Omara Portuondo Peláez

There is something cinematic about the story of Omara Portuondo.

Daughter of a woman from a Spanish family who abandoned her social circle to marry a handsome black player from the Cuban national baseball team—which forced her to hide this union in public, since mixed marriages were not well regarded in Cuba at that time—Omara came into contact with music in her earliest childhood. Like in any other Cuban home, the future singer and her siblings grew up surrounded by the music that their parents sang, lacking a gramophone.

Those melodies, some of which still survive today in the singer's repertoire, constituted the first informal music lessons for little Omara. Before dedicating herself to singing, however, Omara tried her luck, by chance, in the world of dance, following in the footsteps of her sister Haydee, who was part of the company of the prestigious cabaret Tropicana. One day in 1945, two days before an important premiere, one of the company's dancers threw in the towel. Omara had watched her sister rehearse for hours and knew the steps by heart, which is why they proposed she fill the vacancy. "It was a very elegant cabaret," Omara recalls, "but it didn't make sense. I was a very shy girl and I was ashamed to show my legs." It was her mother who convinced her not to pass up the opportunity, and thus began a career as a dancer that led her to form a famous duo with dancer Rolando Espinosa and that, in 1961, allowed her to work as a teacher of popular dances at the School of Art Instructors.

Omara's relationship with the Tropicana cabaret has endured, and even in 1998 she still performed there occasionally. Omara and her sister Haydee also sang American standards with a group that included César Portillo de la Luz, José Antonio Méndez, and blind pianist Frank Emilio Flynn. They called themselves Los Loquibamba and the style they practiced, a Cubanized version of bossa nova with some touches of American jazz, became known as "feeling" or "filin."

In her radio debut, Omara was presented as "Miss Omara Brown, the filin sweetheart," and many Cubans still know her by that name. As the singer herself recalls, Cuban music of that time was influenced by popular music from different countries, such as Argentina, Brazil, and, of course, the United States.

In 1952, Omara and Haydee formed, with Elena Burke and Moraima Secada, a vocal quartet, directed by pianist Aida Diestro, which would become one of the most important groups in the history of Cuban music, despite the fact that the original lineup only recorded one single, in 1957 for Victor RCA.

Omara remained in the Quartet Las d!Aida for 15 years. "We went on tour through the United States, and Aida's vocal arrangements were very innovative. Everywhere we were acclaimed and, when Nat "King" Cole performed at the Tropicana, we would take the stage to sing with him," Omara recalls.

Magia Negra, Omara's debut album, appeared in 1959. In it, the singer chose to combine Cuban music with American jazz, and included versions of "That Old Black Magic" and "Caravan," by Duke Ellington. Despite releasing her first solo work, Omara Portuondo remained with Las d!Aida. Two years later, they were forced to return to the island during a series of concerts at a Miami hotel due to the missile crisis, which caused a breakdown in relations between the United States and Cuba and the beginning of a long period of isolation for the Caribbean nation.

Omara remained with Las d!Aida until 1967, when she decided to continue with her solo career. "So many singers had left the island that there was a void to fill," she says. Cuban culture gained new momentum and the appearance of different schools of art and music, from which a large number of musicians respected by society would emerge, served to encourage artistic creation. From that time on, Omara was not only her country's representative at different international festivals around the world but also continued to affirm herself on a national scale.

Omara joined one of the most important orchestras in the country, the Orquesta Aragón, with which she traveled around the world, and later recorded several albums, such as the one she made with Adalberto Álvarez in 1984 or Palabras y Desafíos, both for the Spanish label Nubenegra and in which she was accompanied by Chucho Valdés.

However, the fact that would definitively catapult Omara Portuondo to the place where she rightfully belonged came in the mid-nineties, thanks to cinema. After participating in the recording sessions of Buena Vista Social ClubTM (World Circuit), where she sang "Veinte años" alongside Compay Segundo, Omara Portuondo moved the audience and was moved on screen when performing with Ibrahim Ferrer such a heartbreaking song as "Silencio."

