Berenice Chávez
Colombian singer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Berenice Chávez Cifuentes[a] (12 June 1926 – September 2008) was a Colombian singer. She sang in various traditional Colombian styles and was known as the "Queen of Colombian Song".
Biography
Early life and education
Chávez was born on 12 June 1926[b] in Bogotá, Colombia to Isidoro Chávez Castillo, a musician and folklorist, and Antonia Cifuentes Hernández.[3] She attended school at the Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepción in Bogotá, where she sang in the school choir.[3] She also knew how to play tiple, but preferred to sing to accompaniment.[1]
Music career
Chávez was in a duo with her sister Cecilia called Las Hermanas Chávez, and together they regularly sang on radio stations including Radio Nacional de Colombia and La Voz de Colombia; at the same time, Chávez worked at the Colombian Ministry of Public Works for a decade starting from 1944.[3] Las Hermanas Chávez later performed on Rádio Nacional in Brasília.[3]
Las Hermanas Chávez split when Cecilia moved to New York, and Berenice embarked on a solo career.[4] She was known for singing songs in traditional Colombian styles by composers including Alejandro Wills, Alberto Urdaneta Forero, Pelón Santamarta, José A. Morales, and Jorge Villamil.[3] She was friends with musician Jaime Llano González, whom she introduced to his collaborator Oriol Rangel.[4] Chávez also worked in Colombian cinema from the beginnings of the industry, and in total sang in 1,937 films.[2][1]
Chávez was known as the "Queen of Colombian Song" (Spanish: reina de la canción colombiana).[2] In 2006 she received the Aplauso a las Bellas Artes prize[5], which is awarded annually at the Teatro de Cristóbal Colón.[6]
Personal life and death
Chávez was married to Paraguayan harpist Digno García, with whom she had a son.[1][4] She died in Bogotá in September 2008.[1]
Notes
- In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Chávez and the second or maternal family name is Cifuentes. Chávez's name is sometimes spelled Chavez, Cháves, or Chaves.