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 (I ORIGINALLY POSTED THIS YOUTUBE RECORDING IN APRIL OF THIS
YEAR--THE FIRST TIME I SAW HER WAS ON STAGE WITH CELIA CRUZ--THE
FORMER THE QUEEN OF BOLERO, THE LATTER THE QUEEN OF SALSA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z35VFdxJV6I
;">Cuban singer Olga Guillot dies at 87
By Fabiola Santiago, Luisa Yanez and Sarah Moreno, The Miami Herald
9:38 PM EDT, July 12, 2010
For more than 60 years, Cuban singer Olga Guillot delivered the
songs of
Latin America in her raspy-yet-sultry voice with unabashed
sentimentality.
On Monday, "La Reina del bolero'' — the Queen of Bolero — suffered a
heart
attack and died at Miami Beach's Mount Sinai Medical Center. She was 87.
"She established a style of interpreting songs ... a first lady of
the
stage," said singer Renée Barrios. "She blended the styles of American
interpreters with those of the Cubans."
Ms. Guillot sang with Sarah Vaughan, Edith Piaf and Nat King Cole,
and
coached Cole on how to sing in Spanish when he recorded one of his
famous albums
in Cuba.
Her signature song "Miénteme" ("Lie to Me"), by Mexican composer
Chamaco
DomÃnguez, became an anthem for the betrayed who stubbornly hang on to
bad
love.
Ms. Guillot knew her song was so popular that sometimes she would
stop
mid-song to chat with the audience about it.
"You like this song, don't you?" she once bantered during a recorded
live
performance in Buenos Aires. "You should, you are a consequence of my
songs.
Your mother courted your father with my songs."
Then, she would pick up the melody and deliver another unforgettable
performance.
Born in Santiago de Cuba on Oct. 9, 1922, Ms. Guillot moved to Havana
with
her family when she was a child. She began her singing career at age 14,
performing with sister Ana Luisa as the "Duo Hermanitas Guillot."
According to published biographies, she made her debut as a solo
artist in
1945 at Havana's Zombie Club, and a year later became known in the
United States
when she recorded a Spanish version of "Stormy Weather."
In the 1950s, Ms. Guillot became a fixture on Cuban radio and
television and
popularized songs such as "Tú me acostumbraste," "La gloria eres tú" and
"La
noche de anoche." She also worked in Mexican cinema.
Like the late Celia Cruz, Ms. Guillot always wore the pain of being
in exile
on her sleeve —and like many of her older fans, she yearned for the Cuba
of old
and was a vivid representative of it for those fans.
" 'Pobrecita mi Cubita linda' [My poor little Cuba]," she said late
last year
at the premiere at Hialeah Senior High School of "50 Años en Exilio"
("Fifty
Years in Exile"), a documentary produced by Univision on the history of
Miami's
Cuban exile community. Ms. Guillot disliked Fidel Castro and never hid
it.
In the documentary, she recounts how she decided to go into exile
after
officials with Cuba's new revolutionary government came to her home to
dictate
where she could and could not perform after all night clubs and casinos
were
shut down.
Until the end, she was joining exile demonstrations against Castro.
One of her final public appearances in Miami was March 25 at the
Ladies in
White march in Little Havana, organized by Gloria Estefan and attended
by
hundreds of thousands of Cubans dressed in white.
Wearing a traditional white guayabera, Ms. Guillot weathered a
seven-block
march, arriving on stage winded, but her patriotic spirit strong.
Fire-Rescue
had to be called for her, but Ms. Guillot bounced back.
"I made it here to the stage because I wanted to be with "mi gente'' —
my
people," she told the crowd, which began chanting "Olga, Olga!''
Said singer Vicky Roig, a friend of 50 years: "She was a champion of
the
Cuban cause. All she wanted was to return to Cuba to sing in Tropicana."
Ms. Guillot never returned to Cuba. She left for Venezuela on a work
contract
in 1961, and from there, she re-established her career in Mexico City.
She lived
the past 50 years shuttling between Mexico City and Miami Beach.
"I grew up in Miami with the songs of Olga Guillot playing on my
parents'
radio and she, along with Celia Cruz, were two of the few living symbols
of the
Cuba that exiles longed for," said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. "What
saddens
the Cuban-American community the most is that Olga is yet another name
in a long
roster of names that passes away without seeing freedom in their beloved
Cuba."
"There will never be another Olga Guillot," Ros-Lehtinen added. "Her
unrepentant patriotism, love of country, talented voice and humanitarian
heart
will be missed by all who knew her. She was one of a kind."
Ms. Guillot had been married to the Cuban actor Alberto Insúa and had
a
daughter — Olga MarÃa, also a singer — with the famous Cuban composer
René
Touzet.
