Pablo Milanés dies | Who is the Yolanda that gives the title to her mythical love song?

‘Yolanda’ is, surely, the most unforgettable love song by the late Cuban troubadour, composer and singer Pablo Milanés, along with ‘Ámame como soy’ and ‘El breve espacio en que no está’. The song, first published on his 1982 album ‘Yo me quedo’, was dedicated to the figure of his great love, Yolanda Benet, with whom he was married for six years, between 1969 and 1973, and with whom he had three daughters, Lynn, Liam and Suylén (died this February). It was precisely after Lynn’s birth, just when the girl was 10 days old, that Milanés composed his touching hymn to lovewhose letter reads:

“This can’t be no more than a song

I would like it to be a declaration of love

Romantic without repair in such ways

Put a stop to what I feel now in abundance

Love you

Love you

(I love you forever)

If you miss me I will not die

If I have to die I want it to be with you

My loneliness feels accompanied

That’s why sometimes I know that I need

Your hand

Your hand

(Eternally your hand)

When I saw you I knew it was true

This fear of being found out

You undress me with seven reasons

You open my chest whenever you fill me up

Of loves

Of loves

eternally of loves

If I ever feel defeated

I give up seeing the sun every morning

Praying the creed that you have taught me

I look at your face and say at the window

Yolanda

Yolanda

Eternally Yolanda

Yolanda

Eternally Yolanda

Eternally, Yolanda”

Yolanda Benet He was born in the city of Cienfuegos, but in his adolescence he moved to live in Havana with his family. In 1962 he began working at the renowned Cuban Institute of Art and Television (ICAIC)where she would work for 25 years as a producer and assistant director, both in film and television programs.

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During his time at the ICAIC, Benet worked on some of the most recognized films of Cuban cinema such as ‘Manuela’ (1966) by Humberto Solás, ‘I am Cuba’ (1964), by the Soviet Mijaíl Kalatózov, ‘La primera carga al machete’ (1969) by Manuel Octavio Gómez, or ‘The strange case of Rachel K’ (1973) by Oscar Valdés.

He met Milanés in 1968thanks to a mutual friend, while she was working on the production of, precisely, ‘La primera carga al machete’, a film for which the musician composed some of his songs. The couple would end up getting married in Havana in 1969, giving rise to a close sentimental relationship that remained alive despite their divorce. “I was that girl he fell in love with and it could have been another, I don’t think she has any personal merit, the talent, of course, belongs to him,” Benet said when talking about her song and her close relationship with Milanés in an interview with writer Wendy Guerra.

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