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 descent, and it was expected that she would marry someone from another family in high society, but 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 their parents, singing in the kitchen where they carried out 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 sung by Compay Segundo in Buena Vista Social Club). These became her first informal singing lessons, and those songs became part of her lifelong repertoire.
When her sister Haydée became a dancer at the famous cabaret Tropicana, Omara soon followed her, by chance: the dance company was short-staffed one day in 1945 when a dancer withdrew two days before an important premiere. Omara had watched her sister rehearse so often that she knew all the steps, so she was asked to fill the vacant position. “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 a 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, became known as “feeling” or, in Spanish, “filin.” In her radio debut, Omara was introduced as Omara Brown, the girlfriend of filin. That stage name was soon forgotten, but the definition that accompanied it still remains.
In 1950, she became a member of the Anacaona Orchestra, and by 1952, Omara and her sister Haydée Portuondo were part of 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 Las De Aída Quartet for 15 years, although the original lineup only recorded one album for RCA Victor in 1957. They undertook numerous tours across America with innovative vocal arrangements by Aída; they had the opportunity to share stages with Édith Piaf, Pedro Vargas, Rita Montaner, Bola de Nieve, and Benny Moré, and also served as accompaniments to Nat King Cole during his performance at Tropicana.
He made his solo debut with the album Magia negra, released in 1959, which blends Cuban music and jazz and includes versions of That Old Black Magic and Caravan by Duke Ellington. He then continued with Las De Aída until 1967, the year he fully dedicated himself to his solo career, performing in Cuba and at some 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 many recordings over the following two decades; however, the best one is considered to be the album she recorded with Adalberto Álvarez in 1984 and two achieved 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 of this group, featuring musicians such as Rubén González, Orlando ''Cachaíto'' López, Manuel ''Guajiro'' Mirabal, and Jesús "Aguaje" Ramos, as well as guest appearances from artists like Eliades Ochoa, Compay Segundo, Manuel Garban, and Ibrahim Ferrer.
The album, welcomed with great acclaim from critics, led Omara on a world tour in 2000-2001 with her Buena Vista colleagues, Rubén González and Ibrahim Ferrer.
In 2002, he undertook an extensive solo international tour, with numerous dates in North America and Europe. In the fall of the same year, he participated in the Jazz Festival in Japan.
In 2003, he/she went 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 change in direction, with Cuban musicians combined with a selection of Brazilian artists giving the record a unique sound.
On November 5, 2009, she won the Latin Grammy Award in the category of Best Contemporary Tropical Album with Gracias. What is notable is that she became the first Cuban artist residing in her country to win this prestigious award and to collect it with her own hands. In the album, Omara takes a journey through her 60 years of artistic career, featuring special contributions from 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 film The Princess and the Frog, translated as Taina y el sapo, by Walt Disney, performing a song by the elder Mama Odie: Dig a Little Deeper. For the soundtrack of the Latin American version, titled La princesa y el sapo, she did not record anything.
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 held an online concert with flutist Ethiel Faílde, in which she performed songs such as "20 años" and "Dos Gardenias," both of which have been significant in her musical repertoire over the years.
