Omara Portuondo
Cuba's greatest living bolero interpreter — Omara Portuondo began her career in the 1950s as a singer and dancer in Havana's cabarets, became a star of the revolutionary cultural scene, and reached global audiences through the Buena Vista Social Club.
About
Born in Havana to a baseball player and a dancer, Omara Portuondo started as both a singer and a dancer, performing in the renowned Cuarteto d'Aida alongside her sister Haydée. She developed an intimate, emotionally precise bolero style rooted in the traditional Cuban trova and son-bolero tradition, and became one of the most beloved voices on the island through the 1960s and 1970s.
The Buena Vista Social Club recordings brought her to international attention. Her duets with Ibrahim Ferrer — particularly Silencio — are among the most moving moments in the documentary. She has continued recording and touring into her 90s, remaining the living embodiment of the Cuban bolero tradition. Her voice, like the tradition itself, has only deepened with time.
Cuban Dances Originating in Havana
Havana, the cultural heartbeat of Cuba, played a central role in the creation and evolution of several iconic Cuban dances. Some were born directly in the capital, while others were transformed there into the forms we know today.
Lees meer >Bolero dance is the slowest, most intimate expression of Cuban partner dance — a close embrace, subtle movement, and complete surrender to the emotional weight of the music.
Lees meer >Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean and the birthplace of some of the world's most influential music and dance traditions. African, Spanish, and French cultural streams collided here over centuries of colonial history, producing an extraordinary creative culture that exported itself across the globe.
Lees meer >EGREM (Empresa de Grabaciones y Ediciones Musicales) is Cuba's state recording company, founded in 1964 after the Revolution nationalized all private recording labels. Its main facility, Estudios Areíto in Havana, is where virtually every important Cuban recording from the Revolution era was made.
Lees meer >The Buena Vista Social Club was originally a members' club in Havana's Buena Vista neighborhood, active in the 1940s and 50s as a gathering place for musicians playing Son, Danzón, Bolero, and Guaracha. It closed after the Revolution but was immortalized in 1997 when Ry Cooder brought together a group of surviving veteran musicians to record an album under the same name.
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