Artists
Album Info
Release Date: 1969-04-22Label: Gemini
Produced and Distributed by Venus Audio Corp, NYCWhen Dominicans began recording bachata in 1962, one of the most popular singers of guitar-based boleros was the Puerto Rican, Blanca Iris Villafane. Villafane sang, as did her male contemporaries, and as bachateros would later, about the betrayals and disappointments of life in the world of the bar and barrio. Melida Rodriguez, the first woman to record bachata, followed in Villafane’s footsteps, and her songs describe with profound sympathy the experiences of a woman in this rough and tumble world. Melida Rodriguez was among the very first bachateros, and her songs were accompanied by the same musicians as many of her male contemporaries, pioneers like Jose Manuel Calderon and Fabio Sanabia. She wrote her own songs, and her signature work, “La sufrida”, is beyond doubt the best known bachata sung purely from a woman’s point of view. In it she declares her determination to be bad, that is, unfaithful, because while she has been faithful no one has been faithful to her. The chorus, “Yo soy mala, y seguire siendo mala”, is an exhilarating statement of feminine freedom in the context of a society which at the time held conservative views regarding sexuality.
https://www.iasorecords.com/artists/melida-rodriguez