To her devoted queer fans, the singer Margarita Pracatan was the best thing that Cuba ever exported. She found fame relatively late in life when Clive James one of the biggest Talk Show Hosts in UK TV discovered Margarita performing on her Manhattan public-access television cable TV program in 1994 and invited her to the UK to appear on his show
The Brits who love all types of eccentrics took to her immediately and made her a star . James may have had a sense of irony about introducing this outrageous singer who could not hold a note, but over the years one could see he had genuine fondness for her, and went out of his way to promote her success. He one said of her , “She never lets the words or melody get in her way. She is us, without the fear of failure.”
Audiences everywhere loved her uninhibited zest for life and her unashamed ability to ham it up as much ads possible, and we never ever knew if she actually believed she was a good singer. And we never cared
Margarita toured in the United Kingdom and Australia, appearing as part of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival, during the mid-1990s. She also appeared in an episode of Real Housewives of New York City in 2019, performing a cover version of Luann de Lesseps’s “Money Can’t Buy You Class”.
She died just on June 23rd 2020 in New York two weeks after her 89th birthday, There will never be anyone like her. R.I.P.
Labels: 2020, Margarita Pracatan, obituary
