Paloma San Basilio

Singer

Among the biggest and most glamorous European-born stars in the Latin music field, Paloma San Basilio is also one of the genre's most versatile singers. While San Basilio gained an international reputation in the early 1980s with her starring role in the musical Evita, she has also recorded and performed pop music in both Spanish and English, and has held her own on stage with opera star Plácido Domingo. Following her own artistic instincts rather than trying to tailor her style to specific audiences, San Basilio has gained a growing audience among Hispanic and even non-Hispanic audiences in the United States. "For most of three decades," wrote David Cazares in South Florida's Sun-Sentinel newspaper, "Paloma San Basilio has built her reputation as one of Spain's classiest singers."

Paloma San Basilio was born in Madrid, Spain, on November 22, 1950—the feast day of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music in the Catholic liturgical calendar. She grew up partly in Seville. San Basilio's family was middle-class, and she was encouraged to pursue a university education. She studied philosophy, psychology, and literature, and continued to enjoy writing even after she became a vocal star, sometimes penning her own song lyrics. It was during her student years that San Basilio began her performing career—but as a stage actress, not as a singer. She appeared in university theatrical productions, and in 1969 she had a small part in a Spanish television production of Shakespeare's Richard III.

At this point, San Basilio sang only for friends. With an eye on an acting career, she dropped out of school and worked as an art book salesperson, then as a psychiatric nurse. In March of 1971 she landed a role as a presenter on a television magazine program called Siempre en domingo (Always on Sunday); despite her lack of experience, she became popular enough to become the subject of interview requests from romance magazines. In 1972 she married athlete Ignacio Gómez Pellico, and the following year she had a daughter, Vanessa. When the program was canceled in 1973, San Basilio found a less satisfying slot on a program where she had to lip-synch with recordings of famous Spanish zarzuela (operetta) performances. When a friend suggested that she make a demo tape and try to break into the music business, she was ready.

Made Musical Theater Debut

San Basilio grew up hearing a variety of music in addition to local Spanish productions; she was fond of African-American music, and her demo contained three songs by 1970s R&B star Roberta Flack. Her first album, Sombras (Shadows), was released in 1975 and featured a diverse group of songs that included a cover of the Beatles' "The Long and Winding Road." San Basilio's 1977 release, Dónde vas (Where Are You Going) was her commercial breakthrough. The following year she performed a concert with full orchestra at Madrid's giant Teatro Monumental, singing the Barbra Streisand hit "People" and the Broadway classic "Tea for Two" along with Spanish-language material. She was rapturously received, and her career as a full-blown star was on its way.

In 1980 San Basilio was offered the lead role in the Spanish production of Evita, a musical (equally popular in Spanish and English versions) that traced the life of the charismatic Argentine political figure Eva Perón. San Basilio's label, EMI, resisted the idea of interrupting her growing career, but she relished the new challenge and insisted on keeping control of her career. The role was a difficult one. "My mother was also dying at the time, and I felt very pressured," San Basilio recalled to Leila Cobo-Hanlon of the Miami Herald. "And I remember on opening night the theater was completely full, and that character helped me deal with my pain and channel my energy. And right there and then, I knew I would do well in theater."

After several years of performing in Evita, San Basilio proved her label wrong by resuming her pop career with a sequence of consistently successful albums in the late 1980s. These included 1986's Vuela alto (Flying High), which became the basis for a "Paloma Flying High" tour (the word "paloma" means "dove" in Spanish) that introduced San Basilio to U.S. audiences. She released Grande (The Great) in 1987, and Vida (Life) the following year. In 1991 she recorded Por fin juntos with operatic tenor Plácido Domingo. That album resulted in joint performances by the two, including a concert that drew 12,000 fans to the Miami Arena in Florida in 1991. Although Miami Herald critic James Roos felt that San Basilio "couldn't hold a candle to Domingo" in a duet from Franz Lehar's operetta The Merry Widow, he noted that the two "were potent collaborators, with a dashing sense of theater, and their voices stirred exuberant excitement that precipitated more and more encores. San Basilio can tell you what a lyric is all about and she knows all about using a microphone effectively, too, as the best popular singers do."

Broadened Her Audience

San Basilio's next tour, in 1993, brought her back to the United States and saw her trying to broaden her English-speaking audience with a signature version of the jazz standard "Stormy Weather" and shows in locations like Atlantic City, New Jersey, that had only moderate-sized Latin populations. "I belong to a generation that basically grew up with Anglo-American music," she explained to John Lannert of the Sun-Sentinel. Her high-energy concerts mixed songs from several European countries with Spanish and American numbers, often reserving her Spanish-language version of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" ("No llores por mí, Argentina," from Evita) as a showstopper. San Basilio attracted large audiences along the U.S. eastern seaboard but found the West Coast, musically dominated by Mexican and Mexican-American stars, tougher to crack.

