Milly Quezada sees her retirement close: “I don’t know if the public is ready for my retirement, but I am”

Milly Quezada is not in the mood to die as artists say they dream: on stage. Neither she nor she plans to retire when she no longer has enough strength. No, she aspires to make that decision with her full physical and mental faculties. And after more than four decades of a successful musical career, and which still continues to be, an example of this was the nomination she obtained this year at the Latin Grammys in 2022, the “Queen of Merengue” feels ready to take that step, although she doubts her fans are as upset as she is.

“I don’t know if the public is ready for my retirement, but I am”, revealed Milly during a Christmas visit to Listín Diario.

He took the word retirement seriously and he even visualized that moment “super close”, although he is not, he assures, emotionally or financially ready “because I am a worker in my trade and I have not remarried, I am the baton and constitution in my house (…) but due to the significant losses that I have had throughout my life, I have realized that there are more important things than the moment and the brightness, how to take advantage of time with my loved ones and my golden dream and not I have, is to have a little house in front of a beach here”.

The “Queen of Merengue” said that contrary to what the deceased “Queen of Salsa” Celia Cruz thought, who said that “it was a privilege to die on stage”, she prefers not to grow old on stage. She even announced that she no longer plays parties like before and that she demands more rest time from her handlers between one and the other.

The veteran Dominican artist narrated that she asked God that, on her return, after she retired from music for approximately a year, in 1996, as a result of the death of her husband, give her the opportunity to sing for about four or five years. The public demanded her and she needed to raise her children because they were very young, but “I’ve been going for 25 years since I was widowed and that public does not stop demanding me, calling me, hiring me, asking me…”. She in turn considers it a blessing.

“I want and I asked God that at a viable and high point in my career I can say: gentlemen, this far… I have come this far, thank you for the blessing of having me in your heart and supporting me, but what I do not want is to leave falling apart, the public doesn’t deserve it and I really don’t know what the public expects of me in terms of longevity,” Milly said.

a christmas hymn

The merengue “Volvió Juanita” has been considered a Dominican Christmas hymn since it was published in 1984, as part of the album “Esta noche, Los Vecinos”.

“I never thought it would have such a long and impactful significance,” said Milly.

She narrated that the theme was born from an initiative of her late husband to want to conquer the Colombian market, together with the musical entrepreneur Enrique Chapman.

“The author, Esther Forero, a similar lady Casandra Damirón, keeper of everything that is native to Colombia, poet, singer-songwriter at the moment of meeting her, she connected with us and with Rafael Quezada, my brother, to make her music a connection between what cumbia and merengue are,” he said.

He explained that it is the story of the prodigal son who returns home, “because the song says Juanita came back and said she was not coming back… she came back with a suitcase loaded from far away, that is, she is hitting the wound of the immigrant, the wound of the who lives abroad, but who returns to his community”.

This song allowed him to go on tour in America, Europe and Japan. “I have the memory of Japan when we went in 1994, that we were the first orchestra to play live in Japan. I met a Japanese audience that didn’t speak English or Spanish, but sang the song phonetically perfect. They climbed up on the tables to sing and all we said was ‘Arigato’. because we thank you very much because we can’t say anything Japanese anymore, ”he recalled.

Meanwhile, the merenguera Milly Quezada takes advantage of the time to share with her family: her sons Miguel, Anthony and Rafael, who are now men, her grandchildren, brothers and others. In her calendar of activities this is non-negotiable, so much so that she has prohibited her managers from selling her shows in order to have quality time with all of them.

“I return this Friday to my house running (he lives in New York). Jocelyn is already putting together Christmas dinner, the four families are going to meet at her house on Christmas Eve, we are about 18 people, everything is already divided, what each one is going to bring, “he said with remarkable joy on his face, at the time in which he said that after dinner they begin to play music, sing and laugh and “build beautiful memories for our children.”

For her, Christmas is a very important time because she keeps beautiful memories of her childhood in the country. “I have so many memories of the country as a child, such as the smell of apples, grapes, fruit bread, that little wind, that specific smell connected with joy… in extreme poverty, but full of joy,” she recalls.

Also because as a Christian it means “the awareness of who Jesus Christ is before humanity, especially in this time of so many difficult things, not only that are happening, but those that are going to happen… Terrible trials are coming, but hope is in Christ and Christmas must be that… the initiative of wanting to sow that seed of hope, salvation and eternal life to our grandchildren to our children, that in Jesus there is hope and Jesus is Christmas”.

In the same way, he recalled how his grandmother faced poverty to change the destiny of three generations migrating to the United States, a situation that he compared to what is happening with many Dominicans who are going through Guatemala and Mexico.

“The economy of industrial countries is based on immigration because there is a lot of work that the citizen who lives there does not want to do and someone will come with greater need to do it. This movement is due to an economic need, not only for the family, it is not just buying a visa for a dream, it is buying the work that is necessary for the economy of an industrialized country”, he commented on the subject.

Milly has already lived in the North American country for more than 50 years.

For the queen of meringue, 2022 It has been a year in which he has embraced success professionally. After the hard blow that she suffered with the Covid-19 pandemic, the doors were opened for her to start working on what she enjoys the most: music.

This year he guided the participants of the singing contest ‘The Voice Dominicana’ in which he was victorious against his colleagues Eddy Herrera, Alex Matos and Musicólogo and has performed multiple shows throughout the year.

The most recent show was the one he performed yesterday at the La Fiesta Theater of the Jaragua hotel, together with Los Hermanos Rosario and the Conjunto Quisqueya, in which the public enjoyed his hits “Volvió Juanita”, “La fiesta”, “La guacherna”, “I have”, “We wake up partying”, “Between your body and mine” and “Maybe”.

Projects. Milly announced that they are working on the film production of the first musical about talent and popular Dominican music.

On the big screen, under the production of Leticia Tonos, will be the life of the queen of merengue in her first 20 years of artistic career.

Source-listindiario.com