The greatness of Mexican composition in the voice of María Grever

February 11, 2021 at 10:34 p.m.
The greatness of Mexican composition in the voice of María Grever. PHOTO: mediateca.inah.gob.mx
The greatness of Mexican composition in the voice of María Grever. PHOTO: mediateca.inah.gob.mx

Today Google welcomes users with the image of a woman who left a mark on the world for her talent and tenacity, she is María Joaquina de la Portilla Torres, better known as Maria Grever.

Originally from León, Guanajuato, the composer stars in the search engine's Doodle in memory of the song "Tipi Tipi Tin", recorded on February 11th 1938 as an ode to your loved ones.

This work is added to the wide repertoire produced by María, whose scope was close to a thousand melodies, and of which stand out "Presentimiento", "When I come back to your side", "So", "When I go", "I love you , you said ”,“ My soul ”,“ I will return ”or "Swear to me"; the latter his greatest success.

Companion of Leon Augusto Grever, who took the last name, the singer was born on September 14, 1885, and from an early age he studied singing and classical music under the tutelage of Claude Debussy y Franz Lehár in Spain.

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His adult life took place in New York, where he moved at the beginning of the XNUMXth century to protect himself from the complications derived from the Mexican Revolution.

Around the 1920s he recorded two albums and worked with the production companies Paramount y 20th Century Fox in the musicalization of various films. It was then that the actor and Mexican tenor, José Mujica, became his first interpreter when recording “Júrame”.

This collaboration was the spearhead for the series of interpretations that Grever's compositions would have, who was taken up by artists of different musical genres, including Dinah Washington, Aretha Franklin, Rod Stewart, Enrico Caruso, Juan Arvizu, Placido Domingo, Javier Solis, Natalia Lafourcade, Amy Winehouse and Barry Manilow.

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One of her greatest contributions, in addition to her work as a composer, was entering fields intended only for males in the music, being the first female composer to assert her rights as an author and create her own publishing house, actions that gave her a halo of greater distinction and legacy.

For this reason, the Union of Women of the Americas named her, posthumously, Woman of the Americas in 1952. A year later, the Chilean Titus Davison made the biographical film When i leave, starring Libertad Lamarque, in tribute to the singer.

María Grever died on December 15, 1951 in New York, and her remains reside in the Spanish Pantheon of the Mexico City.

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