Omara Portuondo

Hailing from Havana, Cuba, Omara Portuondo is about as close to legendary as its gets in her own sphere of the musical world; over the course of a career that’s spanned more than half a century, at this point, she’s put her hometown and the Cuban styles of bolero and bueva trova well and truly on the musical map, and she’s collaborated widely, too, with the likes of the Buena Vista ensemble and Nat King Cole. What’s perhaps most impressive, though, is not just the way that Portuondo has managed to bring the music of her homeland to a worldwide audience, but also the fact that - at the grand old age of eighty-three - she remains an active live performer, and indeed has a handful of European dates lined up for later this year with Orquestra Buena Vista Social Club. Attendees should expect her legendarily powerful voice to take centre stage, as well as an impressive array of instrumentation helping Portuondo to belie her octogenarian age; these shows are just about as vivacious and lively as live music gets.