Lucrecia Pérez Sáez is a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

n singer born in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

who currently lives in

Sitges Sitges (, , ) is a town about 35 kilometres southwest of Barcelona, in Spain, renowned worldwide for its Film Festival, Carnival, and LGBT Culture. Located between the Garraf Massif and the Mediterranean Sea, it is known for its beaches, nights ...

(

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

). She was born in Santo Suarez neighborhood in Havana, and passed her childhood in

Guanabacoa Guanabacoa is a colonial township in eastern Havana, Cuba, and one of the 15 municipalities (or boroughs) of the city. It is famous for its historical Santería and is home to the first African Cabildo in Havana. Guanabacoa was briefly the capital ...

, a township within the province of

La Habana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

. She has worked in various movies and with several long established artists, including Celia Cruz,

Chavela Vargas Isabel Vargas Lizano (17 April 1919 – 5 August 2012), better known as Chavela Vargas (), was a Mexican singer. She was especially known for her rendition of Mexican rancheras, but she is also recognized for her contribution to other genres o ...

Joaquín Sabina Joaquín Ramón Martínez Sabina (born 12 February 1949) is a Spanish musician, singer, composer, and poet. His songs usually treat about love, heartbreaks and society with a large usage of literary figures similarly to the baroque-literature st ...

Andy Garcia Andy may refer to: People *Andy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Horace Andy (born 1951), Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer born Horace Hinds *Katja Andy (1907–2013), German-American pianist and piano ...

Manzanita Manzanita is a common name for many species of the genus ''Arctostaphylos''. They are evergreen shrubs or small trees present in the chaparral biome of western North America, where they occur from Southern British Columbia and Washington to Or ...

or Lluís Llach.

Artistic career

At the early age of seven, Lucrecia began studying piano and music and was certified with a specialty in piano at the Instituto Superior de Arte de Cuba. She studied singing with

Isolina Carrillo Isolina Carrillo (December 9, 1907 – February 21, 1996) was a Cuban composer, singer and pianist. She was a member of the vocal group Conjunto Siboney. At the age of eleven she made her musical debut replacing a pianist that called in sick in he ...

, the composer of the famous bolero "Dos Gardenias", popularized in Spain by Cuban singer

Antonio Machín Antonio Abad Lugo Machín (11 February 1903, in Sagua la Grande, Cuba – 4 August 1977, in Madrid, Spain) was a Spanish-Cuban singer and musician. His version of '' El Manisero'', recorded in New York, 1930, with Don Azpiazú's orchestra, was the ...

. Soon after completing her education, Lucrecia joined La Orquesta Anacaona, an all-female group which, since its founding in 1932, had become a Cuban institution. In the 1980s and early 1990s, she made several international tours with the group. It was with Anacaona, as lead vocalist, keyboardist and arranger, that Lucrecia first arrived in Spain. Later, in 1993, she left Anacaona and returned to settle in Barcelona, where she has remained. Since establishing her solo career there, she has become very active in Spanish film and television as well as the music scene. Though not yet well known in the English-speaking world, she is a celebrated figure not only in Spain and, increasingly, in Latin America and the Hispanic community of the United States. Although she personally eschews such comparisons, Lucrecia has been touted as a successor to the great Celia Cruz, with whom she was a close friend. Lucrecia's 2010 ''Álbum de Cuba'' was nominated for Best Contemporary Tropical Album in the 2010 Latin Grammy Awards. Since leaving Anacaona and becoming an expatriate of Cuba, the Cuban government has not allowed her to return, but she was able to bring her mother to Barcelona, which they both make their permanent home. Through the length of her career, Lucrecia has collaborated or performed with numerous masters of the art, including Celia Cruz, Paquito D’Rivera,

Chano Domínguez Chano Domínguez (born Sebastián Domínguez Lozano; 29 March 1960, Cádiz) is a Spanish Latin jazz, post bop and flamenco pianist. Dominguez has released over 20 albums as a bandleader, and collaborated extensively with other jazz artists inc ...

Wyclef Jean Nel Ust Wyclef Jean (; born October 17, 1969) is a Haitian rapper, musician, and actor. At the age of nine, Jean immigrated to the United States with his family. He first achieved fame as a member of the New Jersey hip hop group the Fugees, a ...

Carlos "Patato" Valdes Carlos Valdés Galán (November 4, 1926 – December 4, 2007), better known as Patato, was a Cuban conga player. In 1954, he emigrated from La Habana to New York City where he continued his prolific career as a sideman for several jazz and ...

, Carel Kraayenhof,

Willy Chirino Willy Chirino (born April 5, 1947, in Consolación del Sur, Pinar del Río, Cuba) is a Cuban-American musician. Early life Following the communist revolution in Cuba, Chirino came to the United States in 1960 as part of Operation Peter Pan ...

, Lluís Llach,

Gilberto Gil Gilberto Passos Gil Moreira (; born 26 June 1942), is a Brazilian singer-songwriter and politician, known for both his musical innovation and political activism. From 2003 to 2008, he served as Brazil's Minister of Culture in the administration ...

Israel "Cachao" López Israel López Valdés (September 14, 1918 – March 22, 2008), better known as Cachao ( ), was a Cuban double bassist and composer. Cachao is widely known as the co-creator of the mambo and a master of the descarga (improvised jam sessions). T ...

