The world of music is in mourning. Last night, one of the most renowned voices of Cuban music, Pablo Milanés, died of cancer in a hospital in Madrid, Spain.
This city was the artist’s home for the last five years of his life, where he lived due to his delicate state of health, complicated by the diagnosis of a cancer known as myelodysplastic syndrome, which decreased his immune response and made him vulnerable. to other types of conditions.
the troubadour
Milanés, renowned singer-songwriter and composer, was one of the icons that helped the emergence and spread of the so-called Nueva Trova Cubana.
Through the singer-songwriter’s official Facebook account, his artistic office confirmed the sad news.
“With great pain and sadness, we regret to inform that the teacher Pablo Milanés has passed away this morning of November 22 in Madrid,” he said. We are deeply grateful for all the expressions of affection and support, to all his family and friends, in these difficult times. May he rest in the love and peace that he has always transmitted. He will remain forever in our memory.
Milanés used to come to Peru relatively frequently, as he had a huge number of followers here. His admirers have increased since, in April 1986, he participated in the Latin American Cultural Integration Week, Sicla, a festival of troubadours that brought together the greatest exponents of what was called the ‘committed song’.
In those days, the city of Lima was practically taken over by Milanés and other Cuban artists such as Silvio Rodríguez, Vicente Feliú and the musicians from Irakere and Afro Cuba. Alberto Cortez, Mercedes Sosa, León Gieco, Fito Páez and Alejandro Lerner, among others, arrived from Argentina; for Chile, Inti-Illimani, Isabel and Tita Parra.
The Peruvian Daniel “Kiki Escobar was the coordinator and musical director of the festival and he made these artists shine on the stages of Plaza de Acho, the Municipal Theater, the Villa El Salvador Sports Field and the UNI Campus.
love and revolution
The way Milanés was able to turn revolutionary lyrics into love songs (and vice versa) was part of his style; but his versatility was such that even some of his themes were chosen to identify soap operas.
Although in some songs he was accompanied by an orchestra, most of the times a piano or just his guitar was enough for him. His recitals were like a gathering of a group of friends. The public used to ask her for her classical repertoire (‘The brief space in which you are not’, ‘I will step on the streets again’. ‘Yolanda’, ‘The love of my life’, ‘To live’, ‘In what a quiet way’, ‘I don’t ask you’, etc.), and he always interpreted them with the same passion.
Now the combative Pablo Milanés, the immense troubadour, already rests in peace from a terrible disease that he knew how to bear until yesterday.
#Rest #peace #friend #Pablo