• Submitted by: admin
• Arts and Culture
• Music
• 10 / 22 / 2007

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In the last few years, theres something to be highlighted in the national music circle; women are keeping the reins on playing salsa music, a position that was formerly occupied solely by men.

 

 

 

Hayla Mompié, Vania Borges, Dayani Lozano, Osdalgia Lesmes, Jenni Valdés and Tania Pantoja top the list of this avant-garde group of feminine salsa performers, who in some cases pair and even surpass their masculine counterparts.

 

 

Tania Pantoja is an educator and for sometime worked at a child day care centre, where she used to lull the institution population with her well-tuned voice.

 

Talent hunter Sonia Saavedra (by the way, sister of one of the Granma Yacht expeditionaries) heard her singing at a small night club, felt a wink in her eyes and immediately talked to her.

 

 

Before succeeding, Tanias earliest works in the music circle took place playing in neighbourhood evening public places making solos and singing with different salsa bands Lady Salsa and Azúcar Negra before coming to land on Bamboleo - a stronghold for rising stars - distinguishing feature of this ensemble that laid the groundwork of Hayla, Vania and Virginia and others.

 

Regarding Tania's first single produced by the Japanese writer Ryu Murakami, the new salsa boom accepted an interview for Cubasí webpage readers.

 

 

 

- How are you getting alone with your career and first single?

- Im happy, proud of whats going on and the love my people give me.

- When did you start singing?

- Since I was a girl, singing is all to me. Once I won an accordion in a contest and I gave it away to my school, where I was the leading singer.

-What did the cabaret mean to your work?

- A school. I remember the nights working at the Turquino Cabaret of the Havana Libre Hotel, the Maestro José Luis "Tosco" Cortés' teachings.

- And Sonia Saavedra?

- she is my discoverer...

-How about Leonel Limonta, head of the salsa band Azúcar Negra?

- The follow-up learning process

- what do you think about salsa song lyrics?

- Directors sometimes impose it, but its my believe that Bamboleo's song lyrics are not rough. They convey a meaning.

 

- What does Bamboleo mean to you?
- A challenge, imagine!!! I came after Hayla and Vania, however, Bamboleo is still at the top, one of the 10 most popular orchestras in the country.

 

Source: By Jorge Smith, Cubasi