Omara Portuondo turns 96 as "Eternamente Omara" chases a Latin Grammy

Foto: Photo: Prensa Latina

October 29, 2026

Cuban singer Omara Portuondo, the leading female voice of the Buena Vista Social Club, turns 96 on Thursday, October 29, 2026. Born in Havana on October 29, 1930, the artist known as "La Novia del Filin" reaches the milestone still active, with her album Eternamente Omara nominated for Best Traditional Tropical Album at the 2026 Latin Grammy Awards, the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina noted.

Produced by pianist Roberto Fonseca and recorded at Ojalá studios in Havana, the album features guests including Silvio Rodríguez on the bolero "Demasiado," Argentina's Nathy Peluso on "Quizás, quizás, quizás," Spain's Pablo López on "Noche de ronda" and Benin's Angélique Kidjo on "Guantanamera." Speaking to Prensa Latina, Portuondo said the project grew out of a tour with Fonseca's group and that winning would "complete a cycle" in her career.

Portuondo, who won the 2023 Latin Grammy for Best Traditional Tropical Album with Vida, has been honored several times in Cuba in recent weeks. In September, the EGREM record label presented her with its Siboney Musical Excellence Lifetime Achievement Award at the Casa de la Trova in Santiago de Cuba, accepted on her behalf by her son Ariel Jiménez Portuondo, according to teleSUR and Infobae.

The 2026 Latin Grammys will be handed out in November in Las Vegas, where the singer of "Veinte años" could add another trophy to a career spanning more than seven decades.

Fuente: Prensa Latina; Radio Habana Cuba; teleSUR; Infobae

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.