Vikki Carr (b. Florencia Bisenta de Casillas Martinez Cardona, 19 Jul 1941 … Read Full Bio ↴Vikki Carr (b. Florencia Bisenta de Casillas Martinez Cardona, 19 Jul 1941 in El Paso, TX, USA), is a singer in a variety of music genres, including: jazz, pop & country - best known singing in Spanish / Español. She is well-loved & accomplished, in the Americas & Europe. She is now into the fifth decade of a career in which she has won three Grammy Awards & has released over 60 best-selling recordings. She has performed for the Queen of England, five United States Presidents, wartime soldiers in Vietnam, and sold-out audiences around the world. She has worked in radio, television, film and theater. Her music embraces two languages and she is among the first artists to bridge the cultures of the United States and Latin America, paving the way for many performers today.

In addition to her many album releases, Vikki Carr has played concerts for fans around the world, as well as appeared on stage, and television. She has starred in productions of South Pacific, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road. In 2002 she starred in the Reprise production of Steven Sondheim's beloved musical Follies in Los Angeles, garnering glowing reviews from the LA Times, Hollywood Reporter, and Variety. Two years later, Los Angeles PBS affiliate, KCET, filmed a special Vikki Carr: Memories, Memorias: a salute to the English-language hits of the 1940s and 1950s originally composed by Latinos, and featuring guest appearances by Jack Jones, Pepe Aguilar and Arturo Sandoval. PBS again tapped Vikki to host and star in a production celebrating the music of Mexico, Fiesta Mexicana, which was featured on all PBS stations for their June 2008 pledge drive.

Born in El Paso, Texas, and raised in the San Gabriel Valley of California, Vikki Carr, the eldest of seven children, began performing at the tender age of four singing "Adeste Fidelis" in Latin at a Christmas program. She was signed to a contract with Liberty Records in 1961. She recorded "He's a Rebel", which first became a hit in Australia. That title was soon followed by the unforgettable release, It Must Be Him, which charged up the charts in England. A year later, the single was released in the United States and earned Carr three Grammy Award nominations. The international hit emerged again when she and the song were featured in the storyline of the Academy Award winning movie Moonstruck. After "It Must Be Him" came a string of hits, including With Pen in Hand, for which she received her fourth Grammy Award nomination, The Lesson, Can't Take My Eyes Off You, and For Once in My Life.

Her international appeal was so great that she was invited to perform at a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth II, followed by sold-out shows throughout Europe. In the States, Carr became a darling of the White House, performing regularly at State Dinners and at President Richard Nixon's 1973 Inaugural celebration. President Gerald Ford called her his "favorite Mexican dish". She also performed for Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and at the 1992 Presidential Summit hosted by President Bill Clinton.

A frequent musical guest on major network variety shows of celebrities like Dean Martin, Ed Sullivan, Perry Como, and Carol Burnett, Carr also taped six specials for London Weekend TV. As an actor, she appeared on the Bing Crosby Show, Mod Squad, Fantasy Island, and co-hosted the Mrs. America and Mrs. World of the World pageants. She was the first woman to regularly guest host for Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. She was also a visitor and guest host on Michael Jackson's ABC radio show.

The diversity of her rich voice is impressive. She can belt out the blues or touch the heart with a soft romantic ballad. Frank Sinatra once said, "She possesses my kind of voice", Dean Martin called her "the best girl singer in the business", and Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald named her among their three favorite female singers of all time. Elvis Presley was also very fond of her and even remarked on stage in Las Vegas many times that Vikki Carr was one of his favorite singers and that he liked her because "she sang from the gut" and introduced her at many of his personal appearances in which she attended.

Vikki Carr has received numerous prestigious awards, including:

- Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2008)
- National Hispanic Media Coalition Impact Lifetime Achievement Award (2005)
- Latino Spirit Award (2003)
- Tito Guizar Award (2003)
- Trefoil Award (2002)
- Inductee of the Latino Legends Hall of Fame (2000)
- Imagen Foundation "Humanitarian Award (1998)
- Hispanic Heritage Award (1996)
- Nosotros Golden Eagle Award (1988)
- Hispanic Woman of the Year (1984)
- Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1981)
- Doctorate in Law from San Diego University (1974)
- Doctorate in Fine Arts from St. Edwards University (1974)
- American Guild of Variety Artists' "Entertainer of the Year" (1972), and
- The Los Angeles Times' highly respected "Woman of the Year" (1970)

She has also earned the career achievement award of the Association of Hispanic Critics, Chicago's Ovation Award, the YWCA Silver Achievement Award, and was honored in 1990 by the City of Hope with the Founder of Hope Award. In 1991, she was presented the Girl Scouts of America Award.