For the Record …

Born Paloma San Basilio on November 22, 1950, in Madrid, Spain; grew up in Madrid and Seville; married Ignacio Gómez Pellico, an athlete, 1972; one daughter, Vanessa, born 1973. Education: Studied philosophy, literature, and psychology at a university in Spain.

Made first recording, Sombras, 1975; recorded for EMI label; began appearing as Evita Perón in musical Evita, 1980; performed at Eurovision Song Festival, 1985; "Paloma Flying High" tour of Spain, Latin America, and U.S., 1986; several million-selling albums in Spain, late 1980s; Música tour of Latin America and U.S., 1993; appeared as Dulcinea in Spanish version of musical Man of La Mancha, 1997; released Clasicamente tuya album, appeared with Miami City Ballet, 1998; recorded Perlas album of covers of English-language songs, 1999; toured Mexico and U.S. West Coast, 2001; released Diva album, 2006.

Awards: Latin Recording Academy, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2006.

Addresses: Record company—EMI Latin, 404 Washington Ave., Ste. 700, Miami Beach, FL 33139. Website—Paloma San Basilio Official Website: http://www.palomasanbasilio.net/.

Whatever level of success she experienced, San Basilio remained true to her own artistic instincts. "It's an erroneous idea to think of two distinct markets with distinct tastes," she told the Los Angeles newspaper La Opinión (in Spanish), referring to Spanish and Latin American buyers. She had tried releasing separate albums for each market; 1989's Quiéreme siempre (Love Me Always) was aimed toward Spanish audiences, while Nadie como tú, made the following year, was marketed in Latin America. The albums did well, but San Basilio was dissatisfied. "I had two producers, and that created a terrible duality, because the artist becomes a kind of monster with two heads," she told La Opinión. "I've always defended my needs as an artist," she pointed out to Cobo-Hanlon. "And what survives are those things that are faithful to what you want to be. I always say I have only one career, while they [my promoters and record executives] have more. I have to look out for what's mine." More changeable was San Basilio's visual image; like Madonna, another famous interpreter of the role of Evita, she was the subject of countless glamorous news photographs in which she rarely, if ever, looked the same twice.

Released Classical-Inspired Album

Recordings such as Paloma mediterranea (Mediterranean Dove, 1993) and Como un sueño (Like a Dream, 1996) kept San Basilio in the minds of music buyers. In 1997 San Basilio returned to the musical stage in Man of La Mancha, and the following year she performed in a Miami City Ballet "Spanish Spectacular" with dancers and orchestral musicians. She returned to classical music with 1998's Clasicamente tuya (Classically Yours), which featured romantic ballads in full-scale symphonic arrangements, with tunes adapted from melodies by Beethoven and other classical composers. "San Basilio's vocals shine in this setting, and she reveals new facets of her musical personality, particularly in the way she can tackle these grandiose arrangements with ease," noted Stephen Thomas Erlewine of All Music Guide.

As she entered her sixth decade, San Basilio attracted attention from newspaper writers for her seemingly ageless good looks and also for her atypical lack of any attempt to conceal her true birthdate. In 2001 she made her third appearance in musicals in the lead role of Eliza Doolittle in a Spanish version of My Fair Lady, and her 2002 album Eternamente (Eternally) was a collection of songs from musicals. She also appeared in a stage version of Victor Victoria. Collections of San Basilio hits crowded music-store shelves and Internet retail listings by the mid-2000s, and in 2006 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Latin Recording Academy, presenter of the Latin Grammy awards. That achievement was far from finished, however; San Basilio released a new album, Diva, that year.

Selected discography

Sombras, EMI, 1975.
Dónde vas, EMI, 1977.
Ahora, EMI, 1981.
Dama, EMI, 1982.
Vuela alto, EMI, 1986.
Grande, EMI, 1987.
Vida, EMI, 1988.
Quiéreme siempre, EMI, 1989.
Nadie como tú, EMI, 1990.
(With Plácido Domingo) Por fin juntos, EMI, 1991.
De mil amores, Capitol, 1992.
Paloma mediterranea, Capitol, 1993.
Al este del Eden, EMI, 1994.
Como un sueño, EMI, 1996.
Clasicamente tuya, EMI, 1998.
Perlas, EMI, 1999.
Escorpio, Sony International, 2001.
La música es mi vida: 30 grandes canciones, EMI, 2004.
Inolvidablemente, Vene Music, 2005.
Lo básico, EMI, 2005.
Diva, EMI, 2006.

Sources

Periodicals

Miami Herald, November 7, 1986, p. D11; March 5, 1991, p. C4; March 17, 1998, p. C1.

La Opinión (Los Angeles), May 19, 2001, p. B1.

Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL), March 19, 1993, Showtime section, p. 20; March 19, 1998, p. E3; May 11, 2001, Showtime section, p. 34.

Online

"Paloma San Basilio," All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (November 5, 2006).

"Paloma San Basilio estudió un año de Filosofía y Letras" ("Paloma San Basilio Studied Philosophy and Literature for a Year"), http://es.geocities.com/jeliclejesito/Vida.htm (November, 5, 2006).