5 places to enjoy traditional and trova music in Havana

This venue is in the Grand Hotel Nacional. Start your night with a cocktail, while you are looking at the sea, and enjoy the airy breeze that wafts in from the Malecón. Afterwards, go and enjoy the concert. One Saturday you’ll find the Orquesta Aragon on stage, the other Saturday it will be Grupo Compay Segundo. Never mind the groups of tourists. Just enjoy the excellent traditional music.

After the concert we just mentioned, you’ll find it’s still quite early. Since it’s 11 pm, why not head to the Gato Tuerto to listen to some fabulous bolero singers. Where Omara Portuondo once sang, you can now hear the voices of Ivette Cepeda and Osdalgia.

A lovely, small artistic space where you can enjoy live music almost every evening. Most artists are trovadores, from all over the island. ‘La bombilla verde’ is a reference to a song by the Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez. They also host exhibitions here.

This place was decorated and inspired by the animation movie Vampiros en la Habana. The name of the bar refers to Pepito, the main character of the movie. Pepito represents 'el Cubano': a good friend, in love, familiar, brave, with a good sense of rhythm and a musician. The Vampisol costume hangs here. Vampisol allowed vampires to withstand the rays of the sun. An interesting place where you can enjoy some of the best Cuban Nueva Trova performances.

A tiny venue with a great variety of musical genres: on Mondays and Tuesdays there is traditional music on the menu, Wednesday is all about trova, Thursday it’s time for some vitrola, rumba on Fridays and Sundays rumba and bolero on Saturday, el Carnaval del Amor. You can also buy music and posters here.