Respected both as an artist and a humanitarian, Carr devotes time to many charities including The United Way, The American Lung Association, Cancer Therapy and Research Center, The Muscular Dystrophy Association, and St Jude's Hospital. For 22 years she held benefit concerts to support Holy Cross High School in San Antonio. In 1971 she established the Vikki Carr Scholarship Foundation, dedicated to offering college scholarships to Latino students in California and Texas. To date, the Foundation has awarded more than 280 scholarships totaling over a quarter of a million dollars.

"My voice is a gift and a gift is nothing unless you can share it. The Foundation is one of the ways that I am able to share my gift", said Carr. "The Foundation seeks to help young Mexican-American students achieve their goals through a college education, something I myself was never able to do."

Official website: http://www.vikkicarr.com/

Sombras
Vikki Carr Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Quisiera abrir lentamente mis venas,
Mi sangre toda verterla a tus pies,
Para poderte demostrar
Que más no puedo amar
Y entonces morir después.

Y sin embargo tus ojos azules,
Azul que tienen el cielo y el mar,

Viven cerrados para mí
Sin ver que estoy aquí
Perdido en mi soledad.

Sombras nada más
Acariciando mis manos,
Sombras nada más
En el temblor de mi voz.

Pude ser feliz
Y estoy en vida muriendo
Y entre lágrimas viviendo
El pasaje más horrendo
De este drama sin final.

Sombras nada más
Entre tu vida y mi vida,
Sombras nada más
Entre tu amor y mi amor.

Qué breve fue tu presencia en mi hastío,
Qué tibias fueron tus manos, tu voz;
Como luciérnaga llegó tu luz
Y disipó las sombras de mi rincón.

Y yo quedé como un duende temblando
Sin el azul de tus ojos de mar
Que se han cerrado para mí
Sin ver que estoy aquí
Perdido en mi soledad.

Sombras nada más
Acariciando mis manos,
Sombras nada más
En el temblor de mi voz.

Pude ser feliz
Y estoy en vida muriendo
Y entre lágrimas viviendo
El pasaje más horrendo
De este drama sin final.

Sombras nada más
Entre tu vida y mi vida,

Sombras nada más
Entre tu amor y mi amor

Overall Meaning

Vikki Carr's song Sombras is a beautiful and poignant ballad about lost love and unrequited affection. The lyrics speak of a deep desire to love someone so much that it hurts, even to the point of wanting to bleed out and die for them. However, the pain is only compounded by the fact that the other person is not reciprocating those feelings, and instead remains completely oblivious to the singer's presence, leaving them alone in their solitude.

The opening lines of the song, "Quisiera abrir lentamente mis venas, Mi sangre toda verterla a tus pies," translate to "I want to slowly open my veins, spill all my blood at your feet," clearly indicating the singer's intense desire to prove the depth of their love to the other person. Yet despite these extreme measures, the object of their affection remains oblivious and indifferent, leading the singer to feel "lost in [their] solitude."

Throughout the rest of the song, the metaphor of shadows ("sombras") is used to describe the singer's feeling of living in the shadow of the other person's life - simply a shadow passing through, never able to fully experience love and joy with them. The overall feeling is one of melancholy, with the singer mourning a lost love that they could never quite attain.

Line by Line Meaning

Quisiera abrir lentamente mis venas,
I wish to slowly open my veins, to pour all my blood at your feet, to prove that I cannot love any more, and then die.

Y sin embargo tus ojos azules,
However, your blue eyes, as blue as the sky and the sea, are closed to me, not seeing that I'm lost in my loneliness.

Sombras nada más Acariciando mis manos,
Only shadows that caress my hands.

Pude ser feliz Y estoy en vida muriendo Y entre lágrimas viviendo El pasaje más horrendo De este drama sin final.
I could have been happy but instead, I'm dying in life and living amidst tears, enduring the most horrifying passage of this endless drama.

Sombras nada más Entre tu vida y mi vida,
Only shadows between your life and mine, between your love and mine.

Qué breve fue tu presencia en mi hastío,
Your presence in my weariness was so brief.

Y yo quedé como un duende temblando Sin el azul de tus ojos de mar Que se han cerrado para mí Sin ver que estoy aquí Perdido en mi soledad.
And I'm left trembling like an elf without the blue of your sea-colored eyes, which are closed to me, not seeing that I'm here, lost in my solitude.

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Unison Rights S.L., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Francisco Lomuto, Jose Maria Contursi

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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