long lost ‘golden age’, the island has never stopped to create new contemporary dance forms such as timba and has embraced hip-hop and reggaeton and given them a distinctive Afro-Cuban spin.