The Cuban artist replaces Carla Morrison, who last Friday announced the cancellation of her tour of Spain
Omara Portuondo (Havana, 1930) is known as the ‘leading lady’ of the Buena Vista Social Club, as the girlfriend of the ‘feeling’, or as the star dancer of the Tropicana cabaret. At over 90 years old, she still lives by and for the bolero, the danzón or the habanera. In February of this 2022 she announced that she was saying goodbye to the stage with a world tour, under the name of ‘VIDA’. La Mar de Músicas de Cartagena will host the start of this European tour on Tuesday, July 19, at the Paco Martín Auditorium, replacing the Carla Morrison concert.
«Paco Martín, director of La Mar de Músicas until 2018, had a commitment with the Cuban diva to present all his projects in Cartagena. In 2019 we were told that Omara was leaving her and we brought her to the jazz festival, but Portuondo is a lot of Portuondo, and she still has the strength to do her last big world tour. When we found out in February, we already had the festival scheduled, but we have had no doubts that it will be incorporated into the program once there has been a gap, “said the Councilor for Culture of the Cartagena City Council, Carlos Piñana.
“I feel that it is a good time to personally leave a see you later to my followers in the most distant countries, to which, since teleportation has not yet been invented, it seems more difficult for me to return,” argued the artist in the announcement of his withdrawal.
Theirs will not be an absolute and immediate withdrawal, but it will be from international commitments. «For me, singing is living, it is my way of being. If you ask me about my favorite place, it will always be the stage, the song I sing, the next applause. As long as I have a voice and someone wants to hear me, let me sing,” he said.
Portuondo is one of the great exponents of the traditional music of the Caribbean island, where she is also revered as the ‘bride of the filin’. Her long career began in 1945 as a dancer in the famous Havana Tropicana cabaret, but it was in her song that she found her space from the golden age of traditional music in her country.
As a member of the D’Aida Quartet along with Elena Burke, Moraima Secada and her sister Haydée, he accompanied stars such as Édith Piaf, Pedro Vargas, Rita Montaner, Bola de Nieve, Benny Moré and Nat King Cole. It is from the 1970s when her name is consolidated with its own weight by singing with the Orquesta Aragón and recording albums such as the acclaimed ‘Palabras’ and ‘Desafíos’ with the Spanish label Nubenegra.
The Cuban singer went through La Mar de Músicas in 1998, which held a Cuba Special. Since she acted that year, there have been numerous presentations of the ‘bride of filin’ in the port city. Her connection to Cartagena is such that on her main page she proudly shows that the La Mar de Músicas festival gave her its award in 2014. Omara Portuondo’s performance will be on Tuesday, July 19, at 11:00 p.m., in the Paco Martin Auditorium. Tickets, which are already on sale, cost 30 euros.
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