Maradona, Chávez and Shakira among many to pay tribute to 'the voice of South America', writes TOM HENNIGAN
MERCEDES SOSA, Argentina’s legendary folk singer and a symbol of resistance to the country’s brutal military dictatorship, died on Sunday aged 74 in Buenos Aires.
Hugely popular across the continent, she was crowned “the voice of Latin America” and was known affectionately as “La Negra” – the black one – after her lustrous black hair, which she attributed to her Quéchua Indian roots. In poor health in recent years, she had been in hospital for two weeks with liver and kidney problems. Her body was taken to Argentina’s congress building where it lay in state. Since early Sunday morning thousands of fans queued for the chance to file past her open casket.
Among those paying their respects was a visibly emotional President Cristina Kirchner, who earlier had declared three days of national mourning. Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, also paid tribute to Sosa on his weekly television programme Aló Presidente. Another mourner at the congress building was football great Diego Maradona, who afterwards told reporters that Sosa was "one of the greatest in the world, there will be no one like her again".
Sosa was born in 1935 into a humble family in the northwestern province of Tucumán, one of Argentina’s poorest regions. Her career, which spanned more than half a century and over 40 albums, was launched when as a teenager she won a talent contest held by a radio station.
She was at the forefront of South America's nueva canción(new song) movement, which combined traditional folk music with elements of pop and jazz and often had politicised lyrics. Sosa did not write her own music but made famous many songs by other artists that took as their themes the injustice of the world's most socially unequal continent.
Her definitive version of Gracias a la Vida (Thanks to Life)by the Chilean singer Violeta Parra became an anthem for left-wing students and protesters during the 1960s and was later sung in defiance of the region's military dictatorships.
Despite never going into politics herself, Sosa was always identified with the region’s Left and was targeted by right-wing death squads in Argentina during the 1970s. She opposed Argentina’s brutal military junta which took power in a coup in 1976 and was forced to flee the country three years later after she was arrested along with her entire audience of 200 college students at a concert in the city of La Plata.
She was released following international pressure and fled, first to Paris and then Madrid. She returned in 1982 as the dictatorship drew to its chaotic end following defeat in the Falklands War, packing out a string of concerts in Buenos Aires’ Teatro Colón opera house.
Other singers from around the region jumped at the chance to record with her and she collaborated with Charly García, the enfant terrible of Argentina's rock scene, Brazilian stars Caetano Veloso and Milton Nascimento and Colombian singer Shakira. "Mercedes was the greatest voice and suffered exile as an example of courage. She was the voice of her brothers of the land and raised the song of pain and justice," said Shakira, who appeared on Sosa's last album, Cantora.
Other artists with whom Sosa collaborated included Luciano Pavarotti, Nana Mouskouri and US folk singer Joan Baez, who released an album titled Gracias a la Vidain 1974 in solidarity with Chileans suffering under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.
Sosa’s family said her remains were to be cremated and her ashes spread between her home town of Tucumán, Mendoza and Buenos Aires.