Long life to Eliades Ochoa, the singer of the black hat

June 27, 2020

Eliades Ochoa, "ambassador of Cuban music to the world" and former guitarist and singer of the Buena Vista Social Club group, is celebrating 74 years of life. Having become a worldwide symbol of Cuban son and traditional music from Santiago de Cuba, this artist born on June 22, 1946, in Loma de la Avispa, Songo-La Maya, province of Santiago de Cuba, has to his credit four gold records and one platinum record.

He taught himself to play guitar at just six years of age and with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution he later became a professional musician. He began his artistic career on the radio program Trinchera Agraria, dedicated to peasants, in Santiago de Cuba, in 1963. He subsequently joined the Septeto Típico Oriental and in 1978 joined the Cuarteto Patria, of which he is the director.

Internationally known for his participation alongside other Cuban musicians on the album Buena Vista Social Club, awarded a Grammy in the Tropical Music category, and also in the film of the same name by Wim Wenders, Eliades Ochoa proudly maintains his peasant roots.

This faithful exponent of traditional Cuban music is seen every day wearing his typical black hat and eight-string guitar. In the guajira, the guaracha and the bolero lies his musical essence, even as he champions all Cuban popular music.

Eliades Ochoa has around thirty phonographic recordings. Outstanding among them are CubAfrica; and Sublime Ilusión, which gave his career a new direction when it was released worldwide and nominated for Grammy Awards in the Best Traditional Tropical and Latin Album category; Continental; and, more recently, Vamos a bailar un son, which combines some unreleased compositions of his own, such as the one that gives the album its name, with classics from the Cuban repertoire.

He received the Alejo Carpentier medal for all his artistic work. In 2001 he received the Music Prize from the General Society of Authors and Publishers of Spain (SGAE) and from the Association of Performers and Executants of Spain (AIE), the latter for best traditional music album.

"I am going to continue making music because it is what I like, to feel like the Eliades that I am," he has expressed on several occasions and we with pleasure will continue enjoying his talent and performances.