When Beyoncé and Jay-Z headed to Cuba in 2013, their visit was met with backlash that ended with the US Treasury’s Office of Inspector General looking into the legality of the trip (everything was above board, btw). Flash forward three years later, and Major Lazer has become the first U.S. act to perform in Cuba since the two countries first announced they would be re-establishing relations in December 2014.
Major Lazer’s visit is just part of an ongoing trend of U.S. celebrities heading to the island. In 2015 alone, Usher, Ludacris, Katy Perry, Conan O’Brien, Anthony Bourdain, Ethan Hawke, Francis Ford Coppola, and Carmelo Anthony visited the Caribbean island.
Audioslave – who definitely doesn’t have the same following as Major Lazer – performed in Cuba in 2005, according to the Miami New Times. Before that, the last U.S.-based artist performed in 1962.
Along Havana’s waterfront, Diplo, Walshy Fire, and Jillionaire (who was born in Trinidad and Tobago) performed a free concert on Sunday.
“For as long as I can remember, Cuba has played an influential role on my love of music – Cuba has such a powerful cultural impact all over the world and for me, especially growing up in Florida, it became one of the biggest cultural centers for music to evolve from,” Diplo said, according to Fusion. “I was lucky enough to visit Cuba a few years back with my friends Calle 13 and during my four days there my mind was blown by the people, depth of culture and their way of life.”
On Twitter, Diplo said 400,000 people showed up.
Judging by the never-ending aerial shot, that’s probably not an exaggeration. Poor Marco Rubio (a noted EDM aficionado) missed out on all of this, since he was in Puerto Rico winning the Republican primary this weekend.
Check out a video posted by Fusion below: