Bogotá, May 23 (EFE).- The Colombian composer, singer and accordionist Omar Geles, who died on Tuesday and author of more than a thousand vallenato songs, including hits such as ‘Los Caminos de la Vida’ and ‘A blanco y negro’, He was fired this Thursday by a crowd and with official honors.
The funeral services took place on the Francisco el Hombre stage in Plaza Alfonso López, in the center of Valledupar, the world capital of vallenato, where the crowd endured a heatwave sun to say goodbye to the artist who was crowned for his mastery with the accordion. king vallenato in 1989, at only 22 years old.
“Omar Geles was a musical genius, an excellent accordionist, a successful arranger and composer, he transformed Vallenato music,” the mayor of Valledupar, Ernesto Orozco, said at the event about the artist who died at the age of 57.
For her part, Elvia Milena Sanjuán, governor of the department of Cesar, of which Valledupar is the capital, recalled “that Omar Geles’ songs surpassed national borders” and announced that “his legacy will remain jealously guarded in the cultural center of music vallenata” that is built in that city.
The death of Geles, considered the most prolific composer of vallenato, has shocked the artists and followers of that genre who, since yesterday, went to Valledupar to say goodbye to him singing his songs next to the coffin on the stage Francisco el Hombre, a character who, according to the legend, defeated the devil in a duel by playing the accordion and praying the creed backwards.
“I got up very early wanting to come see you and thank you for the 12 songs you gave me, you gave them to me with your soul and convinced that I was always going to turn them into success,” said singer-songwriter Silvestre Dangond last night, who Last Saturday he invited him to go on stage during a concert at the El Campín stadium in Bogotá, in what was his last public appearance.
At the funeral, statements of mourning were read from the Senate of the Republic, the House of Representatives, the Mayor’s Office of Valledupar, the Municipal Council, the Government of Cesar, the Departmental Assembly and the Popular University of Cesar.
“Vallanata music has lost one of its most emblematic and prestigious composers, one of the most important, most current, most current figures,” said the president of the Society of Authors and Composers of Colombia (Sayco), Rafael Enrique Manjarrés. , who gave the family the Order of Saint Cecilia, awarded posthumously to the artist.
In 1985, Omar Geles created the group Los Diablitos together with Miguel Morales, which became very popular in Colombia and other Latin American countries with romantic vallenatos and hits such as ‘The Paths of Life’ and ‘How I Pay My God’.
In ‘The paths of life’, considered a vallenato anthem and recorded in nearly 30 versions by different artists, including the Argentine Vicentico, Geles sings of his humble origins and his personal improvement to help his mother get out of poverty.
After separating from Morales, the artist changed the name of the group to La Gente de Omar Geles, with which he remained active to this day.
His vast musical production includes numerous songs recorded by practically all the successful Vallenato singers in the last 40 years.
In addition to ‘The Paths of Life’, songs such as ‘Tarde lo met’, ‘A blanco y negro’, ‘Las locas mias’, ‘La culpa fue tuya’, ‘A blank sheet’, ‘Don’t try’, stand out. ‘I was born to adore you’ and ‘Dreams of oblivion’, among many others.
In recognition of that legacy, thousands of people took to the streets of Valledupar this Thursday to applaud the funeral procession in which Geles’ coffin, on a fire truck, was transported to the Jardines del Ecce Homo cemetery.
