BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB Member Omara Portuondo Spotlighted in New PBS Film
The musician is portrayed by Natalie Venetia Belcon in the ongoing Broadway musical.
By: Josh Sharpe Sep. 16, 2025
Omara Portuondo, the Cuban singer who is a member of Buena Vista Social Club, is the subject of a new documentary film premiering on the PBS series VOCES on Friday, September 26, 2025, 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET.
The story of the musical group serves as the basis of the stage musical of the same name, which premiered on Broadway earlier this year. The show has won 5 Tony Awards, including Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical for Natalie Venetia Belcon, who portrays Portuondo in the show.
The new documentary, “Omara: Cuba’s Legendary Diva," is an intimate look at Portuondo's life, with director Hugo Perez following the musician as she celebrates and shares the music of her beloved island with the world. Exploring her Afro-Cuban heritage, the Cuban Revolution, her meteoric rise to fame and her life as a single mother in Communist Cuba, this film serves both as a history of the Latin music revival and a testament to Omara’s amazing resilience and talent.
Following Omara to Tokyo, New York, and Havana, the film features interviews with such world-renowned musicians as Diego El Cigala, Roberto Fonseca, and Arturo O’Farrill. The film chronicles Omara’s beginnings as the daughter of a white, aristocratic mother and a Black father, at a time when such a union meant complete social ruin, to becoming a dancer at age 17 at the world-famous cabaret Tropicana. By her mid 20s, Omara was one of Cuba’s brightest young stars as part of the all-female Cuarteto d’Aida, touring extensively and opening for Nat King Cole.
Over the next several decades, Omara became a trailblazing advocate for Afro-Cuban women, known before ever joining the Buena Vista Social Club and becoming synonymous with that worldwide sensation.
VOCES “Omara: Cuba’s Legendary Diva” will stream simultaneously with broadcast and be available on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS app, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast, and VIZIO.
About Omara Portuondo
Born on October 29, 1930 in Havana, Omara Portuondo is a Cuban national treasure, beloved across generations, and one of the island nation’s most famous singers. Often compared to Billie Holiday and Edith Piaf for her emotion-filled ballads and boleros, Omara was born to Afro-Cuban baseball player Bartolo Portuondo and Esperanza Peláez, the daughter of a wealthy Havana family of Spanish ancestry. Her parents caused a scandal by eloping at a time when mixed-race marriages were not accepted. In 1947, at the age of seventeen, Omara began her career as a dancer at the famed nightspot Tropicana. She then started a duo with her sister Haydee and later forming the group Cuarteto d’Aida. The group had considerable success, touring the United States, performing with Nat King Cole at the Tropicana, and recording a 1957 album for RCA Victor. They sang in a style called Filin, Cuban in origin but heavily influenced by U.S. popular song fashions of the 1940s and 50s. The name is derived from the English word “feeling” and describes a style of jazz-influenced romantic crooning.
In 1996, Omara became part of the Buena Vista Social Club project, performing at some of the world's most celebrated venues including London’s Royal Albert Hall, Amsterdam’s Carré Theatre and New York's Carnegie Hall and recording several albums with the ensemble. She was featured in the 1999 Buena Vista Social Club documentary directed by Wim Wenders and the current Tony Award winning Broadway musical “Buena Vista Social Club.” In 2005, Omara won the Billboard Award for Best Tropical Album of the year, and in 2009 took home a Latin Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Tropical Album. In 2019, Omara was presented with a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions to Latin American and world music. She has been nominated for three additional Grammy Awards and was awarded the Order of the Sun, Japan's highest honor to a noncitizen for her work in promoting a cultural exchange between Cuba and Japan.
