Rita Montaner

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Rita Montaner" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article may be written from a fan's point of view, rather than a neutral point of view. Please clean it up to conform to a higher standard of quality, and to make it neutral in tone. (June 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Rita Montaner
Rita Montaner
Background information
Birth name	Rita Aurelia Fulcida Montaner y Facenda
Also known as	Rita de Cuba
Born	(1900-08-20)20 August 1900 Guanabacoa, Cuba
Died	17 April 1958(1958-04-17) (aged 57) Havana, Cuba
Genres	Rhumba, zarzuela
Occupation(s)	Musician, actress
Instrument(s)	Vocals, piano
Years active	1920–1958
Labels	Puchito
Spouse(s)	Alberto Fernández Díaz ​ ​ (m. 1912; death 1932)​ Ernesto Estévez Navarro ​ ​ (m. 1933; div. 1938)​ Javier Calderón Poveda ​ ​ (m. 1939; div. 1958)​

Rita Aurelia Fulcida Montaner y Facenda (20 August 1900 – 17 April 1958), known as Rita Montaner, was a Cuban singer, pianist and actress. In Cuban parlance, she was a vedette (a star), and was well known in Mexico City, Paris, Miami and New York, where she performed, filmed and recorded on numerous occasions. She was one of Cuba's most popular artists between the late 1920s and 1950s, renowned as Rita de Cuba. Though classically trained as a soprano for zarzuelas, her mark was made as a singer of Afro-Cuban salon songs including "The Peanut Vendor" and "Siboney".^[1]

Throughout her career, Montaner kept a close personal and professional relationship with two famous musicians from her hometown of Guanabacoa: pianist-singer Bola de Nieve and composer Ernesto Lecuona.^[2][3]