MARIDALIA CAPTIVATES HAVANA AUDIENCE

Rafael Lam

DOMINICAN diva Maridalia Hernández performed November 9 in Havana, as part of the 2nd Popular Voices Encounter, having waited 35 years, she said, to visit Cuba.

The singer, along with her 12-musician band, charmed the audience with boleros, bachatas, sones and merengues. She included a number of Cuban compositions in her repertory, by the likes of David Torres, Evelin García Márquez (arranged by Gonzalito Rubalcaba), Amaury Gutiérrez, Adalberto Álvarez and a classic by Eliseo Grenet.

Her version of Grenet’s lullaby "Drume negrita", with spectacular orchestration, especially in the final habanera line which she took toward a pop-Afro sound, creating a version which could well be taken up by Cuban salsa singers.

Her performance and comments made clear that Cuban music is heard abroad more than we imagine. "In the Dominican Republic," Maridalia said, speaking with this reporter in her dressing room, "Cuban music has always been heard through a variety of means. Now we use all the modern media, but Cuba, always."

She was about to visit the country some 35 years ago, for the 11th World Festival of Youth and Students in 1978. She was left behind with her bags packed, she said, because her parents wouldn’t let her go. "I was 19 years old, living in Santiago de los Caballeros, where I was born. I was studying lyric opera and training to be a music teacher. Now, at 54, I’m fulfilling my dream of singing and enjoying myself in Cuba."

Maridalia’s concert took place in the National Theater’s Covarrubias Hall, with the singer displaying the ease, the natural grace, so typical of the Dominican people, very similar to the residents of Cuba’s eastern provinces.

She possesses a well-trained voice with a particular timbre and knows how to develop a song, with the talent to perform the role of Mary Magdalene in the rock-opera Jesus Christ Superstar (1982). She adds a touch of meringue and bachata to her performances, accompanied by typically Dominican small percussion instruments, such as the tambora, guayo metálico and maraquitas.

She has been known in Cuba since 1983, as a founding member and principal soloist for Juan Luis Guerra’s popular group La 440, along with Mariela Mercado and Roger Zayas-Bazán. In Cuba, we heard the news of their success.

In 1986, she took first place in the Viña del Mar Festival in Chile with her song

"Para Quererte" by Manuel Tejada and José Antonio Rodríguez and subsequently presented a spectacular show entitled Para Quererte... Maridalia in Santo Domingo. This same year, she was awarded a number of prizes, the Dorado, Casandra and El Soberano, recognizing her as a distinguished female voice, producer and Performer of the Year.

After her exit from La 440, she was seen in special performances with Alberto Cortés, with her compatriot pianist Michel Camilo in the Madrid Jazz Festival and in 1989 she won third place honors at the OTI Festival OTI with Juan Luis Guerra’s song "Te Ofrezco."

By 1994, as a well-known established performer, she was granted the Best Female Singer prize at the 27th Association of Latin Critics awards ceremony in New York.

After all this success, Cuba finally had the privilege to welcome Maridalia Hernández, in addition to Sonia Silvestre, a long-time friend of Cuba, who made a surprise appearance at the concert.