"La Paloma" is one of the most popular
songs ever written, having been produced and reinterpreted in diverse cultures, settings, arrangements, and recordings over the last 140 years. The song was composed and written by
Sebastián Iradier (later Yradier) after he visited
Cuba in
1861. The first line of the original song is "Cuando salí de la Habana, válgame Dios!" Iradier may have composed "La Paloma" around
1863, just two years before he died in Spain in obscurity, never to learn how popular his song would become.
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