East Coast Music Award nominated Latin Jazz artist, Dee Hernandez, has announced her debut album, Deshecha = Undone, set for release on Friday, September 25, 2026.
Born from the experiences that challenged her identity, sense of belonging, and understanding of herself, Deshecha = Undone is an autobiographical musical portrait of Latin Jazz artist, Dee Hernandez, a Cuban woman who rebuilt her life thousands of kilometres from home while discovering that becoming undone does not mean becoming incomplete. Spanning songs written during different chapters of her life in Canada, the bilingual album moves between English and Spanish as naturally as Hernandez moves between Afro-Cuban rhythms, Jazz, Soul, Funk, and contemporary songwriting, allowing the languages themselves to become part of the story. The English songs on the album emerged during her earliest years in Canada, when Hernandez was learning a new language, immersing herself in a new culture, and navigating experiences that challenged and reshaped her, and its more recent Spanish material signals a return to the roots she feared she could lose. Together, the songs create a vibrant mosaic of migration, resilience, heartbreak, independence, ancestry, and cultural rediscovery, revealing that every evolution of herself always remained part of something whole.
A 2026 East Coast Music Award nominee for Global Recording of the Year, Hernandez has steadily emerged as a captivating new presence in Canadian music, earning two 2025 ECMA nominations, four 2024 Music New Brunswick Award nominations, and a Top 10 placement in the New Brunswick People’s Choice Awards, alongside earlier national exposure as a Top 30 finalist on Canadian Idol. Her powerful, sophisticated voice has reached across the CBC Radio network, with recognition on Saturday Night Jazz, The Block, Marvin’s Room, Frequencies, and Shift, alongside airplay from JAZZ.FM91 and radio stations across the country. Praised by Canadian icons including Jully Black and Sass Jordan, who called Hernandez a “world-class Jazz singer,” she has brought her magnetic live presence to Canadian Music Week, ECMA stages, and festivals across the country, while her sold-out Ella Fitzgerald tribute tour demonstrated her remarkable versatility.
Created from songs written across different chapters of her life, Deshecha = Undone traces Hernandez’s experience of having her identity and sense of belonging challenged and reshaped, emerging as a musical testament to the wholeness that can exist when life seemingly pulls everything apart. After immigrating to Canada without speaking English, the album’s English songs were born from her formative early years learning the language and adapting to Canadian society, while its Spanish material came to life as Hernandez began reflecting on whether her desire to belong had unintentionally distanced her from the language, memories, ancestry, and roots that defined her. “We live in a society where we’re always trying to fix ourselves or asking what we can do better,” shares Hernandez. “I needed to remind myself, and hopefully other people who have questioned their own journey, that regardless of what happens, you’re whole. Even when life feels like it’s falling into pieces, you’re still whole. I’m not half Cuban and I’m not half Canadian. I am all of those things.” On Deshecha = Undone, Hernandez allows her experiences to find their own language, creating a bilingual body of work that reflects her identity that is neither half Cuban nor half Canadian, but completely both. Its title embraces that duality, reclaiming the idea of being undone not as something broken, but as the freedom to exist fully within every piece of who an individual has become.
Embodying Hernandez’s fiercely independent spirit, lead track “Cabezona” turns the Spanish expression for being hard-headed or stubborn into an exuberant declaration of self-belief. Inspired by Celia Cruz and the celebratory spirit of Cuban music, the vibrant, colourful track is Hernandez’s answer to every limitation that could have prevented Deshecha = Undone from existing, from financial obstacles and industry rejection to the persistent self-doubt. A song that personifies the creative freedom that comes from remaining independent and taking full ownership of her artistry as both songwriter and co-producer of the album, “Cabezona” is a defiant, joyful transformation of stubbornness into strength, delivering its message of perseverance in the colour, movement, and communal energy of a celebration. Its accompanying visual united members of the Atlantic Canadian Latin community, creating a vibrant representation of culture, womanhood, independence, and the freedom to create on one’s own terms.
Throughout the album’s 10 tracks, Hernandez unveils a tidal wave of sound and memory, with each song revealing a piece of the experiences that shaped her. Written during her mother’s cancer treatment, spiritually rooted “Odumile” blends Afro-Cuban rhythms with lush, self-layered vocal arrangements in a powerful reflection on resilience, identity, and ancestral connection, while “Flores” turns flowers into a metaphor for Hernandez’s artistic purpose, scattering joy and positivity through music in the face of negativity. A song that looks deep into her past, “Insomnio” transforms a recurring childhood dream of falling fearlessly through darkness into an atmospheric exploration of uncertainty and surrender, highlighted by the Afro-Cuban roots that continue to anchor Hernandez to home. Vibrant cha-cha rhythms and Jazz textures propel “Used,” transforming heartbreak, emotional manipulation, and self-discovery into an empowering declaration of self-worth, while “I Want to Fall in Love” moves the natural reflex of self-protection toward possibility, pairing soulful vocals, expansive horns, and Cuban Jazz-Funk with the vulnerable hope of opening her heart again after loss. The album forms a colourful and relatable musical tapestry, moving between resilience and vulnerability, past and present, and the Cuban roots and Canadian experiences that envelop Deshecha = Undone.
On Deshecha = Undone, Dee Hernandez boldly steps into her own as an artist, weaving the rhythms of her Cuban ancestry, influence of her life in Canada, and years of personal discovery into a vibrant sound that is unmistakably her own. Sung across two languages and bursting with Afro-Cuban rhythms, Jazz, Funk, Soul, and Latin influences, the album is a colourful and soulful introduction to an artist who stopped waiting for the perfect moment and instead created it for herself. The hero in her own story, Hernandez emerges from uncertainty to discover she understood her voice, her roots, and the value of her art all along, celebrating every experience that has contributed to the person she is today. With Deshecha = Undone, Hernandez proves that being pulled apart does not make a person any less complete and that sometimes, it simply reveals all the remarkable pieces that were there from the beginning.
Upcoming Performances
September 25 2026 – Dalhousie, NB – Album Release Listening Party – Heron Bay Brewing –
Free – More Information
October 3 2026 – Sydney, NS – Cape Breton Jazz Festival – Howie Centre (Ella Fitzgerald Tribute) – Tickets
October 4 2026 – Halifax, NS – Prismatic Arts Festival/Cecilian Concerts – Register Free
October 16 & 17 2026 – Hamilton, ON – Folk Canada Official Showcase – More Information
Room# 1002 @11pm
Room# 1025 @12am
October 24 2026 – Moncton NB – Music NB Showcase – More Information
December 18 2026 – Fredericton, NB – Delta Fredericton – Ella Fitzgerald Tribute – Tickets
Deshecha = Undone will be available everywhere on September 25, 2026
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