The death of the composer, singer and accordion player Omar Geles on Tuesday, May 21, caused shock among the followers of vallenato.
Geles’ farewell took place on Thursday, May 23, on the Francisco el Hombre stage in Plaza Alfonso López, in the center of Valledupar, where a crowd paid tribute to the artist.
The funeral services included the participation of several political representatives and official entities that issued statements of mourning. Among them were 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. Everyone highlighted the greatness of Geles, who in 1989, at the age of 22, was crowned king vallenato, and whose work includes more than a thousand compositions, including hits like The paths of life, A blank page, After so many years, My follies, My beautiful mother, Winds of Christmas, In black and white, I am your sky and many more.
Now you can follow us on our WhatsApp Channel and in Facebook.
Artists of the stature of Silvestre Dangond, Elder Dayán, Iván Villazón and Peter Manjarrés were present at the funeral ceremonies; however, The absence of Rafael Santos, son of Diomedes Díaz, was notable and generated criticism.
Rafael Santos, who knew Geles since he was a child due to the friendship between the composer and Diomedes, did not attend the funeral, although he appeared on the program. Day to day to talk about the life of Geles.
Later, Rafael Santos published a private conversation with Geles on Instagram in which the composer asked him to promote his new album. This publication was seen by many followers as an opportunistic strategy to publicize his music and generated a wave of criticism.
“That man always likes to figure in everything instead of being there supporting all his relatives in this very difficult stage”; “How base it is to advertise in the shadow of a recently deceased person”; “Rafa why didn’t you travel to say goodbye to Omar
