The Italian duo Corimé received the Cubadisco 2026 International Award for their album Disarmo during a concert in Gardone Riviera, marking the first time the prestigious Cuban music prize has been conferred on European soil.

The announcement was made in a statement by the contest's president, Cary Diez, and communicator Lismary Concepción. From the hands of Salvador Repilado, son of Compay Segundo and director of the legendary group, before more than a thousand spectators, brothers Mauricio and Roberto Giannone received one of the most prestigious musical awards granted by the Cuban Institute of Music.

The recognition, which the Academy and Music Industry in Cuba annually bestows upon phonograms and audiovisual works of high artistic rigor, was created in 1997 by a committee of prominent musicians, directors, and media specialists. Representing the Academic Committee sponsored by the Cuban Institute of Music, clarinetist Haskell Armenteros, a member of Cubadisco, attended the ceremony.

The production and interpretation of Disarmo earned the award for its professional quality and aesthetic proposal. The duo Corimé moves between pop-folk and Sicilian roots, with original compositions about love, beauty, melancholy, and fraternity; they occasionally incorporate the Sicilian dialect into contemporary melodies.

The Giannone brothers expressed during the concert where the award was conferred on August 13 that there is great respect for music in Cuba and a high level of expertise among its professionals, so receiving this prize holds very significant meaning for their career. They added that Italian and Cuban producers Caterina Vicentini and Isabel Reinoso facilitated the connection with the contest and that the foundations are already being laid for a future meeting with members of the Compay Segundo group in Havana, probably next year.

Cubadisco thanked the Casa Compay for their collaboration in the presentation and celebrated the participation of foreign artists in the great festival of Cuban music, which is also conceived as a space for confluence and exchange among creators from Cuba and the world.