Hospitalized in Madrid for his Delicate State of Health, Cuban Performer Pablo Milanes Cancels his Concerts

Caption: Milanés sang for the last time in Cuba last June, in a concert not without controversy and tensions. (Archive of Pablo Milanés)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 11 November 2022 — Cuban singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés, 77, is hospitalized in Madrid and has been in delicate health in recent months with various infections, due to his disease, a type of cancer, myelodysplastic syndrome, which decreases his immune response, according to family members. The artist, who suffers from inflammation of the gallbladder and a kidney infection, has had to cancel his upcoming concerts.

However, another nearby source reassures, “at this moment his health is under control, and we hope that he will be discharged soon.” It was to receive cancer treatment that Milanés moved five years ago to Spain, where he currently resides.

Milanés’ medical situation has forced him to cancel several concerts he planned to give in Spain and the Dominican Republic. “That has depressed him a lot,” says the same source, interviewed by this newspaper, “but now the important thing is that he achieves an improvement that allows him at least stability.”

The family announced that it will soon issue a press release on the musician’s official networks to “generate calm” about the artist’s hospital admission.

Milanés had to cancel a concert in Santo Domingo on December 5, initially scheduled for September, which also was delayed due to his health.

“The local production company, in full concordance with the artist’s office, decided to cancel the date,” Alfonso Quiñones reported in the Dominican newspaper El Caribe. The musician “had to be hospitalized in Spain,” added the journalist, who noted that his shows in the Spanish cities of Pamplona and Granada were also canceled.

For its part, the Diario de Navarra also reported on the cancelation of the concert in Pamplona, on November 13, and attributed it to an alleged “intestinal indisposition recently suffered which required the artist to rest due to medical indications.”

Milanés sang in Cuba for the last time in June, in a concert not without controversy and tensions. The crowded performance, with a strong police and State Security presence, finally took place in the Coliseo de la Ciudad Deportiva, in Havana, after several protests over the location initially chosen by the cultural authorities, the National Theatre of Cuba.

A large part of the 2,000-seat capacity of the National Theater has been sold to “organizations,” which caused popular discontent and the transfer of the concert to the Coliseo, which has 15,000 seats. Although the show took place normally and Milanés showed no signs of ill health, many attendees agreed that it had the tone of “a farewell.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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