Nydia Caro

Early years

Caro was born in New York City to parents from Rincón, Puerto Rico, initiated her career in the arts at a very young age while living in New York. She attended James Monroe H.S. where she graduated in 1964. After completing high school she enrolled in the New York School of Performing Arts in singing, dancing, and acting classes.

Acting career

Caro made her debut in show business acting at an NBC television show. In 1967, shortly after her father died, she moved to Puerto Rico and released her first album titled Dimelo tu. She has released 20 internationally acclaimed albums and CDs ever since. Caro enrolled at the University of Puerto Rico in literature to enhance her Spanish skills. Nevertheless, she was hired immediately to co-host a popular teen show by channel 2 ("Show Coca-Cola").

The decade of the 1970s was very successful for Nydia Caro. In 1970, she won the "Festival de la Canción" in Ibagué Colombia, with the songs "Hermano tengo frío", composed by Karmen Mercado, the niece of famed actor and astrologer Walter Mercado, and "Pongo el Mundo en las Manos de un Niño" composed by Raoul Gonzalez.

In 1972, she went to Tokyo, Japan, where she sang La Borinqueña before the world Heavyweight boxing championship fight between George Foreman and Jose Roman. Ring En Español remarked that her singing of the Puerto Rican national anthem probably lasted longer than the fight itself.

In 1973, she won one of the first awards in the prestigious "Festival de Benidorm" in Valencia, Spain, with the song "Vete Ya", composed by Julio Iglesias for her.

In 1974, she won the equally prestigious Festival OTI in Mexico, with the song "Hoy canto por cantar". The song, composed by Caro and Riccardo Cerratto, caused some controversy in Puerto Rico for being the "anti-protest" song in that decade. Despite that, the song helped Caro further extend her popularity built on prior hit songs such as "Cuéntale", "Duerme", "Charly", "Copos de nieve" and "No Pudo Ser".

Caro married Spanish producer Gabriel Suau and they had two children, Christian (currently a film director) and Gabriela. The couple divorced after a few years of marriage, but remains on good terms. During her marriage, she continued her professional singing career, releasing over 20 albums to date.

She also hosted her own television program, El Show de Nydia Caro on Puerto Rican television. Moreover, her reputation was helped by strong concert performances in prestigious venues; such as, Club Caribe and Club Tropicoro in San Juan, Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center in New York and many others around the world in countries throughout South America, Spain, Australia, Mexico, and Japan. Besides Puerto Rico, Caro's relevance as a cultural icon is strongest in Chile, a country in which she has performed regularly since her 1974 appearance at the Viña del Mar International Song Festival. She has appeared in Chilean telenovelas and has spent regular seasons living in the country.

In 1998, Caro released her album De amores luminosos to critical acclaim. The album was produced by the renowned Chilean producer Joakin Bello. It features musical themes such as the song "Buscando Mis Amores", from the poems of Santa Teresa de Jesus, Fray Luis de León and San Juan de la Cruz. It blendes musical instruments native to distant countries; such as, Tibet and India, together with instruments from Puerto Rico and South America. The effort sets her apart from other artists in Puerto Rico, as the first exponent of "alternative" or "new age" music, and was named as one of the 20 best recordings in 1999 by Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular in Puerto Rico.

Caro has a reputation for her lasting beauty, her complexion has very few expression lines and gives the general public the impression of her not aging with time (Caro became a grandmother in 2004). She claims she has had no plastic surgery and affirms her lasting youthful appearance is a result of minimizing exposure to sun as much as possible. At one time she was the spokesperson for Oil of Olay products in Puerto Rico.

Caro also has a reputation for being "classy", or elegantly sophisticated. She parodied this image by appearing in an advertisement campaign run by the Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, where she reportedly sells her house to Puerto Rican rapper Tego Calderón, the contrast in their public images played upon for comic effect. Another Puerto Rican rapper, Residente from Calle 13, remarks about Caro's lasting sex appeal (rather graphically) on the band's song "La Era de la Copiaera" ("The Age of -Copycat- Copying").

In 2000, she made her Hollywood debut, playing "Isabelle" in Under Suspicion, starring Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman.

Discography