"She had a theatrical persona," said actor and journalist Evelio
Taillacq.
"She knew how to make the public rise to its feet."
One of her contributions, Taillacq added, was that Ms. Guillot broke
ground
for a generation of female singers by showing that they, too, could sell
records.
"With 'Miénteme,' by Chamaco DomÃnguez, she proved wrong the myth
that women
didn't sell records. She put the recording house Discos Puchito at the
top of
sales in Cuba. On Oct. 31, 1964, she became the first Latin artist to
perform at
Carnegie Hall."
She frequently announced her retirement, only to be lured back for
one more
performance.
"Applause is like a drug, but all that is beautiful to a point," she
told El
Miami Herald in 1983. "As long as I leave on time, nobody will have to
applaud
me out of pity."
The Latin Grammy winner continued to perform into her 80s. She told
Roig five
days ago that she was preparing to perform with a symphonic orchestra in
Mexico.
Eloy Cepero, a Cuban music expert who recorded the last extensive
television
interview with Ms. Guillot in January in Miami, said only the late
Argentine
singer Libertad Lamarque came close to Ms. Guillot's powerful singing.
"Olga was by far the most important stylistic singer that Cuba ever
produced," Cepero said. "To this day, you can't say that there was any
other
singer who was at her level. Even Cachao used to say: 'There's Olga
Guillot —
and then, all the others.' ''
Cepero, who will rebroadcast his hourlong show Grandes Leyendas
Musicales at
6 p.m. Sunday on GenTV, said Ms. Guillot she was also patriotic to a
fault.
"I traveled to Israel with her 1987," he said. "We were told that at
the
official reception only the Israeli national anthem would be sung. Well,
when
they finished singing the Israeli anthem, Olga got up and started
singing the
Cuban national anthem — and we followed her."
Ms. Guillot is survived by daughter Olga MarÃa Touzet and sister Ana
Luisa.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete Monday.
| Olga Guillot | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | La Reina del Bolero |
| Born | October 9, 1922 Santiago de Cuba , Cuba |
| Genres | Bolero |
| Occupations | Singer |
Olga
Guillot (born October 9, 1922 in Santiago de Cuba ) is a famous Cuban singer
who was known to be the queen of bolero. She is a native of the Cuban
city of Santiago .
Guillot and her family
moved to Havana, Cuba when she was a
small child. As a teenager , she and her sister,
Ana Luisa, performed at a duo, named the "Duo Hermanitas Guillot".
It
wasn't until 1945 that her talent as a bolero singer would be discovered, when Facundo Rivero , an influential man in the Cuban music industry of the era, heard her
sing for the first time, and helped her make her professional singing
debut, at a famous Havana night club. Soon after, Guillot met Miguelito Valdés , who took her to New York
City, where Guillot was
able to record her first album, with the Decca label.
Guillot traveled to Mexico in
1948. There, she established
herself as an international singer and actress, participating in
various films and making her second album. In Mexico, Guillot began to
enjoy much popularity for the first time in her career.
In
1954,
she recorded her song "Mienteme" ("Lie to Me"), which became a hit
across Latin America, and earned her three consecutive awards back home
in Cuba as Cuba's best female singer.
1958
proved to be an
important year for Guillot,
as she toured Europe for the first time,
including stops in Italy, France, Spain and Germany. She sang alongside the equally legendary Édith
Piaf during a concert held in Cannes .
Olga
Guillot kept a house in
Cuba as she travelled around the world with her
music, apart from her house in Mexico. But Guillot opposed Fidel
Castro 's Government, and, in 1961, she decided to leave Cuba for
good and establish herself in Venezuela . Not long after that, she left Venezuela, making Mexico her only
permanent residence country.
Meanwhile, she kept touring around
the world, singing in places such as Israel ,
Japan, Hong Kong and many others. In 1963, Guillot was given the Golden Palm award as "best bolero singer
of Latin America". She received the award in Hollywood, California . Guillot sang in 1964 at
New York's famed Carnegie
Hall .
Guillot continued on touring for
the next forty years,
releasing over fifty albums and winning numerous awards for her
activity in the music world. She was very good friends with Celia
Cruz , to whom she often referred to as "(her) sister". When Cruz
died from cancer , Guillot was one of the
most affected persons in the show business
world.
Her albums and music are
prohibited in Cuba. Guillot remains a quiet but strong critic of Castro and his policies towards
Cuban residents.
Guillot still lives mainly in
Mexico and has
another home on Miami Beach , Florida .
She has one daughter, Olga Maria Touzet-Guillot, that she had with the
pianist and composer, René
Touzet . She is
godmother to José José .
