Rocio Jurado, Spanish icon

MADRID – Rocio Jurado, a singer and actress who was a beloved figure in Spain and Latin America over a career spanning more than four decades, died at the end of last week after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

She was 61. A feisty Andalusian woman with striking eyes and flowing red hair, Jurado was known fondly as “la mas grande de Espana” – Spain’s greatest.She won myriad awards, recorded more than 30 records, performed on both sides of the Atlantic and appeared in nearly a dozen films, her first as a teenager.In 1985 she performed at the White House for then-US President Ronald Reagan.Jurado – her full name was Maria del Rocio Trinidad Mohedano Jurado – was known for a powerful voice that blended traditional Spanish styles of flamenco, folk and romantic ballads.Expressions of grief quickly poured in from around the country.The deputy prime minister said Spain has lost a cultural icon, and a popular young singer announced that in honour of Jurado she was postponing the release of a new record.Manuel Garcia, the mayor of Jurado’s hometown in the southern Andalusia region, Chipiona, called the entertainer “a person of tremendous power, not just as a performer but for her human values”.Born on September 18 1944, Jurado was a glitzy but revered fixture on the Spanish showbiz scene.She was first married to a world champion boxer, then a well-known bullfighter, jetting back and forth between her mansion in Madrid and ranch in Seville.A prolific entertainer, she won a slew of awards over the course of her career, including prizes for flamenco singing, album of the year in Spain in 1980 and 1985 and honours in Venezuela, Mexico, Miami and Las Vegas.While living in Argentina, she performed in a play called ‘La Zapatera Prodigiosa’, based on work by Federico Garcia Lorca.After teaming up with composer Manuel Alejandro, Jurado became a huge hit on the Latin music scene, becoming acclaimed throughout the Americas and Spain.Her overseas concerts also included shows at the Kennedy Centre in Washington, D.C., Madison Square Garden in New York and Beethoven Hall in Bonn, Germany.In early April, shortly after Jurado was hospitalised in Madrid, the Spanish government approved a decree awarding her a Gold Medal for Merit in Work, hailing her as “one of the best voices in our country” and a star in both music and film.It noted she had some 30 gold records and five more that went platinum and said she was “one of the most brilliant folk singers of the last 50 years”.Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said Spain was mourning the loss of “a person who was so valuable, so beloved, so respected and so important for the popular culture of our country.”- Nampa-APA feisty Andalusian woman with striking eyes and flowing red hair, Jurado was known fondly as “la mas grande de Espana” – Spain’s greatest.She won myriad awards, recorded more than 30 records, performed on both sides of the Atlantic and appeared in nearly a dozen films, her first as a teenager.In 1985 she performed at the White House for then-US President Ronald Reagan.Jurado – her full name was Maria del Rocio Trinidad Mohedano Jurado – was known for a powerful voice that blended traditional Spanish styles of flamenco, folk and romantic ballads.Expressions of grief quickly poured in from around the country.The deputy prime minister said Spain has lost a cultural icon, and a popular young singer announced that in honour of Jurado she was postponing the release of a new record.Manuel Garcia, the mayor of Jurado’s hometown in the southern Andalusia region, Chipiona, called the entertainer “a person of tremendous power, not just as a performer but for her human values”.Born on September 18 1944, Jurado was a glitzy but revered fixture on the Spanish showbiz scene.She was first married to a world champion boxer, then a well-known bullfighter, jetting back and forth between her mansion in Madrid and ranch in Seville.A prolific entertainer, she won a slew of awards over the course of her career, including prizes for flamenco singing, album of the year in Spain in 1980 and 1985 and honours in Venezuela, Mexico, Miami and Las Vegas.While living in Argentina, she performed in a play called ‘La Zapatera Prodigiosa’, based on work by Federico Garcia Lorca.After teaming up with composer Manuel Alejandro, Jurado became a huge hit on the Latin music scene, becoming acclaimed throughout the Americas and Spain.Her overseas concerts also included shows at the Kennedy Centre in Washington, D.C., Madison Square Garden in New York and Beethoven Hall in Bonn, Germany.In early April, shortly after Jurado was hospitalised in Madrid, the Spanish government approved a decree awarding her a Gold Medal for Merit in Work, hailing her as “one of the best voices in our country” and a star in both music and film.It noted she had some 30 gold records and five more that went platinum and said she was “one of the most brilliant folk singers of the last 50 years”.Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said Spain was mourning the loss of “a person who was so valuable, so beloved, so respected and so important for the popular culture of our country.”- Nampa-AP