Recommendations of the Editorial team
US President Donald Trump announced early Saturday that US forces had arrested Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro following a military operation in the capital Caracas. By midday, Trump declared from Mar-a-Lago that the United States would run the country. Until a “safe, appropriate and prudent transition” is achieved. As the international community monitored the escalating situation, the most prominent artists of the Venezuelan diaspora – many of them part of a vocal vanguard against the Maduro regime – reacted with conspicuous restraint.
This music scene has become a global force. Since Danny Ocean’s 2016 viral breakthrough hit “Me Rehúso” – an anthem for a generation lost to migration – the momentum has continued. The Venezuelan wave reached a peak in 2025 with alternative band Rawayana’s Coachella debut and their historic Grammy win for fifth studio album “¿Quién Trae las Cornetas?” Together with Latin Grammy winners, singer-songwriter Elena Rose and rapper Akapellah, these artists used their international platforms. Just to demand democratic change.
But when the news of the US invasion became known, their reactions on social networks were cautious.
Cautious reactions from prominent musicians
Danny Ocean, who sang at the Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo just last month and has vowed not to perform in Venezuela while there is no democracy there, shared a post by opposition leader María Corina Machado. In it, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner praised the US measures. She called for the “immediate recognition of Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate president of Venezuela.” González Urrutia, currently in exile in Spain, was the opposition candidate in the 2024 elections after Machado was barred from running.
Elena Rose, who released the nostalgic song “Caracas en el 2000” with Ocean and urban artist Jerry Di, shared calls for prayer. “This is a spiritual war,” she wrote on her Instagram account. “Stay in the light.”
Likewise, aspiring singer-songwriter Joaquina posted the haunting phrase “Abajo cadenas” (“Down with the Chains”). A powerful reference to a line from the Venezuelan national anthem.
Rawayana, Akapellah and the Voice of Exile
Rawayana remained silent throughout the day. But in retrospect, their most recent album release on New Year’s Day seemed like a sudden prophecy. “Si Te Pica Es Porque Eres Tú” (“If It Itches, It’s You”), the first track from ¿Dónde Es El After?, is an energetic song driven by drums. In it, lead singer Beto Montenegro sings pointedly: “Feliz año te desea Rawa y que por fin los hijos de putas ya se vayan”. “Rawa wishes you a happy new year and may the sons of bitches finally disappear”.
The song was shared widely online by some Venezuelans in conjunction with the initial news of Maduro’s arrest. On Sunday, the band released “Tonada por ella,” a minimalist folk ballad about the pain of exile. Co-written by Montenegro and Servando Primera, the Miami-based hit songwriter behind hits for Nathy Peluso, Christina Aguilera and Kali Uchis. They also provided a telephone number where callers could listen to archival recordings of Venezuelan author Arturo Uslar Pietri discussing Venezuela’s failure as a petrostate.
After releasing the viral hit “Veneka” in 2024, alongside Venezuelan rapper Akapellah, Rawayana was forced to cancel her domestic tour because the song had sparked a direct public rebuke from Maduro. The song, which reclaims a derogatory term for Venezuelan migrant women, was seen as provocative. It angered the president, who was then facing widespread reports of voter fraud. His success was sealed with a Latin Grammy in 2025.
Akapellah himself reacted most openly. “A time of transition is coming,” he wrote in a post shared to Instagram late Saturday. “We don’t know how tough she’ll be. But we all knew we needed her.”