HAVANA, September 14.- The Latin Grammy for "best new artist" awarded Wednesday to 72-year-old son singer Ibrahim Ferrer, one of the leading voices of Buena Vista Social Club, was hailed in Cuba as "a victory for Cuban traditional music."

"The prize has been awarded at the best possible time, when we are celebrating a second son festival here and when Ibrahim has just given one of his unforgettable performances," Adalberto Alvarez, president of the organizing committee of the festival, told AFP in Santiago de Cuba.

"Ibrahim is a son singer par excellence and this award is a recognition of all Cuban performers of that genre. It is a victory for each and every one of us," stressed Alvarez, who will travel to Mexico City next week with his band Adalberto y su Son, to perform at the Hard Rock Café.

The news about the Grammy spread like wildfire in Santiago, other sources commented to AFP in the second largest city in Cuba, the home of top groups of traditional Cuban music such as Elio Revé y su Charangَn, La Original de Manzanillo and Son 14 were on stage.

Ferrer sang the day before in the Heredia Theater in Santiago de Cuba, which was filled to capacity. However, the following morning he traveled to Las Tunas, more than 1,000 kilometers east of Havana, "to a place with which we have no telephone link," Alvarez stated.

Ferrer’s victory has occurred at a time of some rivalry between the older generation of Cuban musicians, steadfast promoters of traditional son, and groups that have incorporated a new sound into this type of music, without betraying its son roots.

Ibrahim Ferrer, one of Buena Vista Social Club’s senior citizens, has just returned to Cuba after a tour of Japan with the 70-year-old diva of Cuban song, Omara Portuondo, and is scheduled to travel to the United States in the near future.

U.S. musician Ry Cooder, produced the Buena Vista Social Club album which won a Grammy in 1998 and brought to international popularity the best of ’40s and ’50s Cuban music, performed by the artists of the period, who are now in their 70s and 80s.

Ferrer and Los Van Van, the band directed by Juan Formell, were nominated in different categories for the Latin Grammy. Formell attended the awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

Los Van Van, one of the outstanding Cuban groups who have incorporated new sounds into traditional Cuban music, won their first Grammy in 1999 with their album Llegَ Van Van / Van Van is Here.

The same CD was nominated in the salsa category, which was won by Celia Cruz, a Cuban living in the United States.

Other Latin Grammy award winners were Juan Luis Guerra, from the Dominican Republic, for the CD Ni es lo mismo ni es igual (It’s Not the Same) and the song "El niلgra en bicicleta" (Niagara by Bicycle) and Tito Puente for Mambo Birdland.