1. Yma Sumac won a Guinness World Record for the Greatest Range of Musical Value in 1956.
19 Facts About Yma Sumac
1. 2.
Yma Sumac has been called Queen of Exotica and is considered a pioneer of world music.
3.
In 1951, Sumac became the first Latin American and Peruvian female singer to debut on Broadway.
4.
Yma Sumac sold over 40 million records, making her the best-selling Peruvian singer in history.
5.
Yma Sumac was born Zoila Emperatriz Chavarri Castillo on September 13,1922 in Callao.
6.
Yma Sumac's parents were the civic leader Sixto Chavarri and the schoolteacher Emilia Castillo.
7.
Yma Sumac recorded at least 18 tracks of Peruvian folk songs in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1943.
8.
Yma Sumac was discovered by Les Baxter and signed by Capitol Records in 1950, at which time her stage name became Yma Sumac.
9.
Yma Sumac presented more than 80 concerts in London and 16 concerts in Paris.
10.
Yma Sumac appeared in a Broadway musical, Flahooley, in 1951, as a foreign princess who brings Aladdin's lamp to an American toy factory to have it repaired.
11.
In 1949, Yma Sumac gave birth to their only child, Carlos.
12.
Yma Sumac had five octaves according to some reports, but other reports document four-and-a-half at the peak of her singing career.
13.
Yma Sumac performed in concert from time to time during the 1970s in Peru and later in New York at the Chateau Madrid and Town Hall.
14.
Yma Sumac sang "Ataypura" during a March 19,1987, appearance on Late Night with David Letterman.
15.
Yma Sumac recorded a new German "techno" dance record, "Mambo ConFusion".
16.
Yma Sumac gave several concerts in the summer of 1996 in San Francisco and Hollywood as well as two more in Montreal, Canada, in July 1997 as part of the Montreal International Jazz Festival.
17.
On May 6,2006, Yma Sumac flew to Lima, where she was presented the Orden del Sol award by Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo and the Jorge Basadre medal by the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.
18.
Yma Sumac died on November 1,2008, aged 86, at an assisted living home in Los Angeles, California, nine months after being diagnosed with colon cancer.
19.
Yma Sumac was interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in the "Sanctuary of Memories" section.