Biography Of Mercedes Sosa, A Prodigious Voice

According to Mercedes Sosa’s biography, she faced two performances in which she couldn’t handle her own emotions. The first took place in Barcelona, ​​in 1973, during his first performance in Spain. The country was governed by the dictatorship of Francisco Franco and banned the concert from being publicized. Still, people arrived en masse, sang their songs and the singer ended up crying with emotion.

The second of these unforgettable performances took place ten years later. She returned to perform in her country after a bitter exile. The Argentines sang their songs and Mercedes confessed that she was forced not to look at the audience because, if she did, she would burst into tears.

It is said that, after this concert, Admiral Carlos Alberto Lacoste asked: “Who gave Mercedes Sosa permission to be in my country?”

That was Mercedes Sosa, the “Voice of America”, a woman of humble origins who had to pay in her own skin for her principle of coherence. In addition, he was a prodigious voice that made music a way of narrating the Latin American reality for the whole world.

Mercedes Sosa, a humble girl

Her birth name was Haydée Mercedes Sosa, although her parents had agreed that she would be called Marta Mercedes. The father registered her and decided to change plans at the last minute. Still, all her life her family called her “la Marta”. He came into the world on July 9, 1935 in San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina.

There is a curious fact regarding his birth date and the date of his death. Mercedes was born on the same day that the Independence of Argentina is celebrated, which was conquered precisely in her hometown, Tucumán. 74 years later, she died on October 4th, the date that coincided with the birth of Violeta Parra, a woman to whom Mercedes made world fame.

Sosa was the daughter of a humble sugar mill worker and a woman who made her living washing the clothes of wealthy families. His parents were staunch Peronists, and on October 17, 1950, they traveled to Buenos Aires to celebrate Peronist Loyalty Day. On the same date, the singing teacher was absent from her school and she was in charge of singing the National Anthem of Argentina. This turned into his first public performance.

The start of a successful career

Some schoolmates convinced her to go to a local broadcaster that was running a singing contest. Mercedes decided to go and, at the end of her presentation, the owner of the station announced that the contest was over, because there was the winner.

Since then, Mercedes has started singing regularly on the radio. In 1957, she married Óscar Matus, a folk musician, and they both moved to Mendoza, an Argentine province with which she fell in love.

Some time later, his son, Fabián Matus, was born. Together with her husband and poet Armando Tejada Gómez, they created the Nuevo Cancionero Latinoamericano movement .

The marriage lasted only eight years and her husband left her to live with another woman. Mercedes moved to Buenos Aires and, that same year, an almost magical event took place. During the Cosquín Folklore Festival, the most important of its kind in Argentina, musician Jorge Cafrune invited her to sing. Although this was not scheduled, she fascinated the audience right away.

Mercedes Sosa Biography: The Voice of America

From that moment on, success was constant in Mercedes Sosa’s biography. At first, she conquered her country, then all of Latin America, and finally the whole world.

She found a new husband, “Pocho” Mazzitelli, a representative of musicians who never left her. Those were happy years for her, who did not hesitate to classify her second husband as “the greatest love of her life”.

After the military coup in Argentina, difficult times began for Mercedes. Her records were banned and she was blacklisted by the dictatorship.

In 1978, during a recital in La Plata, one of her performances was interrupted by the military, who attacked her in public and arrested her along with her colleagues. This event led her to exile in Paris and later in Madrid.

The exile was a bitter experience, especially since it coincided with the death of her husband. She said it took nine years to get over her loss. Despite everything, the love and veneration of the public gave him back his zest for life.

New concerts came, new musical experiments that included rock music. She died on October 4, 2009, in a hospital in Buenos Aires, at the age of 74, with a more than consecrated career and an immortal voice.