Omara Portuondo (born in Havana, Cuba on 29 October 1930) is a Cuban singer… Read Full Bio ↴Omara Portuondo (born in Havana, Cuba on 29 October 1930) is a Cuban singer whose career has spanned over half a century.

Portuondo was born in October 1930 in Havana, one of three sisters; her mother came from a wealthy Spanish family, and had created a scandal by running off with and marrying a black professional baseball player. Omara started her career in 1945 as a dancer at Havana's Tropicana Club (following her older sister, Haydee). The two sisters used to sing for family and friends, however, and after a brief time in a band called Loquibambla Swing, in 1952 they got together with two friends (Elena Bourke and Moraima Secada) and formed the singing group Cuarteto las d'Aida, backed by pianist Aida Diestro. The group had considerable success, touring the United States, performing with Nat King Cole at the Tropicana, and recording an album for RCA Victor.

In 1959 Portuondo recorded a solo album, Magia Negra, involving both jazz and Cuban music. This didn't, however, mark the beginning of a solo career, and although Haydee left the group in 1961, Omara continued singing with Cuarteto las d'Aida until 1967.

In 1967 Portuondo embarked on a solo career, and in the same year represented Cuba at the Sopot Festival in Poland, singing Juanito Marquez' "Como un Milagro". Alongside her solo work, in the 1970s she sang with charanga band Orquestra Aragon, and toured with them.

In 1974 she recorded, with guitarist Martin Rojas, what would become one of her most critically acclaimed albums in which she sings praises to Salvador Allende and the people of Chile a year after the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. Among many other hits from the album, she also praises the work of Ernesto "Che" Guevara in the beautiful "Hasta Siempre".

During the 1970s and 1980s Portuonda enjoyed considerable success at home and abroad, with tours, albums (including one of her most lauded recordings in 1984 with Adalberto Alvarez), film rôles, and her own television series. Her international profile was due to soar, however, in 1996.

Portuondo sang (duetting with Compay Segundo) on the album Buena Vista Social Club in 1996. This led, not only to more touring (including playing at Carnegie Hall with the Buena Vista troupe) and her appearance in Wim Wenders' film The Buena Vista Social Club, but to two further albums for the World Circuit label: Buena Vista Social Club Presents Omara Portuondo (2000) and Flor de Amor (2004). In July 2005 she presented a symphonic concert of her most important repertoire at the Berlin Festival Classic Open Air am Gendarmenmarkt for an audience of 7,000. The entire program was specially orchestrated by Roberto Sánchez Ferrer, a colleague with whom she had worked during her early years at Havana's Tropicana Club. Scott Lawton conducted the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg.

Canta Lo Sentimental
Omara Portuondo Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Esta tristeza se niega al olvido
Como la penumbra a la luz
Quiera el destino que puedas volver
Un día para recordar

Sentimental mi ventana se vuelve
Las cosas parecen pensar
Llueve en la calle y dentro de mí

Canta lo sentimental

Todos los dias me duelen
La tristeza que me da
Y se me cae del recuerdo
Unido de soledad

Para volar
Mi paloma se pierde
Como un pañuelito de luz
Baila la lluvia y dentro de mi
Canta lo sentimental

Todos los dias me duelen
La tristeza que me da
Y se me cae del recuerdo
Unido de soledad

Para volar
Mi paloma se pierde
Como un pañuelito de luz
Baila la lluvia y dentro de mi

Canta lo sentimental
Canta lo sentimental

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Omara Portuondo's song "Canta Lo Sentimental" speak of the pain and sadness that the singer is experiencing. Despite wanting to forget and move on from it, the sadness is persistent, much like how darkness lingers even in the presence of light. The singer longs for a day when they can look back and remember fondly. The line "Sentimental mi ventana se vuelve" is a metaphor for how the singer's outlook has become more nostalgic and melancholic, and how every little thing seems to remind them of their pain.

As the rain falls outside, the singer's mood reflects the weather as they sing about their melancholy. They note how the pain they feel is a daily occurrence, and their memories of past happiness are now tinged with solitude. The line "Para volar mi paloma se pierde" suggests that the singer's hope is fading away, and their own sense of lightness and freedom is being lost. Despite their sorrow, they continue to sing and express their feelings in a sentimental manner, as if it is the only way to cope with the pain.

Overall, "Canta Lo Sentimental" is a song about the persistence of pain and the comfort found in expressing one's emotions, even if they are sad.

Line by Line Meaning

Esta tristeza se niega al olvido
This sadness refuses to be forgotten

Como la penumbra a la luz
Like darkness to light

Quiera el destino que puedas volver
May fate allow you to come back

Un día para recordar
A day to remember

Sentimental mi ventana se vuelve
My window turns sentimental

Las cosas parecen pensar
Things seem to ponder

Llueve en la calle y dentro de mí
It's raining on the street and inside of me

Canta lo sentimental
Sing the sentimental

Todos los días me duelen
Every day hurts me

La tristeza que me da
The sadness it brings me