Consuelo Velázquez

Consuelo Velázquez was born in Ciudad Guzmán, Jalisco, on 21 August 1916, the youngest of five daughters of an army officer and poet who died when she was small. She showed a musical ear at four, began piano at the Academia de Música Serratos in Guadalajara at six, and at eleven moved to Mexico City, where she earned degrees in music teaching and concert piano at the National Conservatory. She debuted at the Palacio de Bellas Artes and was a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra and the UNAM Philharmonic.

Because performing on the radio was thought risky for a young woman of good family, she first broadcast under a male pseudonym; the station's artistic director, Mariano Rivera Conde, pressed her to admit the songs were hers and married her six years later. Her catalogue includes "Amar y vivir", "Verdad amarga", "Cachito", "Que seas feliz" and "Yo no fui", and she wrote music for several Mexican films.

Her masterpiece is "Bésame mucho", a bolero she composed in 1932 at sixteen, before she had ever been kissed. First recorded by the baritone Emilio Tuero and adapted into English by Nat King Cole in 1944, it has since been performed by hundreds of artists around the world. She died in Mexico City on 22 January 2005.

How the name is written

Velázquez, Mexican standard spelling — though for years radio listeners knew her only as "Consuelito".

Sources

Facts in this profile are drawn from the Wikipedia article(s) linked below, consulted on 21 September 2026; the text is original. Wikipedia (English) · Wikipedia (Spanish)

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