The success of the album and the homonymous film introduced to the general public the voice of a woman who had spent years moving those fortunate enough to see her perform in cabarets and clubs in her native Havana. As with the rest of the veteran musicians on that project, it marked a new turning point in their careers that would take them in the years to come all over the world and to record different works at the head of a dream band that brought together greats of Cuban music such as Rubén González, Orlando "Cachaíto" López, and Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal.

Omara was the star of the third release of Buena Vista Social ClubTM, Buena Vista Social ClubTM presents… Omara Portuondo (World Circuit). Released in 2000, the album was received with enthusiasm and led Omara to embark on a tour with Rubén González and Ibrahim Ferrer that gave an entire new generation of fans the opportunity to discover such an illustrious trio on stage.

Following that work, Omara began one of her most fruitful and successful professional periods. After a worldwide solo tour in 2002, she performed in the fall of that same year at the Japan Jazz Festival, accompanied by Michael Brecker, Herbie Hancock, John Patitucci, Wayne Shorter, and Danilo Pérez.

In 2003, she returned to European soil to participate in a legendary festival, the British Glastonbury festival, before continuing that same fall with several more dates in Canada and the United States, at the head of a band that featured performers of the caliber of Papi Oviedo on tres, Rolando Baro on piano, and Fabián García on bass. That same year, Omara returned to the studio to record her second solo album for World Circuit. The production was overseen by Nick Gold and Alê Siqueira, a renowned Brazilian producer backed by his work with Carlinhos Brown, Caetano Veloso, and Tribalistas, winners of a Latin GrammyTM. The acclaimed engineer Jerry Boys and the celebrated Cuban musician and arranger Demetrio Muñiz completed the technical team.

Flor de Amor (World Circuit) marks a change of direction in Omara Portuondo's career: we are faced with an album marked by a more subtle sound and rich in textures. On this occasion, the singer surrounded herself with a mix of Cuban and Brazilian musicians, and this is, precisely, another factor that influences the characteristic style of the work.

Allergic to resting on her laurels, Omara returned to Europe in 2004 to present this work, which she took to such prestigious venues as those of the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Marble Hill House in London, the Olympia in Paris, or the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. That same summer, Omara gave "the first concert" in Berlin, at the mythical Gendarmenmarkt, within the cycle "Classics Outdoors." Before 7,000 people, and surrounded by 68 musicians—among them members of the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg Symphonic Orchestra, conducted by Scott Lawton—and supported by such a special guest as her good friend Ibrahim Ferrer, that was an unforgettable night that marked the beginning of a new and ambitious world tour, the Special Symphonic Project, which, in 2006, would take her to the most important theaters and the main classical music festivals.

Before the end of 2004, Omara received two major surprises: in Montreux, the International Red Cross named her International Ambassador, making her the first Cuban artist to achieve such a distinction, and Flor de amor was nominated for GrammyTM Awards in the category of "Best Traditional Tropical Album."

That was not, however, the only mention that fell upon the album. At the gala of the 16th edition of the Billboard Latin Music Awards, in 2005, the album won the award for Best Tropical Album of the Year in the female category.

Omara's career continued at a frenetic pace that year, and she reunited on stage with other great divas of song—such as Chaka Khan, Nina Hagen, and Marianne Faithfull, with whom she performed at the mythical Wiener Festwochen Festival, before more than 45,000 people—, string ensembles—I Musici, a collective of 15 musicians, directed by the brilliant maestro Turovski, with whom she shared the stage at the 26th edition of the Montreal International Jazz Festival, and who inspired the string orchestra project that would tour a year later—or with her own band, with which she toured Europe and, in the last part of the year, Asia.

