La Lupe
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La Lupe, or La Yiyiyi, born Guadalupe Victoria Yolí Raymond (Santiago de Cuba, 23 December 1936[1] – New York, 29 February 1992[2]) was a Cuban singer of several musical genres: boleros, guarachas and latin soul in particular. She was famous for her histrionic manner on stage, her hands constantly moving, touching her face, renting her clothes, throwing her shoes, seemingly only just in control, and thriving on the emotions of the moment.[3]
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[edit] Life & work
Born in the barrio of San Pedrito, Santiago de Cuba, her father was a worker at the local Bacardi distillery and a major influence on her early life. Lupe's introduction to fame was in 1954, on a radio program which invited fans to sing imitations of their favorite stars. Lupe bunked off school to sing a bolero of Olga Guillot's, called Miénteme (Lie to me), and won the competition. The family moved to Havana in 1955, where she studied to become a teacher. Like her counterpart, Celia Cruz, she qualified as a schoolteacher before she became a professional singer.[4]
Lupe married in 1958 and formed a musical trio with her husband Eulogio "Yoyo" Reyes and another female singer. This group, Los Tropicuba, broke up along with the marriage in 1960. She began to perform her own act at a small nightclub in Havana, La Red (The Net), which had a clientele of distinguished foreigners. She acquired a devoted following, which included Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Jean Paul Satre, Simone de Beauvoir and Marlon Brando. She also performed regularly on radio. She released her first album, Con el Diablo en el cuerpo (With the Devil in my body) on Discuba in 1960 or 1961. Her first television appearance on Cuban television, singing this number, was a complete sensation, and shocked some who watched.[5]
Her expressive performances with their violent sexuality attracted criticism that she was a poor role model, which led to professional difficulties. It is said – Cuban sources are silent here – that Fidel Castro was so outraged by one occasion (on Puerto Rican tv)[6] in which her clothes were torn off that he banned further performances in Cuba. In 1962 she found herself exiled to the United States. In New York City she performed at a cabaret named La Barraca, where she was discovered by Mongo Santamaria and started a new career, making more than 10 records in five years. She married a second time, to salsa musician Willie García, with whom she had a son. The marriage ended in divorce, after which she had a daughter by one of her lovers.[7]
Lupe's passionate performances covered the range of music: son montuno, bolero, boogaloo, venturing into other Caribbean styles like Dominican merengue, Puerto Rican bomba and plena. It was her recordings which brought Catalino Curet Alonso (El Tite) into prominence as a composer of tough-minded boleros in the salsa style. She also began to write her own lyrics, and examples appear in most of her albums from the mid-60s.
In the sixties she was the most acclaimed Latin singer in New York City due to her partnership with Tito Puente. She was the first Latin singer to sell out a concert at Madison Square Garden. She also did a wide variety of cover versions in either Spanish or accented English, including Yesterday, Dominique by The Singing Nun, Twist & Shout, Unchained Melody, Fever and America from West Side Story.
The quality of her performances became increasingly uneven, and it is clear that her work was suffering, with her numerous affairs, and generally hectic emotional life. There were pesistent rumours of her drug addiction, and her life was "a real earthquake" according to close friends.[8] She ended some of her on-stage engagements being treated with an oxygen mask.[9] Although she may have been poorly managed by her record producers, Fania in particular, she managed and produced herself in mid-career, after she split with Tito Puente. [10]
A devout follower of Santeria, she continued to practice her religion regardless of the influence, fortune, and fame she had acquired throughout the height of her career. Her record label, Fania Records, ended her contract in the late 1970s, perhaps simply because of falling sales. She retired in 1980, and found herself destitute by the early 1980s. In 1984 she injured her spine and was confined to a wheelchair at first, then walked with a stick. An electrical fire made her homeless. After being miraculously 'healed' at an evangelical Christian Crusade, La Lupe abandoned her Santeria roots and became a born-again Christian. In 1991, she gave a concert at La Sinagoga in New York, singing Christian songs. She did not, however, live for long: she died aged only 55, in the Bronx, and was survived by her second husband, their son Rene Camaro, and her daughter Rainbow. She is interred in Saint Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx.
