Female flamenco singer |
| Name:Dolores Jiménez Alcántara |
| Birth: 1909 La Puebla de Cazalla, Sevilla |
| Death: 1999 |
"I have always sung among my friends. But it was when Pepe Marchena came out with such a beautiful voice, and that melody, and those colombianas (...) that my passion was aroused".
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La Niña de la Puebla is one of the great figures of twentieth century singing, with a sound training in music and guitar playing, that continued after her brilliant success. Thus she passed from the singing of lighter styles, like colombianas and fandangos, to more solemn ones, like the seguiriya and the soleá. According to her own claims, it was when she heard Niño de Marchena singing that she decided to become a professional singer.
Her great success came before the Spanish Civil War(1936-1939), but it was after it that La Niña de la Puebla's artistic career was almost frantic, constantly touring around Spain until the seventies, staging a different show every year: Ópera flamenca (1947), Pasan las coplas (1947), El sentir de la copla (1950), Toros y cante (1951), Noche de coplas (1953), Así canta Andalucía (1954), Herencia de arte (1955), Noche flamenca (1963), Fantasía Flamenca (1970)... Throughout her professional career she worked with legendary figures of flamenco art: El Cojo de Huelva, Pepe Marchena, Manuel Vallejo, José Cepero, Juanito Valderrama, La Niña de Antequera, Pepe Pinto, El Sevillano, Rafael Farina, El Carbonerillo, El Corruco de Algeciras, José Menese and Camarón. In 1987, she retired from the stage after performing in the Cumbre Flamenca (Flamenco Summit) that was held in Madrid. However, she re-apppeared on the stage in 1995, and didn't leave it until death caught her by surprise four years later. Her last show had to be stopped early because she fell ill.
A week after her death she was to receive a gold medal for Merit in the Fine Arts. One of her sons stated what her mother's greatest wish had been: that of being remembered with the colombiana Serranía de Brasil, which she used to sing with her husband Luquitas de Marchena, also a cantaor. She will always be remembered for the popular flavour that she was able to give to all of her renditions, particularly in her version of Los Campanilleros, which was lighter and had a stronger popular flavour than the one sung by Manuel Torre. |
Niña de la Puebla (Various artists)
