The prominent Cuban singer Gina Leonone of the main performers of the song and the bolero in the 60s, 70s and 80s and now practically forgotten, died in Havana on Wednesday at the age of 86.
Although the news was not published by any official body, various profiles of specialists, intellectuals and admirers mourn his loss.
the musicographer Rosa Marquetti He described her as having “an extraordinary voice and elegance” that stood out like no other in a time when there were many outstanding female singers.
“The memory of her ‘Get Away’ and so many other boleros has stayed with us through the years, even if not remembered as she should. Today, Gina León left this earthly plane to settle in the dimension where the notables reside,” she said on Facebook.
Facebook screenshot / Rosa Marquetti
Born in Havana in 1937, she received no artistic musical training. Always fond of singing and having a beautiful mezzo-soprano voice, she appeared on an amateur radio show in 1956 on Radio Popular, where she won first place, which earned her the right to sing on radio on Fridays.
Shortly thereafter, he made his professional debut at the Monte Casino cabaret and in 1957 traveled to Panama, where he performed at the Bahía cabaret. Upon returning to Cuba, he developed a successful career in Havana’s nightclubs and on national television and radio.
However, his consecration came in 1961 at Havana’s once-luxurious Capri cabaret, when he was forced to replace the great Serenata Mulata on the show Olga Guillotafter his final departure from the country.
“His great achievement was replacing him Olga Guillot on the dance floor at Casino del Capri when the undisputed bolero diva had to leave to fulfill a contract and never returned. It would no doubt be the great challenge for the newcomer, but her many assets would ensure her a victorious sojourn under the large, luminous chandelier that reigned over the then-elegant ambience of what is now the Capri Hotel’s Red Room…” she recalled. Marquetti in a tribute text in 2019.
“From then on she managed to consolidate and impose a style of continuity and excellence, but at the same time so personal and sublime that no one could have imagined that she would be seduced by the copy of a monumental singer: La Guillot. Gina León topped it with.” “It quickly helped the cabaret scene make an important contribution to the media history of the song and the bolero in Cuba,” he added.
The playwright and critic Norge Espinosa Mendoza pointed out a curiosity that now unites these two great Cuban artists.
“Since I usually say that I don’t believe in coincidences, today I repeat the phrase, knowing that on the very day Olga Guillot, the queen of Bolero, died thirteen years ago, the singer Gina León left her world goodbye,” he wrote. Espinosa on his Facebook.
Recording from Facebook / Norge Espinosa Mendoza
According to the intellectuals, Gina León found a favorable setting for her talent in Capri. “In addition to her voice and impeccable diction, she had the support of designers, make-up artists and hairstylists who rounded out her image with an air of elegance that identified her as a songwriter in tune with the prevailing new sensibilities. ” he explained.
Such was the success of this first show that the producer created another especially for her: “I’m going to Brazil”, with which she repeated her triumph. She was christened “La dama del Capri” and in 1962 she recorded a disc of her main songs entitled “Gina sings in Capri”.
As he recalls in a recent Radio Rebelde article, it was during these years that he began a “bitter rivalry” with Elena Burque, who also started out as a soloist.
“La Burque had more conditions, but Gina was a spectacular mulatto woman with a great image, who advocated a high hair bow that quickly became fashionable,” the text reads.
In 1962 Gina was invited to the Sopot Festival in Poland and from there traveled to the former German Democratic Republic, where she performed in Berlin and other cities. In 1987 he returned to Panama in a show with Bobby Carcassés. On that occasion, the newspaper La Estrella described her as an “extraordinary Cuban singer of romantic rhythms”, “with a tremendously powerful voice”.
His most memorable hits include Margarita Lecuona’s “Eclipse”; Being in Love, by Adolfo Guzmán; Forgive Me, by Felo Bergaza; I Should Have Cried, by Piloto y Vera, What Does It Cost You, by Ricardo García Perdomo, and its emblematic Alejate, by Roberto Cantoral.