Alex Cuba presented by Garland Cultural Arts

It's a strange thing, watching audiences sing along with Alex without speaking his native Spanish. But they do.

They "la-la-la" their way from chorus to chorus, caught up in his inescapable gravitational pull. His warm, elastic vocals float above a sound essentially from everywhere–an effortless mix of Funk, Soul, and pan-Latin textures–and no matter where you're from, you can't help it. You're home.

His performances carry audiences away in the same fashion, from the Hollywood Bowl to Radio Music City Hall, where he's shared the stage with artists as diverse as Sheryl Crow and Juan Luis Guerra, casting his spell as if genres weren't a thing.

At the heart of his ability to charm anything that breathes is Alex's mastery of a deeper, more important language. The dude speaks joy. And it doesn't matter if it's Tito Puente joy or Stevie Wonder joy; it's contagious. It shines through songs he's co-written with Nelly Furtado and Jason Mraz.