BIENVENIDO GRANDA

Biography

Bienvenido Granda, born Rosendo Bienvenido Granda Aguilera (Havana, 1915, August 30 – Mexico City, 1983, July 9), was a Cuban vocalist/musician, singing boleros, son montunos, guarachas and other Cuban rhythms.
For sporting a prodigious mustache, he was nicknamed El bigote que canta (The mustache that sings).

Bienvenido Granda was orphaned at six years of age. He discovered his talent for singing various Cuban rhythms and tango as a child when he sang for spare change on buses in Cuba.

He began his professional career in the 1930s, making his first recordings in 1936 with the Septeto Nacional de Ignacio Piñeiro. Bienvenido Granda made several appearances on Cuban radio stations such as Radio Cadena Azul, Radio Cadena Suaritos, Radio Progreso, CMQ and RHC Radio as a way of gaining wider exposure. In 1942, he became the lead singer with one of the most popular bands of all Cuban/Afro-Cuban bands, the legendary Conjunto Sonora Matancera.

He performed, recorded and achieved his greatest success with said group until 1954, year in which he began his solo career, having left La Sonora Matancera after a bitter argument with Rogelio Martínez, its director, over money. El bigote que canta wanted to be paid more than his fellow band members even though La Sonora was a cooperative. Bienvenido Granda performed in several Latin American countries. He moved to Mexico City, where he died, as a result of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. Bienvenido Granda sang several of the different musical genres created in Cuba, being especially proficient in the guaracha. He was also a fine bolero singer.