In the mid 1950s Monna Bell was barely in her teens when she took part
in a singing contest held at Radio Minerias, then Chile's most
popular radio station. Her voice and style won over the listeners and
she became a regular at the station's live music shows. She was praised
by her ability to sing both romantic ballads and swinging jazz tunes
and blues, rare qualities in a Latin artist. Sometime in 1956 she was
asked by prestigious band leader Roberto Inglez to join his group as a
vocalist for a 3-week stint at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. Miss
Bell and the band had such a success that they stayed for a whole year
in the Big Apple. From there they toured Europe but in Madrid the young
vocalist decided to go solo after receiving an attractive offer from
that city's best night club the Pasapoga. Monna Bell at the Pasapoga was
a huge success and she became a favorite of Spanish audiences.
By 1959 she was recording for Hispavox a repertoire of romantic songs
which included a cover of The Platter's "My Prayer" (Rogar), the
theme song from the Hollywood film "Anastasia" and a Spanish version of
"Woman in Love" (Una Mujer Enamorada) from "Guys and Dolls." That
same year she was invited to appear at the First Spanish Song Festival held
at Benidorm, a beach resort in Alicante, Spain, and her rendition of a
jazzy novelty tune titled "Un Telegrama" made quite sensation winning
the top award. Her recording of "Un Telegrama" became an international
hit both in Europe and Latin American making Monna Bell a top recording
star. From then on, it was hit after hit for the vocalist including
"La Montaña," "Silencio Corazón," "Aun Te Sigo Amando," "Envidia,"
"Tómbola" and many others which spread her fame all over the world. She
recorded with orchestras led by top musicians such as Augusto Algueró
Jr., Gregorio García Segura and Bebo Valdés.
Monna Bell combined her recording activities with live performances and
television work. Between 1962 and 1964 Mexican film producers featured
her in three films just to take advantage of her popularity as a singer.
Around this time, she settled in Mexico and married
cinematographer Alex Phillips Jr. The marriage did not last long but it
produced a daughter and a son. Monna's reputation as a hit maker
followed her for many years and in 1968 she left the Hispavox label and
signed with Mexico's Musart. However, the Musart sessions relayed
heavily on Spanish covers of American and British hits and although
these assured her air play on Spanish language radio stations
everywhere, the excitement of the first years was gone. In the 1970s
she left Musart and signed with Orfeon where mediocre material, bad
arrangements and worst production values sabotaged her career. Not even
the dismal 1977 disco-version of her "Un Telegrama" mega-hit could
revive the popularity of one of the most gifted vocalists in Latin
music history. There were also rumors of blacklisting by Televisa, a
monopoly which, at that time, extended its influence on Mexican
television, radio, recording, night clubs, printed press, etc. In the
1980s it seemed her career had run out of steam and Miss Bell was
reported as "living happily in retirement". She was quickly forgotten
by both the public and the music industry, ignoring the facts that she had
one of the greatest voices of the century and had served as inspiration to
a whole new generation of singers and songwriters.
Among these was the top Mexican composer-singer Juan Gabriel who
tried to remedy the situation by luring Miss Bell out of retirement to
appear as a guest star in some of his shows, both in Latin America
and in the United States. He even built a guest villa for Monna in his
enormous living compound in New Mexico so that she could vacation
there whenever she felt like it. The relationship became an enduring
friendship and offered the promise of a grand return for Monna Bell but
it never happened. In 1993 Miss Bell recorded for Sony "Monna Bell
Ahora," an album composed and produced by Juan Gabriel which went into
oblivion as soon as released. Juan Gabriel blamed Sony for failing to
promote the album properly, but critics pointed out that the selection
of songs was the main culprit in the debacle. One critic wrote: "Miss
Bell's voice is as great as ever and her interpretation retains the
genius that made her a legendary vocalist, but there's not much she,
or anyone else, can do with this boring material."
The hopes for a true artistic return vanished on April 21, 2008. While
recovering from a successful colon cancer surgery, Monna Bell died of
cerebral hemorrhage at a hospital in Tijuana, Baja California, where she
was residing to be close to her daughter and grandchildren.
