Consuelo Velazquez, 84, Songwriter
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Consuelo Velazquez, whose song “Besame Mucho” became a standard in many languages and styles of music, died Saturday of complications from a fall she suffered in October, her son Mariano Rivera said. She was 84.
While overseeing classical music programs for the pioneering radio station XEQ, she began writing popular tunes.
The first to become famous was “Besame Mucho,” which became a Big Band hit during World War II and was later recorded by hundreds of artists, including the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Wes Montgomery, and Placido Domingo.
On Sunday, hundreds of fellow artists filed past her coffin during a special tribute at Mexico City’s Palace of Fine Arts, where she studied music in 1938.
Mexican television and radio stations devoted hours of coverage to her music and to interviews with artists mourning her passing.
“She was an extraordinary composer linked to an intimate and public fabric that was not only Mexican but also Latin American and in good measure, Spanish,” said Mexican writer Carlos Monsivais.
