María Yáñez García (stage name, Bella Dorita; Cuevas de Almanzora,

Province of Almería Almería (, also ; ) is a province of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It was named after the Arab ruler of Taifa, Banu Al-Miri. It is bordered by the provinces of Granada, Murcia, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is the homony ...

, February 23, 1901 –

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 c ...

, June 27, 2001), was a Spanish

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...

singer, dancer, and vedette.

Biography

In 1913, she emigrated to Barcelona with her family (mother, grandfather, uncle and six siblings) due to the economic hardship caused by the closure of the lead and silver mines in her locale. In Barcelona, she worked in a toy factory and embroidery shop. At the age of sixteen, she eloped with her first husband. After a working as a hostess, she appeared in 1917 at a beauty pageant which started her on a career in show business, debuting in 1923. As one of the four most notable cupletistas of her era, she appeared in halls and theaters, such as Pompeya, Rigat, Novelty, Bataclán, Cómico, Español, Arnau, Victoria, Nuevo, and Apolo where she began to establish his career. In those years, she took singing lessons and voice as well as learning how to perform on the Catalan stage. At the El Molino, she took on her stage name of Bella Dorita and become a star. It would make famous songs such as ''La pulga'', ''El tren'', ''La vaselina'', ''Poco a poco'' and ''Fumando espero''. During the 1940s and 1950s, Bella Dorita enjoyed the greatest success, being considered the most important star of the

Avinguda del Paral·lel Avinguda del Paral·lel (; 'Avenue of the Parallel') is one of the main streets of the city of Barcelona, dividing Ciutat Vella, Eixample and Sants-Montjuïc districts. It receives this name because it is (unlike any other street in Barcelon ...

and compared often with

Mae West Mary Jane "Mae" West (August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American actress, singer, comedian, screenwriter, and playwright whose career spanned more than seven decades. Recognized as a prominent sex symbol of her time, she was known ...

for her brilliant dialogue, direct but not vulgar. In addition to regularly performing in Spanish venues in Madrid, Valencia, Bilbao, and Zaragoza, she also traveled to Paris and visited Montmartre, but always preferred performing at Paral·lel. She retired during the 1960s at the Teatro Victoria with the show ''Historias del Paralelo''. She spent the last years of her life in the Nursing Home Pilar de Barcelona. In 1991, coinciding with her 90th birthday, she received the Medal for Artistic Merit of the City of Barcelona, and on the occasion of her 100th birthday in 2001, she received a tribute in the Barcelona neighborhood of Gava. She died four months later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bella Dorita 1901 births 2001 deaths People from Almería Spanish female dancers Spanish vedettes Cupletistas Singers from Catalonia 20th-century Spanish singers 20th-century Spanish women singers