Andy García Andrés Arturo García Menéndez (born April 12, 1956), known professionally as Andy García, is a Cuban-born American actor, director and musician. He first rose to prominence acting in Brian De Palma's ''The Untouchables'' (1987) alongside ...

, Carlos Jean, Nuno da Câmara Pereira (Portuguese Fado singer, Nuno da Câmara Pereira, etc. Among her collaborations should be noted ''Cachao: The Last Mambo'', a winning album at the Latin Grammy awards in 2011 and for the 2012 Grammy Awards. Based on a memorable concert recorded live in Miami in September 2007, the album was as tribute to Israel "Cachao" Lopez celebrating the 80-year musical career of that great master. As an artist, Lucrecia has combined her musical side with television, having been involved in programs of considerable success in Spain. On

Televisión Española Televisión Española (acronym TVE, branded tve, "Spanish Television") is Spain's national state-owned public television broadcaster and the oldest regular television service in the country. It was also the first regular television service in ...

, she was host of the successful children's program ''

Los Lunnis ''Los Lunnis'' is a Spanish children's television show produced by TVE and broadcast by La 2 from 15 September 2003 and Clan since 2010 after the change on La 2's programming. It was also broadcast on the weekends in La 1 until 2011. Its charac ...

''. Lucrecia has also demonstrated her facet as a writer. In 2004, she made her debut as a writer of children's stories with “Besitos de chocolate” (Little Chocolate Kisses) ( "Tales of my childhood"), after which have followed two more books from the same collection: ''The Valley of the Tenderness'' (2005) and ''All the Colors of the World'' (2008), all in collaboration with Los Lunnis. Continuing in this vein, she has edited her disk and video ''La Casita de Lucrecia''. In June 2012 she began the tour "Eternally Cuba". In 2019, Lucrecia starred in , a musical about the life of Celia Cruz, at the Lehman Arts Center.

Recordings

Lucrecia can be heard in the following YouTube links:
Si me pudieras querer
with La Orquesta Anacaona.
El Alardoso
with La Orquesta Anacaona.
Guantanamera
Lucrecia, Andy García y Arturo Sandoval en López Tonight
Amaneci en tus brazos
Lucrecia and Joaquin Sabina
Qui es Qui
an interview with Justo Molinero
Mi zurrón
during a show in

Telde Telde is a town and a municipality in the eastern part of the island of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, overseas (Atlantic) insular Spain. It is the second most populous municipality on the island, with a population of (2013).

Filmography

*'' Segunda piel'' (1999) by

Gerardo Vera Gerardo Vera Perales (10 March 194720 September 2020) was a Spanish costume and set designer, opera director, actor, and film and theatre director. Life Vera was born in Miraflores de la Sierra on 10 March 1947. He studied English language ...

, singing her song Youkali. *'' Ataque verbal'' (1999) by

Miguel Albaladejo Miguel Albaladejo ( Pilar de la Horadada, Alicante, 20 August 1966) is a Spanish screenwriter and film director. Filmography as film director * '' The First Night of My Life'' (1998), made for 2000, Seen By...Norbert Creutz,Dix cinéastes de quat ...

, as an actress. *''

Balseros Balseros (''Rafters'', from the Spanish ''Balsa'' Raft) was the name given to boat people who emigrated without formal documentation in self constructed or precarious vessels from Cuba to neighboring states including The Bahamas, Jamaica, the Cay ...

'' (2002), by Carles Boch and Josep Maria Domènech, original soundtrack. *'' El gran gato'' (2003) by

Ventura Pons Ventura Pons Sala (; born 25 July 1945, in Barcelona, Spain) is a Spanish movie director. He mainly directs films in Catalan but also in Spanish and English. Pons has directed 32 feature films and is one of the best-known Catalan film directors ...

, singing "Barca, cielo y ola" as a tribute to Gato Pérez. *''

'' (2003–2009),

RTVE The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española, S.A. (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española or RTVE, is the state-owned public corporation that assumed in 2007 the indirect management of the Spanish public radio and television service know ...

program, as an actress.

Discography

* La Reina y Sus Amigos * La casita de Lucrecia, 2010 * Album de Cuba, 2009 * Mira las luces, 2006 * Agua, 2002 * Mi Gente, 2002 * Cubáname, 1999 * Pronósticos, 1997 * Mis Boleros, 1996 * Prohibido, 1996 * Me debes un beso, 1994

Book

* ''Besitos de chocolate. Cuentos de mi infancia'' (''Chocolate Little Kisses. Remembrances from my Childhood'')(El Aleph, 2006).

Nominations and awards

* Music Award for the song 'My People' from the album 'Agua', SGAE, in the 2003 Edition, "Best Theme of Electronic Music Dance and Hip Hop". * Three TP gold awards for the program "Los Lunnis" of TVE. * Golden microphone of the programme protagonists of Luis del Olmo. * Nomination for the 2003 Oscars for the film documentary of TV3's "Balsero" * An EMMY Nomination for her interview in the program "Speaking with the Stars" with Television Mega Latina in Miami. * Nominated for the 2010 Latin Grammy Awards, category Best Tropical Music Album "Álbum de Cuba". *Winner of the Latin Grammy Awards and Grammy American 2012 for her interpretation of "Dos Gardenias" in the album "The Last Mambo," a tribute to bassist and creator of Mambo, Israel "Cachao" López.

Notes and references

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lucrecia Cuban women singers Cuban film actresses Cuban emigrants to Spain Living people 1967 births Women in Latin music