Suffering for several years from aonco-haematological disease“, the 79-year-old artist had forced to settle in 2017 in Spain for”receive treatment that did not exist in their country“.
Cuban singer and songwriter Pablo Milanés died Tuesday, November 22 at the age of 79 in Madrid, where he had been hospitalized for several days, announced his artistic agency.
“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“, wrote his agency on the official Facebook page of the singer. “Cuban culture mourns after deathby Pablo Milanés, Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz tweeted.
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.
Representative of Nueva Trova
The singer had recently been hospitalized in Madrid. He had suffered for several years from aonco-haematological disease“which had forced him to settle in 2017 in Madrid for”receive treatment that did not exist in their country“, had made known his artistic agency on November 11, indicating then that his condition was “steady“. He had canceled concerts planned in Spain and the Dominican Republic.
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Born on February 24, 1943 in Bayamo, in 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 of the Cuban revolution of 1959. He had supported Fidel Castro’s revolution at its beginnings, before moving away from it and then settling recently 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.