In 2020, things are obviously very different. But although the logistics of the event must change to honor social distancing, its spirit and goals remain the same: to provide free access for everyone to musical activities and performances.
Make Music Miami, the South Florida branch of the global festival, has come up with new ways to get into the spirit of the day.
âWhen we were putting together the program for this year, we were doing it under the auspices of a stay-at-home order and a lot of uncertainty as to where we would be right now,â says Justin Trieger, cofounder of Buskerfest Miami, the main organizer of Make Music Miami. âSo we made a decision early on to just focus on streaming live performances that day and collating them all in one place, so that hopefully weâd be able to offer it to everyone we normally do.â
Make Music Day started in Paris in 1982 as the FĂȘte de la Musique, and its popularity has since exploded across the world.
âItâs grown to be an annual celebration in something like a thousand cities at this point,â says Trieger. âAnd weâre part of that â weâre the local chapter of a much larger community effort.â
The local event will feature streams and activities starting at 8 a.m. June 21 and lasting into the evening, collated on the Make Music Miami Facebook page.
Fans of gypsy jazz, swing, and modern French music can enjoy a livestreamed performance by the French Horn Collective, presented by the Rhythm Foundation at 8 p.m. from the North Beach Bandshell.
New music will also be presented by Liset Alea, a Cuban-born, Miami-raised singer-songwriter now living in Paris. Sheâs best known as one of the former lead vocalists for Nouvelle Vague, the French cover band that performs lounge-y bossa nova versions of classic punk and new wave songs, including Joy Divisionâs âLove Will Tear Us Apart,â Blondieâs âHeart of Glass,â and New Orderâs âBlue Monday.â
Alea is scheduled to perform three songs, all from her home in Paris.
âIâm doing a French song, a Serge Gainsbourg cover that I love,â she says. âThat oneâs in the living room, and two of them are on the balcony â two originals: One is called âGoing Home,â which is all about my first time returning to Cuba after 20 years of exile. Itâs funny, because home is also about going back to Miami, so âhomeâ has kind of kept changing. And another one called âMoonlight,â which I wrote in Miami about being on the beach at night, and the kind of mood and landscape that you get, which is very special.â
There is a catch: Alea is due to give birth on June 21 to her first child (âHeâs named after a street in Miami, but I wonât say which!â), with husband and music partner Rodriguez Jr., a techno DJ and producer.
Plan B, in case Liset is unavailable that day: "Weâre holding out some kind of hope that sheâll be able to last till then for us," Trieger says. "But in the event that that canât happen, sheâs got a few songs prerecorded that weâll roll before the show at the bandshell."

Liset Alea is a Cuban-born, Miami-raised singer-songwriter now living in Paris.
Photo courtesy of Benoit Courti
âThatâs part of the âquarantine projectâ that we had, which was finishing our duo album,â Alea says. âOur project is called RJLA â RJ is Rodriguez Jr. and LA is me, Alea. Weâve done a lot of touring as a duo, and we were making music together before we were âtogether,â for like 15 years already. Itâs really great because he doesnât have to do exactly what he does with his techno project, and I donât have to do exactly what I do with my acoustic stuff, and we can kind of create another universe for ourselves.â
You can count Trieger among those who are impressed by Aleaâs sound.
âLiset has a very eclectic style, likely owing to the mix of cultures in the places she has lived: Cuba, Miami, and France,â he says. âYou can hear those influences in the variety of songwriting she creates, and it's a perfect fit for Make Music Miami, which is all about the global celebration of musical culture.â
Alea was also a perfect fit for Nouvelle Vague, which has featured several female singers over its 17-year existence. In 2010, Alea opened for Nouvelle Vague at the Manuel Artime Theater in Miami, and afterward, the bandâs producer, Marc Collin, asked her to join, saying they needed a new singer.
âI definitely was a fan of what they were doing because, as a Cuban, the Latin bossa nova thing I loved,â Alea says. âAnd the new wave songs they were covering, it was all the stuff I was listening to â Joy Division and Depeche Mode. I was like, this is totally my cup of tea, what I love.â
Alea stayed with Nouvelle Vague for about eight years, although she says she did a show with the band in early 2020.
âI still kind of pop in and out when they need something,â she says. âBut I needed desperately to do other things, because at the end of the day, as much as I loved it, itâs a cover band.â
One traditional part of Make Music Miami that canât happen this year: the series of performances along Lincoln Road, Miami Beachâs iconic pedestrian mall. Typically, more than 40 artists show off their creativity outside along the mall on this one day. But now everything must be done virtually â one could call 2020 the Year of the Livestream.
âWeâre sad like everybody else that it has to be done through a screen-shot,â Trieger says. âBut weâve got some cool projects that we normally wouldnât have pursued because of that.â
One is the Contagious Beats idea: âWe got together a group of artists, and they laid down a short, original musical piece or beat,â Trieger says, âand weâre inviting the public to submit their own overdubs to lay over the top of it, and then weâre merging those into a finished project to be shown on June 21.â
â Mike Hamersly, ArtburstMiami.com
Make Music Miami. Starting at 8 a.m. Sunday, June 21; makemusicmiami.org. Stream via facebook.com/makemusicmiami.