Celebrating Marta’s 90th anniversary

The beauty of Marta Valdés' compositions is neither easy nor light. Neither her melodies nor her lyrics are lavished precisely by simplicity. Text and music merge in a network of deep lyrical resonances.

Marta Valdés is part of an extraordinary tradition of singer-songwriters in Cuba, poet musicians... but she has broken time and time again, with the strange delicacy of her work, the very limits of that tradition.

She is a fundamental figure of the song, the bolero, the Cuban filin. And simultaneously, she is unique. She has become unique.  There is a very personal mark in her creation: harmonies, twists, unexpected tones, elegant and arduous at the same time, endearing and challenging...

That poetry so characteristic of her (images nuanced by the sound pattern) has shone in her own interpretation, but also in that of great figures of Cuban music. Not everyone can sing Marta Valdés' songs. Or better yet: not everyone can do it well. It takes commitment, maturity, sensitivity and talent... which are not available to all singers.

And we suddenly listen to Elena Burke singing Palabras, one of the composer's greatest songs, and discover the miracle, the strength of a truth.

Singer, composer, guitarist, critic, thinker of her art... Marta Valdés is a well-rounded artist. Always oblivious to tinsel, she has fulfilled herself in the subtleties of her most intimate environment, in the wonder of small things.

But her work is immense. And she has summed up, with the quiet solidity of her, the encouragement and spirit of many who have enjoyed her. Today, as she turns 90, she will receive that grateful affection multiplied.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff