Berenice Chávez
Berenice Chávez | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Berenice Chávez Cifuentes |
| Also known as | Queen of Colombian Song |
| Born | 12 June 1926 Bogotá, Colombia |
| Died | September 2008 (aged 82) Bogotá, Colombia |
Berenice Chávez Cifuentes[a] (12 June 1926 – September 2008) was a Colombian singer. She sang in various traditional Colombian styles and was known as the "Queen of Colombian Song".
Biography
[edit]Early life and education
[edit]Chávez was born on 12 June 1926[b] in Bogotá, Colombia to Isidoro Chávez Castillo, a musician and folklorist, and Antonia Cifuentes Hernández.[3] She attended school at the Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepción in Bogotá, where she sang in the school choir.[3] She also knew how to play tiple, but preferred to sing to accompaniment.[1]
Music career
[edit]Chávez was in a duo with her sister Cecilia called Las Hermanas Chávez, and together they regularly sang on radio stations including Radio Nacional de Colombia and La Voz de Colombia; at the same time, Chávez worked at the Colombian Ministry of Public Works for a decade starting from 1944.[3] Las Hermanas Chávez later performed on Rádio Nacional in Brasília.[3]
Las Hermanas Chávez split when Cecilia moved to New York, and Berenice embarked on a solo career.[4] She was known for singing songs in traditional Colombian styles by composers including Alejandro Wills, Alberto Urdaneta Forero, Pelón Santamarta, José A. Morales, and Jorge Villamil.[3] She was friends with musician Jaime Llano González, whom she introduced to his collaborator Oriol Rangel.[4] Chávez also worked in Colombian cinema from the beginnings of the industry, and in total sang in 1,937 films.[2][1]
Chávez was known as the "Queen of Colombian Song" (Spanish: reina de la canción colombiana).[2] In 2006 she received the Aplauso a las Bellas Artes prize[5], which is awarded annually at the Teatro de Cristóbal Colón.[6]
Personal life and death
[edit]Chávez was married to Paraguayan harpist Digno García, with whom she had a son.[1][4] She died in Bogotá in September 2008.[1]
Notes
[edit]- ^ In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Chávez and the second or maternal family name is Cifuentes. Chávez's name is sometimes spelled Chavez, Cháves, or Chaves.
- ^ Despite this date being widely published, Chávez was reported on her death in 2008 to have been 87[1] or 89[2] years old.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e "Murió Berenice Chávez, la 'reina de la canción colombiana'" [Berenice Chávez, the 'queen of Colombian song', has died], Caracol Radio (in Spanish), 8 September 2008, archived from the original on 13 June 2025, retrieved 13 June 2025
- ^ a b c Alejandra Restrepo (9 March 2021), "La regiones contadas a través de la música de 10 voces femeninas" [Regions told through the music of 10 female voices], Radio Nacional de Colombia (in Spanish), archived from the original on 13 June 2025, retrieved 13 June 2025
- ^ a b c d e José I. Pinilla Aguilar (1980). "Chaves Cifuentes Berenice". Cultores de la Música Colombiana (in Spanish). Editorial Ariana. pp. 146–147. OCLC 253182806.
- ^ a b c "Se apagó la voz del bambuco" [The voice of the bambuco has gone out], El Tiempo (in Spanish), 29 October 2008, retrieved 13 June 2025
- ^ "Este lunes Berenice Chaves recibirá el Premio Aplauso a las Bellas Artes 2006" [This Monday Berenice Chaves will receive the 2006 Applause for the Fine Arts Award], El Tiempo (in Spanish), 29 October 2006, retrieved 13 June 2025
- ^ Jesús Rincón Murica (31 October 1991), "Premio Aplauso a las Bellas Artes" [Aplauso a las Bellas Artes prize], El Tiempo (in Spanish), retrieved 13 June 2025
External links
[edit]- Berenice Chávez discography at Discogs