Havana, Cuba and The Rolling Stones: A Historic, Well-Timed Gig

The Rolling Stones unleashed two hours of thundering rock and roll on an ecstatic Cuban crowd on Friday night.

The Rolling Stones perform in Havana, Cuba, Friday, March 25, 2016. The Stones are performing in a free concert in Havana Friday, becoming the most famous act to play Cuba since its 1959 revolution.(Photo: AP)

The Rolling Stones unleashed two hours of thundering rock and roll on an ecstatic Cuban crowd Friday night, in a massive celebration of music that was once forbidden in the country.

Havana, Cuba, and the Rolling Stones... This is amazing! It’s really good to be here! It’s good to see you guys!

Mick Jagger during the concert

Stones’ lead singer Mick Jagger performs in Havana, Cuba, Friday March 25, 2016. (Photo: AP)

An Eventful Week for US-Cuba Relations

The week opened with the arrival of US President Barack Obama in Cuba, accompanied by more than 1,000 employees of a government that waged a cold war against Cuba for more than 50 years . This time, US forces were here to seal the president’s 2014 opening to Cuba with a string of public events that saw Obama call for democracy live on state television, then attend a Major League Baseball exhibition game with Cuban President Raul Castro.

And the week ended with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts firing “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, ‘’Sympathy for the Devil”, and “Satisfaction” from 3-story-tall high-definition television screens and thumping towers of speakers.

Keith Richards plays his guitar as the Rolling Stones perform in Havana, Cuba, Friday March 25, 2016. (Photo: AP)

The Rolling Stones’ Cuba stop ended its “Ole” Latin America tour, which also included concerts in Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina and Mexico.

The Stones romped through 18 of their classics, as the crowd in the open-air Ciudad Deportiva, or Sports City, jumped and chanted “Rollings! Rollings!”

Then and Now: From Fans Hiding Stones Albums to Cuban Leaders Partying With American Friends Post Concert

The Rolling Stones are the biggest mainstream rock act to play in Cuba since its 1959 revolution brought a communist government to power and isolated the island from the United States and its allies. In its heyday, Cuba’s communist government frowned on US and British bands. Fans had to hide their Beatles and Stones albums in covers borrowed from albums of appropriately revolutionary Cuban groups.

But times have changed. At the concert, former supermodel Naomi Campbell, actor Richard Gere and singer Jimmy Buffet partied in the VIP section, while Castro’s son Alejandro, one of the driving forces behind Cuba’s declaration of detente with the US, greeted friends and relatives after the show.

“The Rolling Stones being in Cuba at this time is like several steps up the ladder,” said Jennifer Corchado, a 23-year-old biologist. “It’s like three steps up the staircase toward global culture, toward the rest of the world.”

The iconic tongue symbol of the Rolling Stones sits atop the similarly iconic image of revolutionary hero Ernesto “Che” Guevara on a sign placed by fans outside the venue where the Rolling Stones played their concert in Havana, Cuba, Friday, March 25, 2016. (Photo: AP)

Beyond Song and Dance

Many Cubans said the Stones concert had implications beyond simple entertainment, even as some pointed out the connections between the concert and Obama’s visit earlier in the week.

Among the spectators was a large contingent of foreign tourists, for whom seeing Cuba was as novel as seeing the Rolling Stones was for Cubans.

(Photo: AP)

Concerts Like These Would Mean We Are Less Isolated

Some Cuban concert-goers said the concert made them more optimistic about the future of their country.

“This is history,” said Raul Podio, a 22-year-old employee of a state security firm, who was joined by a group of young friends. “I would like to see more groups, for there to be more variety, for more artists to come, because that would mean we are less isolated.”

Cuban Stones fans waiting outside the venue in Havana, Cuba (Photo: AP)

From Sunday evening to late Friday night, it felt as if the full force of the 21st century had landed with bone-rattling impact on an island that still feels mostly cut off from the modern world.

(With inputs from AP)