Along with his emotional lyrics, he delivered to fame a number of of the greats of Vallenato music, who immediately say goodbye to him. Omar Geles, the composer born in Mahates, a municipality south of the division of Bolívar, died this Tuesday on the age of 57 after struggling a coronary heart assault whereas enjoying tennis on the Valledupar Nation Membership, the town the place he lived together with his spouse Maren García and his three kids. Geles is thought for composing lyrics for excellent classics of vallenato music resembling Los Caminos de la Vida, A Clean Sheet, Tarde lo Met, Blanco y negro, Do not Attempt to, the newest, Las Locracies Mía, carried out by Silvestre Dangond. Geles’ final efficiency was, exactly, with the favored singer, on Could 18 on the Nemesio Camacho El Campín stadium in Bogotá. There, with out figuring out that it will be his final live performance, Dangond gave him an emotional recognition by singing a duet in entrance of greater than 40,000 individuals.
Geles obtained a number of recognitions on the Pageant that promoted the vallenato style from a neighborhood or regional sound, after which to 1 recognized all through Colombia, which over time expanded past its borders. At 18 years outdated, in 1985, Geles received the novice king award, devoted to accordion gamers who started his profession; two years later, the novice King of kings; and in 1989 he achieved the very best award of the style, when he was topped king vallenato. Along with that profitable position as a performer, he had a fruitful profession as a composer, with songs that introduced success to artists of the style resembling Diomedes Díaz, Patricia Teherán, Peter Manjarrés, Jorge Oñate, Nelson Velásquez, Jorge Celedón, Poncho Zuleta, Martín Elías, Iván Villazón or Silvestre Dangond.
Omar Geles was generally known as El Diablito as a result of he created the favored group Los Diablitos in 1985 with Miguel Morales. That group was the one which turned The Paths of Life into an anthem of vallenato music, with echoes all through Latin America, as demonstrated by the truth that artists resembling Lila Downs, Vicentico and Celso Piña have coated it. 28 years after that success noticed life, Geles carried out on the Vallenata Legend Pageant in April 2024 with out obvious well being issues. Nonetheless, he suffered from hypertension. Days after the Pageant, whereas in Miami, he fainted which required hospitalization.
“Half my profession is in your palms, black. I really like you black. I really like you,” stated Silvestre Dangond in his live performance on Could 18. Penchy Castro, one of many vallenato singers who shared the stage with Dangond and Geles that Saturday evening, tells this newspaper that he spoke with the singer within the dressing room through the live performance. The composer, Castro says, instructed him that his fainting in Miami was because of a low blood sugar. Maren, Geles’ spouse, intervened: “He diets and does not care for himself.” Loss of life discovered him simply three days later. For that reason, Saturday’s live performance will go down within the historical past of the style. Camilo Quiroz, candidate for mayor of Valledupar in 2023 and founding associate of Matilde Lina and Casa Matilde, two famend vallenata music venues in Bogotá, was there and had contact with Geles. “What occurred that day within the stadium was magical. Evidently God had ready for him that farewell that not even he would have ever imagined,” he explains to EL PAÍS.
A farewell to a trainer
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Omar Geles’ coffin was transferred this Wednesday morning to the Rafael Carrillo Lúquez library within the metropolis of Valledupar, the capital of the division of Cesar and, above all, of Vallenato. There he was acquired by his spouse, different members of the family and dozens of followers. Not solely have they stated goodbye to El Diablito
Omar Geles (heart) sings throughout Silvestre Dangond’s (proper) live performance, on Could 18, 2024, in Bogotá. Wilder Forero (EFE/Wilder Forero)
Carlos Vives, the favored singer from the port of Santa Marta, was the good pioneer in internationalizing vallenato. Vives, who shared with Geles within the well-known sequence Escalona, basic within the consolidation of the style in Colombia, expressed his shock on his social networks. “It isn’t simple to simply accept that an artist like Omar Geles, with a lot expertise, with a lot pleasure, with so many tales to inform, with a lot love for individuals, has out of the blue left. I may inform you many tales of a really fraternal artist, with out selfishness, and liked by everybody. I’ll miss you expensive Omar, relaxation in peace. We proceed on the paths of life, till we meet once more,” stated the singer of La gota frida and introduced winner of the Latin Grammy artist of the 12 months award for 2024.
Vallenato Penchy Castro (the style is so native to Valledupar that it shares a reputation with the designation given to those that had been born in that metropolis), explains its influence on the style. “You possibly can’t think about what we’re shedding as a tradition, he influenced in all of the artists that we’re at that second. “All of us requested Geles for songs,” he tells this newspaper.
Sandra Arregocés, president of the inspiration accountable for the Vallenato Girls’s Assembly, an annual occasion, states this in a phone dialog with EL PAÍS from the Valledupar library, the place she stated goodbye to Geles. She defined that she had agreed to pay tribute to the late composer and accordion participant on the assembly that may happen in July. A farewell during which The Paths of Life will sound: “And for my outdated girl I’ll battle till the tip/ For her I’ll battle till I die/ And for her I do not wish to die/ Nor do I would like my outdated girl to die/ However what is the matter? ! If future is like that.”
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