Music is supposed to be fun, enjoyable, inspirational. I saw the epitome of that last Thursday night when Canteca de Macao played for the first time in the United States at Green Dolphin Street to kick off the Flamenco Festival and was it phenomenal.

I am a big fan of music. I enjoy all types and when I went to Spain I discovered a band called Ojo de Brujo, a fusion of traditional flamenco with a more upbeat style. When I heard about this band, Canteca de Macao, I figured, why not go check it out to see what they were all about. When they started, I turned to my boyfriend, wide-eyed and was excited to see what they were going to bring to the stage for the rest of their set.

I like this already, I thought. Throughout the performance, they won the hearts of the people in the audience. As their music progressed, the once rigid audience members began to dance around, clap and say, “Ole!” I recorded a little sneak peak for those of you who couldn’t make it out of the band performing Asi Es La Vida, a song made popular by Elefante.

Canteca de Macao fused not only rock and a bit of hip-hop-ish styles to their music, but they also blended jazz, salsa, cumbia, reggae, ska and a hint of metal into their performance. The musicians had smiles on their faces the whole time, enjoying every single minute. Their lead vocalist, Anita, jumped around and brought an aura of fun to the crowd. It was incredibly entertaining. I ended up dancing around myself.

Here's another video for you:

While most of them were from Madrid, one of their percussionists was born in Wisconsin and bred in Venezuela while their flautist is from Chile.  

Meet them yourself, here: