Havana | Cuban singer and songwriter Pablo Milanés died on Tuesday at the age of 79 in Madrid, where he had been hospitalized for several days, his talent agency announced.
“It is with great pain and sadness that we regret to inform you that the master Pablo Milanés died this morning on November 22 in Madrid,” his agency wrote on the singer’s official Facebook page.
“Cuban culture is in mourning after the death” of Pablo Milanés, tweeted Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz.
When his death was announced, social networks in Cuba were flooded with messages of tribute and support for his family, embellished with photos and videos of the artist.
The singer had recently been hospitalized in Madrid. He had suffered for several years from an “onco-haematological disease” which had forced him to settle in Madrid in 2017 to “receive a treatment that did not exist in his country”, his artistic agency announced on 11 November, indicating that his condition was “stable”.
He had canceled concerts planned in Spain and the Dominican Republic.
Born February 24, 1943 in Bayamo, eastern Cuba, Pablo Milanés began his career in the 1960s.
He was one of the representatives of Nueva Trova, this musical genre based on poetic and committed texts that arose in the wake of the Cuban revolution of 1959.
He had supported Fidel Castro’s revolution in its early days, before moving away from it and then recently settling in Spain, while maintaining an unbreakable link with Cubans through his music.
At a particularly moving concert in Havana in June, some 10,000 spectators sing along to one after another of his great hits, such as Yolanda and live.
After three years without coming to Cuba, the singer who traveled with difficulty, had reconnected with his audience for this recital which also had a taste of farewell.