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.
Mariposita De Primavera
Omara Portuondo Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Alma con alas que errante vas
Por los jardines de mi quimera
Por los jardines de mi quimera
Como un suspiro de amor fugaz
Cuando te alejes a otras regiones
Llévale un ruego de adoración
Que se trocaron en decepciones
Que aún llevo dentro del corazón
Yo quiero verla para besarle
Como esos besos que tú a la flor
Más cuando quieres la miel robarle
Más cuando quieres la miel robarle
Para embriagarte cual yo de amor
Mariposita, de primavera
Dile a mi a mi amado, si es que lo ves
Dile que torne mi compañero
A los jardines de mi quimera
Donde no vuelvas jamás tal vez
The lyrics of "Mariposita de Primavera" or "Butterfly of Spring" in English, describe a butterfly that flies freely around the gardens of the singer's dreams. The butterfly is compared to a fleeting moment of love, a reminder of a once hopeful relationship that turned into disappointment, but its beauty and lightness still interest the singer, who asked the butterfly to deliver a message to her former beloved.
The singer's message to the butterfly is a plea for her former partner to return to the gardens of her imagination, where they once shared happy moments. The singer wants to see her former partner again and to kiss him passionately like a bee kisses a flower, and to let herself be intoxicated again by the sweetness of their love. However, the singer acknowledges that her request may be futile and that the butterfly may never return to these gardens again.
Overall, the song speaks to the universality of love, its fleeting nature, and the bittersweet memories that can remain long after a relationship has ended.
Line by Line Meaning
Mariposita, de primavera
Oh little butterfly of spring
Alma con alas que errante vas
With wandering wings and a fluttering soul
Por los jardines de mi quimera
You roam through the gardens of my dreams
Como un suspiro de amor fugaz
Like a fleeting sigh of love
Cuando te alejes a otras regiones
When you fly away to other lands
Llévale un ruego de adoración
Take with you a plea of adoration
Al que un día me dio ilusiones
To the one who once gave me hope
Que se trocaron en decepciones
That turned into disappointment
Que aún llevo dentro del corazón
That I still carry in my heart
Yo quiero verla para besarle
I want to see him to kiss him
Como esos besos que tú a la flor
Like those kisses you give to the flowers
Más cuando quieres la miel robarle
But even more when you want to steal the honey
Para embriagarte cual yo de amor
To intoxicate yourself with love like I do
Dile a mi amado, si es que lo ves
Tell my beloved, if you see him
Dile que torne mi compañero
Tell him to return to me as my companion
A los jardines de mi quimera
To the gardens of my dreams
Donde no vuelvas jamás tal vez
Where you may never return again
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing
Written by: MIGUEL MATAMOROS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@enriquevidal1430
La gran dama de la canción cubana. Tiene 90 y muchos años y aún canta de vez en cuando en una Sala de la Habana Vieja. La más grande intérprete de Cuba.
@elpidioalcolea7706
Omara mil veces gracias
@elbadiazsantos5300
Como Olvidar la puedo escuchar tengo 76 Años puedo escucharla,,+?
@rickyhorndanczenacaweavfan3346
2018still listening
@blancaalvarez4437
Bella música Cubana.
@suppressedchicken
I’ve been missing out