It’s the biggest Canada Day show in the country – a show Grammy Award Winning musician Alex Cuba hopes to bring the language of the Wet’suwet’en to.
Cuba’s translating some of his lyrics into Wet’suwet’en for a performance he’s headlining at Parliament on the Hill in Ottawa, combining the First Nations language with his Latin style of music.
“I find a lot of rhythm in there,” says Cuba about adding the language to Latin music. “It goes really well with the sound that we chose…I found the sounds very percussive…It goes really well with Latin music.”
It’s estimated that only 70-80 people still speak the language, and there are fears that it’s fading away.
Cuba hopes to change that.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunity to do this. I hope it brings more awareness to the language,” says Cuba.
He’s playing in Ottawa in front of a crowd of over 350 thousand people and the Prime Minister.
Based out of Smithers, he’s the only musician from BC playing at Parliament on the Hill for Canada Day.