14ymedio, Havana, 30 January 2022 — Cuban singer and producer Suylén Milanés Benet died at the age of 50 early this Sunday in Havana, while she was hospitalized after suffering a stroke. The daughter of singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés was hospitalized last Thursday at the National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery, according to family sources.
Nancy Pérez Rey, Pablo Milanés’s wife, confirmed the news of the death. “Her heart stopped beating a few hours ago. Pablo is serene because since the diagnosis of brain death he knew the outcome and has been heartbreakingly suffering within the extraordinary strength that he has,” she wrote.
“We are all in bad shape but together: the children, the aunt, Pablo and I and for his health, which is fragile, we will not go to Havana for now. We know that everyone is with us accompanying us in the hardest moment in Pablo’s life,” Pérez added in her message.
Suylén Milanés was one of Pablo’s three daughters with Yolanda Benet, the woman who inspired the song Yolanda, one of the most famous in the singer-songwriter’s repertoire. At the age of 16, Suylén graduated with a specialty in Singing and Choral Conducting at the “Amadeo Roldán” Conservatory in Havana.
On stage, she developed a career as a vocalist in groups in the style of Montespuma and Tesis de Menta, but also accompanied her father on several international tours.
For several years she dedicated herself to the production of cultural events, especially the Eyeife Festival, which she founded in 2017. “I started doing private DJ parties, which at that time were not legal,” she told 14ymedio during an interview at the venue in Havana from PM records, the label created in 1998 by her father.
“I love to sing but I have a great responsibility in PM as a producer,” the young woman clarified then. Milanés believed that it was a good time for electronic music on the Island. “It is gaining momentum worldwide and we have to think about having our own label. We cannot trivialize ourselves as artists, we have a wonderful tradition and there is no reason to stain it with imitations.”
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