Cuban music legend Omara Portuondo of the wildly popular Buena Vista Social Club ensemble will retire from singing at the age of 93, her son announced Thursday.
Portuondo showed “signs of fatigue and disorientation” at a concert Wednesday in Barcelona, and had to be taken off stage, her son and agent Ariel Jimenez Portuondo said in a post on the artist’s Facebook page.
“We consider it appropriate to announce the definitive withdrawal of Omara from the stage,” with her last appearance in Budapest on Sunday, he wrote.
She will not perform but will make an appearance to “receive the love and applause” of her fans.
Portuondo thanked followers for their concerns for his mother’s health, adding she was “well, under the care and supervision of her personal doctor.”
With her flowing gowns, arched eyebrows and colorful turbans, Omara Portuondo encapsulated the bygone glamor of the Cuban capital Havana, where she started out aged 15 as a dancer in the famous Tropicana cabaret.
She was well into her sixties when she joined a group of older Cuban music stars, including singer Ibrahim Ferrer and pianist Ruben Gonzales, who were coaxed out of semi-retirement to make an album.
The record they made in just six days with American guitarist Ry Cooder became one of the best-selling world music albums of all time. It also won a Grammy.
In the Facebook note, her son said that due to “her age and health conditions” she had no longer been able to give extensive concerts.
But “to deprive her of the possibility of singing, as long as she has spirit, vocal conditions and strength, would be to condemn her to sadness. The meeting with the public, the applause and the songs keep her alive and in good spirits.”
Her physical fitness for performance had been consistently monitored, he added.
Known for her velvety voice, Portuondo had embraced a wide variety of Cuban music styles from bolero, filin (feeling), danzon and jazz to son and guaracha.
In 2009 she won a Latin Grammy for her album “Gracias” followed by another in 2023, at the age of 93, for the album “Vida.”
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