[edit] Further information
[edit] Discography
[edit] Original LPs
This section is believed to be complete:
- Con el Diablo en el cuerpo 1960 Discuba LP
- La Lupe is back 1961
- Mongo introduces La Lupe 1963
- The King swings, the incredible Lupe sings 1965 (with Tito Puente)
- Tú y yo 1965 (with Tito Puente)
- Homenaje a Rafael Hernández 1966 (with Tito Puente)
- La Lupe y su alma venezolana 1966
- A mí me llaman La Lupe 1966
- The King and I 1967 (with Tito Puente)
- The Queen does her own thing 1967
- Two sides of La Lupe 1968
- Queen of latin soul 1968
- La Lupe's era 1968
- La Lupe is the Queen 1969
- Definitely la Yiyiyi 1969
- That genius called the Queen 1970
- La Lupe en Madrid 1971
- Stop, I'm free again 1972
- ¿Pero cómo va ser? 1973
- Un encuentro con La Lupe – with Curet Alonso 1974
- One of a kind 1977
- La pareja 1978 (with Tito Puente)
- En algo nuevo 1980. Last original album
[edit] Compilations
This section is not complete.
- Lo mejor de la Lupe Compilation, 1974
- Apasionada Compilation, 1978
- La Lupe: too much 1989. Compilation from Tico recordings only, by Charly Records LP HOT 123
- Dance with the Queen 2008
- La Lupe greatest hits 2008
[edit] Religious albums 1986-89
- La samaritana
- Te amo porque me amaste primero
- Dios no es hombre para que mienta
- La Lupe en Cristo
[edit] Key numbers
Short list of characteristic numbers, taken from Giro,[11] and compilation albums:
- Con el Diablo en el cuerpo (With the devil in my body) [Discuba]
- Fiebre (Fever)
- Crazy love
- Qué te pedí?
- La tirana [Tico SLP 1167]
- Puro teatro (Pure theatre) [Tico SLP 1192]
- Adíos (Goodbye)
- Carcajada final (Last laugh) [Tico SLP 1176]
- A Benny Moré [Tico CLP 1310]
[edit] Films, theatre
- La Lupe: my life, my destiny: theatrical production by Carmen Rivera (2001).
- La Lupe: Queen of Latin Soul film by Ela Troyano (2003; 2007)
- La Reina, La Lupe by Rafael Albertori (2003).
[edit] Popular Culture
In the 1990s, interest in her music was re-sparked when Pedro Almodóvar included Puro teatro, one of her boleros of love and breakup in his film classic Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Due to her similarities to American singer Judy Garland such as her strong, yet raspy voice, and her energetic and unpredictable stage performances, she has become an icon among many gays in Latin America and Spain.
Her recording of La Virgen Lloraba was used in the film The Birdcage (1996).
In 2002, New York City renamed East 140th Street in The Bronx as La Lupe Way in her memory.
Cuban-American writer Daína Chaviano pays homage to La Lupe in the novel The Island of Eternal Love (Riverhead-Penguin, 2008), where the singer appears in a cameo singing Puro teatro.
[edit] References
- ^ some sources say 1939, but we go with the leading Cuban reference: Giro Radamés 2007. Diccionario enciclopédico de la música en Cuba. La Habana. vol 3, p45.
- ^ Giro Radamés 2007. Diccionario enciclopédico de la música en Cuba. La Habana. vol 3, p45, gives 28 February as the date of death.
- ^ Ruiz, Vicki and Virginai Sánchez Korrol 2006. Latinas in the United States: a historical encyclopedia. Indiana. p363
- ^ Giro Radamés 2007. Diccionario enciclopédico de la música en Cuba. 4 vols, La Habana. vol 3, p45.
- ^ Pedro Rojas 1988. sleeve notes to La Lupe: too much, Charly Records LP HOT 123.
- ^ Pedro Rojas 1988. sleeve notes to La Lupe: too much, Charly Records LP HOT 123.
- ^ Pedro Rojas 1988. sleeve notes to La Lupe: too much, Charly Records LP HOT 123.
- ^ Rondon, César Miguel 2008. The book of salsa: a chronicle of urban music from the Caribbean to New York City. University of North Carolina Press. p148
- ^ Pedro Rojas 1988. sleeve notes to La Lupe: too much, Charly Records LP HOT 123.
- ^ Rondon, César Miguel 2008. The book of salsa: a chronicle of urban music from the Caribbean to New York City. University of North Carolina Press.
- ^ Giro Radamés 2007. Diccionario enciclopédico de la música en Cuba. La Habana. vol 3, p46.
- Aparicio, Frances R. 1998. Listening to Salsa: gender, latin popular music, and Puerto Rican cultures. Wesleyan University Press. p176 et seq.
- Aparicio, Frances R. and Valentín-Escobar, Wilson A. 2004. Memorializing La Lupe and Lavoe: singing vulgarity, transnationalism, and gender. Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies 16, 78-101.
