Google Doodle has decided to celebrate singer,
songwriter, and music composer, Maria Grever today – on the anniversary of the
day she recorded her biggest hit.
Born on the 14th of September 1894,
the singer originates from the city of Leon situated in central Mexico but soon
moved to Spain. She proved her musical talents at a young age by composing a
holiday carol at just four years of age. Her father soon became aware of her
talent and ability, and so, he hired the some of the best tutors of the time to
teach her, where she especially worked on improving her pitch and songwriting
skills.
She gained popularity soon after releasing her
first record, A Una Ola,which apparently sold millions of copies worldwide. She
then moved to New York to take on the music industry by storm. In her lifetime,
she produced hundreds of songs that ended up being covered by music legends
like Aretha Franklin and Frank Sinatra. Her songs were most played on the radio
and bought by film studios like 20th Century Fox and Paramount
Pictures.
Jazz singer Dinah Washington used Grever’s
song, Cuando Vuelva a Tu Lado and translated it to What a Difference a Day Makes.
This recording ended up winning a Grammy in 1959. It was later included in the
1998 Grammy Hall of Fame.
Grever played live at hundreds of concerts.
The audiences were especially floored whenever she danced to the tunes of
‘married folk rhythms and styles like tango’. She was and is still considered
to be one of the greatest songwriters in history.
She fought a long battle with an unknown
disease and died in 1951 at the age of 67.
To give an ode to her contributions to music,
Google published a Doodle on the 83rd anniversary of her hit song
Ti-Pi-Tin, which is a tune dedicated to a lover. Before she died, she wrote
more than 800 songs, which is a feat on its own.
Do you know that she released her first song
at the age of 18, and it ended up selling 3 million copies worldwide?
As mentioned earlier, she moved to New York to
venture into the music business. Supported by her husband, she started working
on movies as music composer, experimenting on the fusion of Latin American
music.
She first received international acclaim with
her song,Jurame after which, a list of songs like Volvere and TeQuieroDijiste
earned accolades too.
Google is paying tribute to the undisputable
artist today, on the 11th of February, 2021, by creating a logo.
Talking about her career, she once said:
“I had to leave my country, and now in
New York I am interested in Jazz and Modern Rhythms, but above all, in Mexican
Music, which I long to present to the American people. I am afraid they don’t
know much about it. It is music worth spreading; there is such a cultural
richness in Mexican Music (it’s Hispanic and indigenous origins and how they
mix) where melody and rhythm merge. It is my wish and yearning to present the
native rhythms and tunes (of Mexico) from a real perspective, but with the
necessary flexibility to appeal to the universal audience.”
Today, all the artists in the music industry
are inspired by the talent of this relentless woman. She exhibited natural
talent but remained ever-so-humble about it.
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The Mexican composer’s life journey is celebrated
by Google Doodle and that’s why you can see the incredible logo on the Google
homepage. Hope you liked the ten unknown facts discussed above about the
greatest Mexican composer ever!