Omara Portuondo is back. Not that the 79-year-old Cuban songstress ever stopped performing. She just hadn’t visited the States ever since the 9/11 attacks triggered all sorts of regulations that made it impossible to obtain a visa. Now, thanks to policy changes by the Obama administration, the Havana resident has returned to a country she entertained many times in the ’90s as the sole female member of the Buena Vista Social Club. “For music reasons that don’t hurt anyone and only make people happy, I wanted to come here again,” she recently told Billboard magazine (via Reuters).

The singer finally has her wish, which means she’ll be able to attend and present at the Latin Grammys tomorrow in Vegas for the first time, despite having been nominated before. Her latest album, which is appropriately titled Gracias, is up for Best Contemporary Tropical Album. In it, she said, “I tried to include styles that people who only know me from Buena Vista Social Club might not know I sing and that are part of our Cuban culture: filin, African rhythms, songs by Pablo Milanes and Silvio Rodriguez.” Portuondo, who has been called the Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughn of her island nation because of her deep, rich, chocolatey voice, is very thankful indeed to be included in the ceremony. “I’m going to represent Cuba, because I think I’m going to be the only one that will be there,” she told the NY Daily News. “I’ll be there for all of the others.”