The Cuban singer Omara Portuondo, 93 years old, was taken off the stage of the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, Spain, on the night of this Wednesday, carried in the arms of two members of the Failde Orchestra after appearing disoriented from the very beginning of her concert performance.
Portuondo, who was scheduled to pay tribute to the legendary Buena Vista Social Club during the Cruïlla Tardor 2024 festival, entered the stage sitting in a chair while the audience cheered her on with shouts of "Queen Omara!".
However, the expectation turned into confusion when the singer only managed to accompany the orchestra with a small portion of the chorus of the song "Lágrimas Negras," and suddenly fell silent even though the orchestra kept playing.
After several unsuccessful attempts by the musicians to resume her performance, Portuondo only managed to sing the fragment "Contigo me voy mi santa, aunque me cueste morir," according to the Spanish newspaper El País.
The musicians' attempts to get her to resume the performance were unsuccessful, and she was finally escorted off the stage amid applause.
During what was expected to be her final farewell concert in Spain, some attendees shouted "let her rest" and "exploiters," to which Ethiel Failde, director of the Failde Orchestra, responded.
"It is a disrespect to a legend; she herself asked to sing. Omara has always said that she wants to die on stage," he said.
Amazingly, images of the moment have not yet emerged on social media.
Dozens of people left the venue before the event ended and gathered at the gates of the Palau de la Música demanding a refund for the ticket prices, which in some cases reached 75 euros.
Several formal complaints were submitted, and some spectators pointed out that the situation seemed abusive to them, as Portuondo appeared visibly anxious and disoriented.
The Failde Orchestra -which had already performed half a dozen songs when Omara took the stage- had announced the concert as "a journey to the music of yesterday," featuring a repertoire of Cuban classics such as Chan chan, Tiene sabor, Dónde estabas tú, and El manisero.
"Barcelona, here I am! I’ll be waiting for you tomorrow, October 2, at the Palau de la Música with the Failde Orchestra," can be read on the singer's Instagram alongside a photo of her in the city, with the two towers of Plaza España in the background.
On September 24, Omara had already given a concert in Gran Canaria where she appeared visibly tired.
After the concert in Barcelona - a city where she has performed several times in recent years - Omara was scheduled to participate in another concert with the Failde Orchestra on October 6 in Budapest, Hungary, as the group revealed on their social media.
Until the closing of this note, there is no updated information available on the health status of the legendary Cuban singer on her social media.
The Cruïlla Festival team, for its part, reported that the artist had to leave the stage due to "health reasons" and that they would contact concert attendees to refund the amount of their tickets.
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