María Dolores Fernández Pradera OAXS, MMT (29 August 1924* – 28 May 2018) was a Spanish melodic singer and actress, and one of the most famous voices in Spain and Latin America. She was known as "La Gran Señora de la Canción" or "La Pradera". She started her career as an actress and during the 1950s she started singing professionally, eventually abandoning her career as an actress in the 1960s. She recorded more than 35 albums.
Singer and actress Maria Dolores Pradera was born in Madrid. She spent much of her childhood in Chile, her family brought there by her father's business. She began working as an actress on both stage and screen as early as her late teens. Her first major works were the films Yo No Ne Caso in 1944 and Los Habitantes de la Casa Deshabitada in 1946. Pradera would perform in various theaters in Spain, France, and Mexico, collaborating with the most important directors of the day. It was while working on Los Habitantes that Pradera met Fernando Fernan Gómez, whom she would marry in 1945. They separated in 1957 and obtained a divorce in the 1980s. They had two children Fernando and Helena.
As a singer, Pradera was known for her smooth voice, perfect diction, and intuitive nature in a variety of styles. A master of bolero, ranchera, coplas, ballads, fados, and more, Pradera became well loved all over Latin America. Her voice made famous the works of songwriters like José Alfredo Jiménez (Mexico), Chabuca Granda (Peru), and Miguel Matamoros (Cuba). She performed in various theaters in Spain , France , Argentina , Germany , the United Kingdom , the United States and Mexico (country where she developed her career and settled for years).
She typically sang accompanied by guitars, requintos, and drums. She sang for close to 30 years with the same group, Los Gemelos, formed by twin brothers, Santiago and Julián López Hernández, until the death of Santiago in the early 1990s.
In 2006 she released a new album together with Los Sabandeños , titled Al Cabo Del Tiempo , which was awarded a Gold Record. Her vocal and theatrical career was celebrated throughout the Spanish-speaking world. Toward the end of her productive years she helped to bolster and guide Spain's next generation of artists, including Joaquín Sabina, Rosana, and Los Sabandenos.
Throughout her career she won numerous Spanish and international awards, both for her theatrical facet and for her career as a singer, such as the National Theater Award , the Medal of Fine Arts , the Lara Award or the Latin Grammy for musical excellence. She was awarded the Gold Medal of Merit in Labour (Kingdom of Spain, 27 April 2001) and the Dame Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise (Kingdom of Spain, 7 October 2016).
In February 2012, a respiratory condition forced her to suspend some recitals and in May of that year she canceled her musical tour indefinitely. She did however return to the stage on June 21, 2013 at a concert by Miguel Poveda held in the Las Ventas bullring to perform together one of his emblematic songs "Fina Estampa".
Pradera died of natural causes in Madrid on May 28, 2018 at the age of 93. She was cremated at the Almudena Cemetery in Madrid .
(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic) (*The year of birth according to her family was 1924, although she said that it was in 1926 and that is how it is recorded in some sources)