Omara Portuondo honored in Santiago de Cuba, Creative City of Music

Foto: Wikimedia Commons / Ajuntament de Vilanova i la Geltrú (CC BY 2.0)

September 23, 2026

Cuban singer Omara Portuondo Peláez arrived in Santiago de Cuba on September 21, 2026, for a program of visits and tributes in the Creative City of Music, according to the newspaper Sierra Maestra and TV Santiago. The Buena Vista Social Club diva, also known as the Bride of Filin, announced in 2024 — at age 94 — her retirement from long stage shows, though not from music itself.

Local music officials said her itinerary includes the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity at El Cobre, Parque Céspedes, Santa Ifigenia heritage cemetery and the waterfront Paseo Marítimo. At Casa de la Trova Pepe Sánchez, EGREM is to present her with the Siboney Prize for Musical Excellence.

A Friday ceremony hosted by the Municipal Assembly, the provincial government and the Universidad de Oriente was planned at the Hall of Stained Glass in Plaza de la Revolución Mayor General Antonio Maceo. Portuondo, one of Cuba’s most admired voices, also carries a 2026 Latin Grammy nomination for the album Eternamente Omara.

Fuente: Sierra Maestra; TV Santiago

Omara Portuondo Peláez

Singer, Society

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.