In 2006, Omara continued to deepen the lines that have characterized her work in recent years. On one hand, her deep social and human conscience led her to create the Fundación de Amigos de Omara in Cancún to help women throughout the world who are victims of social and economic circumstances that affect developing countries. On the other hand, she maintained her intense musical activity with various concerts throughout Latin America, Asia, and Europe, and among them one of special importance for the singer: the performance that united her in Barcelona with Mayte Martín and Martirio in the show "Entre Amigas" and which served her to pay homage to her beloved Ibrahim Ferrer, as the songs "Casablanca" and "Killing me Softly," which both perform on the album Rhythms del Mundo (Universal), also served to honor that figure, an album in which several Cuban artists came together with rock groups to reinterpret songs by Radiohead, U2, and Sting, among many others.

And if in 2006 she was able to work with two Spanish vocal figures, 2007 brought her into contact with one of the legends of Brazilian popular music: singer Maria Bethânia. With her she recorded in Rio de Janeiro, aided by musicians from both countries, such as pianist Roberto Fonseca or the Brazilians Carlos Baia and Jorge Hélder, and under the watchful eye of producers Swami Jr. (Omara's current musical director) and Jaime Alem (Bethânia's current musical director).

In 2008, Omara began the year with the tour with Bethânia and continued with Gracias (Montuno Producciones), the album with which the Cuban singer wants to celebrate her sixtieth anniversary of her career. Recorded in Havana and produced by Brazilians Alê Siqueira (the producer of her latest album) and Swami Jr., what better than to indulge in an authentic feast for such a special occasion and recruit a quintet up to the circumstances? Because if Omara's career and talent are outstanding, so is the resume of the musicians who have wanted to join this celebration, starting with the three musicians with whom the singer has already worked in the past—pianist Roberto Fonseca, guitarist and musical director Swami Jr., and percussionist Andrés Coayo—and continuing with the two making their debut alongside "the filin sweetheart": Israeli bassist Avishai Cohen and Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu.

In Gracias, Omara wanted to recover the songs that have moved her the most, and work with authors she admires such as Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, and Jorge Drexler, composer of the song that gives the album its name, dedicated especially to Omara. These are not, however, the only special guests at this anniversary: as if the lineup were not already stellar in itself, Chucho Valdés has wanted to join it—who performs a song written by Omara's son—, the sensational African musician Richard Bona, and the Brazilian master Chico Buarque.

For the first time in her career, the Cuban singer traveled to the Persian Gulf to participate in the prestigious "Spring of Culture" festival, a multidisciplinary event with musical performances, theatrical works, performances, and conferences that gathered this year in the Arab country musicians, artists, and theorists from different backgrounds, such as Angelique Kidjo, the Salzburg Puppet Theater, or the Young Palestinian Orchestra, promoted by Edward Said. Omara Portuondo's debut at this event was a resounding success.

In October 2009, Portuondo traveled to the USA to perform in concert after her last visit six years earlier. Both concerts at the "Palace of Fine Arts Theater" in San Francisco and at "Royce Hall" in Los Angeles were praised by the public and critics in California.

After many years of a hiatus, Omara returned to share the stage during the last summer with the Buena Vista Social ClubTM Orchestra. A wonderful combination to celebrate both the release of the orchestra's double CD and the singer's sixty years of career. Unforgettable encounters that we hope will be repeated soon. During the summer Omara was invited by Neapolitan singer and producer Joe Barbieri to sing on one of his songs on Barbieri's latest album Maison Maravilha, on the track "Malegria."

With this wonderful album, Gracias, Omara was awarded the Latin GrammyTM 2009 in the category of "Best Contemporary Tropical Album." Furthermore, Omara will make history as the first resident artist in Cuba to take the stage at the Latin GrammysTM to present one of the awards. The ceremony took place on November 5 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

There is no better way to end 2009 than with a nomination for the 2010 GrammyTM Awards as "Best Latin Tropical Album" of the year.

Omara brings Gracias to stages around the world, Asia, Europe, and throughout the Americas, in a series of concerts in which she reviews her artistic career accompanied by her musicians. During the months of February and March, Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca performs alongside Omara Portuondo in five American cities.

In 2018, after a successful presentation at the Kennedy Center in Washington where she performed a duet with fellow Cuban singer Aimeé Nuviola, Omara just released her new CD "Omara Siempre."