Ten years after the death of Nelly Omar, the “Gardel with skirts” who filled an amusement park when she turned 100

This Wednesday marks 10 years since the death of Nelly Omarthe “national singer”, a fundamental figure of tango and Creole song, who has become a reference and source of inspiration for the new generations.

From his unique and privileged voice, his decisive phrasing and his strong personality, marked a before and after in Argentine popular musicand she was the last of the golden litter of singers that included Tita Merello, Azucena Maizani, Libertad Lamarque and Ada Falcón.

He lived to be 102 years old, and was also an actress, aviator and an avid racing enthusiast. You have distinguished yourself in versions of compositions such as My little street, Just for you, Line after line, Intrigue and passion AND Golden Heartamong many others.

The “national singer”, as she liked to define herself, is not only a central name of Argentine popular music but also materializes an emotional memory linked to early Peronism. Nelly Omar is one of those characters called to live on people’s memory of her forever.

Its beginnings

He was born on September 10, 1911 as Nilda Elvira Vattuone in the city of Bonifacio in Buenos Aires, but registered and raised in Guaminí, where she lived until the age of 11, when her father died and she moved to Buenos Aires with her mother and 10 siblings.

Main and central voice of the tango and creole song, his adherence to Peronism earned him bans and blacklists; He was banned from radio stations and theaters after the coup of the self-proclaimed Liberation Revolution.

“I spent 17 years without working because they put me on a black list imposed by the shooting revolutionfor being a Peronist of Perón and a friend of Evita, a woman of great personality who left too soon when she had a lot to do”, she recalled years ago in a report in Télam about that period.

In 1957 he went into exile in Montevideo to work in radio and television and then to Venezuela to participate in the television program The Renny Otolina showwhere she performed dressed as a gaucha The shirtless AND It’s the cityamong other compositions.

Despite working from the age of 12, when he took a job in a sock factory, he began singing at the age of 17 with the performance of To my mother on radio Splendid, and then turned professional some time later.

In 1934 he formed a duo with his sister Nélida (from whom he “stole” the nickname) and In 1937 he met Homero Manzi when they worked together on the Radio Belgrano audition Birds absentwho had librettos by the poet, to whom she was united by a passionate love story.

According to legend, Manzi was inspired by her when he composed the classic tango Malena. They were both married and the singer decided to end their love in 1944. Homer died of cancer in 1951, when he was 41 years old.

Gardel with skirts

In 1938, Valentín Alsina was baptized as “Gardel with skirts”, a definition that alludes to the fact that she was an artist who He explored tango but cultivated the milonga, the waltz and the Creole repertoire with the same interest.a gesture refers to the path traveled by previous singers such as Carlos Gardel, Agustín Magaldi or Ignacio Corsini.

Nelly herself said that her father was an acquaintance of Gardel and that on several occasions, when he visited the city of Buenos Aires, they went together to the Hippodrome.

“When in 1918 Gardel appeared in the city, together with José Razzano, my father and other neighbors began to sell tickets and organized the presentation of the duo. The theater was full. Then they stopped at my house. My brothers and I we watched everything from a window. My father, as a good Italian of the time, didn’t allow us to mix with the elderly. His image remained imprinted on me. Gardel was fat and had his hair parted in the middle,” he told the historian Nestor Pinzón.

AA Nelly is responsible not only for the conviction of an affection and a career without duplicity which he paid homage to political loyalty, but also for great interpretations of songs such as South, Love and silence, Gabino Ezeiza’s farewell, From the time of the brunette AND White handamong many other records.

Despite health problems related to her age and which led her to undergo several hospital stays, the performer performed unforgettable shows at the Luna Park stadium in 2005, 2009 and 2011 (when she celebrated her centenary).