Omara Portuondo, with feeling

History hands out its titles and Omara Portuondo was given the sobriquet "Cuba's Edith Piaf" after becoming the voice of her country and a generation. An innovative and stylish interpreter of a variety of musical styles, her career peaked artistically in the 1950s and 1960s but the album and 1999 documentary Buena Vista Social Club brought belated worldwide fame.

Like Wim Wenders' postcard-perfect film, Portuondo encapsulates a faded but romantic image of Cuba that is spirited, independent, passionate, impossibly romantic yet tinged with sadness. A performer for 60 years, she said in an e-mail interview translated from Spanish that her earliest musical influences in Havana, where she was born, were parental.

"They used to sing a lot at home and those songs were the first I ever listened to, for instance: La Bayamesa from Ernesto Grenet y Sindo Garay, or Veinte Anos from Maria Teresa Vera." Jazz kings like Nat King Cole and the Glenn Miller Orchestra also inspired her to start singing, she said, first at friends' homes and small clubs, then as part of a succession of groups, notably the female vocal quartet, Cuartet D'Aida, with her sister. She entered the world of show business in the chorus line at El Tropicana.

"They were looking for a dancer because one of them could not participate at the premiere. And because I went to all the rehearsals, I was the only one who could help them out. At first, I refused the offer as I was very shy and the idea of showing my legs dancing was not very pleasing to me. Imagine, I was only 15 years old. But my mother told me that I should do it, because that way I could help other people. So that is how I started in this world."

She made a name for herself singing in the "vieja trova" style of the 1920s and 1930s, covered the dance standards of the 1940s and was known for being the definitive interpreter of "filin" [feeling], a Cuban-jazz sound and bolero, "a ballad with a little black beans on the side."

Today, she is as active ever despite her advanced years and her country's political isolation since the Cuban missile crisis in 1961 (she used to perform in the US with her sister, who stayed). She is still touring the world and producing albums, such as last year's Flor de Amor.

"I think that it is my most personal album with songs that go straight to the heart. Probably a reason for this has been the inclusion of other influences. Different cultures always enrich one's own and Flor de Amor has the fine mix of our culture and Brazil ... Finishing the project and now touring with a symphony orchestra is like a dream come true. This is something I have always wanted to do and next year we will start a world tour."

As for the comparison with the talented and totemic Edith Piaf, Portuondo accepts the compliment with grace but points out she did duet with the French icon and has had other nicknames over the years.

"For me Edith Piaf was a great star, a very complete artist and being compared with her makes me feel very proud. It was a long time ago when my sister, Haydee, and I used to meet some friends every weekend: Cesar Portillo de la Luz, Jose Antonio Mendez and the pianist Frank Emilio Flynn. We were called the Loquibamba Swing and we played at that time what we started to call `Feeling.' We made American jazz standards but with a Cuban touch and influenced by bossa nova too. Once in a radio program, the journalist started calling me the `Feeling girlfriend' and from that moment I have kept the nickname. Also `Omara Brown.'"