Rhina Ramírez is a Dominican bolero and romantic-ballad singer born in March 1945 in Las Matas de Farfán, San Juan province. A contralto, she built her career around Dominican songwriting and performances at home and abroad. Her interpretation of «Peregrino» won the «III Festival de la Canción Dominicana», and she represented the Dominican Republic at the 1982 «OTI Festival» with «Por tanto amor».

From choral singing to a solo career

By the late 1960s she was a contralto soloist with the «Coro Nacional». She studied singing with Ivonne Haza and later with Adele Brugoff in New York. Casandra Damirón encouraged her to include Dominican folk songs such as «Mandé». After seeing her perform during a television fundraiser, Manuel Sánchez Acosta invited her onto his program, helping introduce her work as a solo performer to a wider audience.

The song festivals

In 1969 she performed «Cuatro temas», by Manuel Sánchez Acosta, at the «II Festival de la Canción Dominicana». She won its third edition, held in November 1970, with Jesús Troncoso's «Peregrino». The Dominican national archive preserves the festival record; its description identifies Ramírez as the vocalist and Bienvenido Bustamante as arranger of the winning song.

Recordings and repertoire

«Rhina en México» appeared on «UA Latino» in 1970, produced by Mario de Jesús Báez. It brought together Dominican and other Latin American songwriters, including Bullumba Landestoy with «Amor... tu amor» and Manuel Sánchez Acosta with «Te esperaba, mi amor». The 1971 album «Rhina» included «Peregrino», «Cuatro temas» and «Mira qué mundo». Her recordings also include «El tiempo que te quede libre». Mexican song remained part of her stage repertoire, alongside boleros and ballads, in performances including «Rhina canta al amor» at Bellas Artes.

OTI and recognition

On November 27, 1982, she sang «Por tanto amor», written by Leonor Porcella de Brea, at the «OTI Festival» in Lima. She received a «Casandra Especial» honoring her career in 2009. In July 2010 Banreservas paid tribute to her with a twenty-song anthology in its «Colección Reserva Musical», with artistic production by Luis Ovalles.

Legacy

Her career connects choral singing with song festivals and the interpretation of bolero and romantic ballads. Through recordings and performances abroad, she helped circulate Dominican compositions beyond their home audience, while her theater and club appearances sustained that repertoire on local stages.