Omara Portuondo Peláez is one of the most important Cuban feeling singers of all time. She was born in Havana, Cuba on October 29, 1930.
Her mother belonged to a Cuban family of noble lineage with Spanish ancestry, and it was expected that she would marry into other families of society. However, she ran away with the man she loved, a baseball player from the national team. The marriage had three daughters, and like in any Cuban home, there was music; they had no money, but they had the voices of the parents singing in the kitchen where they lived their daily lives. Omara, who was born in the Cayo Hueso neighborhood of Havana, remembers their songs, including among her favorites La bayamesa by Ernesto Grenet and Sindo Garay (also performed by Compay Segundo in Buena Vista Social Club). These were her first informal singing lessons, and these songs became part of her lifelong repertoire.
When her sister Haydée became a dancer at the famous cabaret Tropicana, Omara soon followed by accident: the dance company was short one dancer one day in 1945 when a performer withdrew two days before an important premiere. Omara had watched her sister practice so often that she knew all the steps, so she was asked to fill the vacancy. “It was a very chic cabaret, but I said it was unacceptable,” Omara recalls. “I was very shy and felt embarrassed to show my legs.” But her mother convinced her by saying she couldn’t let them down; thus began her career as a dancer, forming a famous duo with the dancer Rolando Espinosa.
On weekends, Omara and Haydée sang jazz standards with some friends: César Portillo de la Luz, José Antonio Méndez, and the pianist Frank Emilio Flynn. They called themselves Loquibambla Swing, and the style they played, a Cubanized version of bossa nova with jazz influences, came to be known as “feeling” or, in its Spanish adaptation, “filin.” In her radio debut, Omara was introduced as Omara Brown, the girlfriend of filin. That stage name was soon forgotten, but not the definition that accompanied it.
In 1950, she became a member of the Anacaona Orchestra, and by 1952, Omara and her sister Haydée Portuondo formed a female vocal quartet with Elena Burke and Moraima Secada, led by pianist Aída Diestro. They became one of the most important vocal quartets in Cuban music, and Omara remained with the quartet Las De Aída for 15 years, although the original lineup only recorded one album for RCA Victor in 1957. They toured extensively across America with Aída's innovative vocal arrangements; they had the opportunity to share the stage with Édith Piaf, Pedro Vargas, Rita Montaner, Bola de Nieve, and Benny Moré, and also served as the accompaniment for Nat King Cole when he performed at Tropicana.
He made his solo debut with the album Magia negra, released in 1959, where he blends Cuban music and jazz, including renditions of That Old Black Magic and Caravan by Duke Ellington. He then continued with Las De Aída until 1967, the year he fully committed to his solo career, performing in Cuba and at various international festivals representing the country.
In the 1970s, she sang with the Orquesta Aragón and traveled extensively, performing in several countries such as France, Japan, Belgium, Finland, and Sweden. Omara made numerous recordings throughout the following two decades; however, the best is considered to be the album she recorded with Adalberto Álvarez in 1984 and two made for the Spanish label "Nubenegra": "Palabras" and "Desafíos".
The Cuban director Fernando Pérez Valdés made a documentary about the singer titled Omara in 1983.
In 2000, World Circuit released Buena Vista Social Club presents... Omara Portuondo, the third album by this group that featured musicians such as Rubén González, Orlando ''Cachaíto'' López, Manuel ''Guajiro'' Mirabal, and Jesús "Aguaje" Ramos, along with guest appearances by artists like Eliades Ochoa, Compay Segundo, Manuel Garban, and Ibrahim Ferrer.
The album, met with widespread critical acclaim, led Omara on a world tour in 2000-2001 with her fellow Buena Vista artists, Rubén González and Ibrahim Ferrer.
In 2002, he embarked on an extensive solo international tour, with numerous dates in North America and Europe. In the autumn of the same year, he participated in the Jazz Festival in Japan.
In 2003, he/she goes on a tour in Canada and the United States.
In September 2003, he recorded at the EGREM studios what would become his second solo album produced by World Circuit.
The album Flor de amor marks a shift in direction, and the combination of Cuban musicians with a selection of Brazilian artists gives the record a unique sound.
On November 5, 2009, she won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Tropical Album with Gracias, but what is significant is that she became the first Cuban artist residing in her country to win this prestigious award and collect it in person. In the album, Omara takes a journey through her 60 years of artistic career, featuring special appearances by the Cubans Silvio Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés, the Uruguayan Jorge Drexler, and the Brazilian Chico Buarque.
In 2010, she recorded a song for the Spanish version of The Princess and the Frog, translated as Taina and the Frog, by Walt Disney, performing a song by the elderly Mama Odie: Dig a Little Deeper. For the soundtrack of the Latin American version, titled La princesa y el sapo, she did not record any songs.
In September 2020, she was nominated for her album Mariposas for the award of 'Best Contemporary/Tropical Fusion Album' at the 2020 Latin Grammy Awards.
In October 2020, on the occasion of her 90th birthday Portuondo offered an online concert alongside flutist Ethiel Faílde, in which she performed songs such as "20 años" and "Dos Gardenias," which have been so important in her musical repertoire all these years.
