Celebrities silenced at Miami International Airport, but the mayor’s voice lives on

Flo Rida’s time as a voice of Miami International Airport has come to an end, but the mayor’s public-announcer privileges continue.

In a memo to county commissioners, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said her administration recently retired the airport’s two-year-old “Voices of MIA” program that aired welcome messages from Flo Rida, Chef Pepín, Trina and other celebrities with Miami connections.

The audio edits followed an October resolution sponsored by Miami-Dade Commissioner Jean Monestime to add Portuguese and Creole to the airport’s existing English and Spanish announcements, but also find a way to cut back on the messages.

The main voice now: Levine Cava herself, welcoming passengers and reciting federal COVID-19 mask rules in English, Spanish, Creole and Portuguese.

The MIA Voices program started under then-Mayor Carlos Gimenez, whose voice also greeted passengers at MIA with a welcoming message. MIA ended the celebrity announcements on Oct. 24, and Levine Cava’s 66-second message is now played every 30 minutes — down from a 15-minute rotation before the changes. The airport also airs messages by the federal Transportation Security Administration about unattended bags and prohibited carry-on items.

Greg Chin, an Aviation spokesperson, said the decision to end the celebrity greetings was made by senior administrators “in order to accommodate the length of the essential PA messages that are now in four languages.”

“Time constraints only allowed for one welcome to MIA message,” he said.

This story was originally published January 27, 2022 at 6:00 AM.