The Spanish singer, flamenco dancer and actress María Dolores Flores Ruiz, who became known by her stage name Lola Flores, was born in Jerez de la Frontera on 21 January 1923. She died in Madrid on 16 May 1995. January 2023 will be the 100th anniversary of her birth.
Lola Flores began singing as a child at private parties and in small shows. She studied dance in Seville and got her first role in a show at the theatre in Jerez de la Frontera in 1939. A few years later she was successful in a casting for a film role. She subsequently perfected her “gypsy image”, with which she was successful until the 1950s. Together with the guitarist and singer Manolo Caracol and the businessman Adolfo Arenaza, she started the show “Zambra” in 1943 with Copla (Andalusian folklore) and Flamenco, which became a great theatrical and musical event and was performed for several years at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid. Until the 1970s, Lola Flores staged several more successful shows with which she also toured in Latin America and in Europe. By the 1980s, she had released 20 albums, appeared in around 30 films and was a guest on numerous television shows.
The video shows Lola Flores singing “La Zarzamora”, one of the hits from the show “Zambra”.
