Olga Francia Elena Lara D’Soto, known as Olga Lara, is a Dominican singer, songwriter and poet. She was among the country’s foremost solo voices between the early eighties and the mid-nineties, working across ballad, bolero and merengue, and she has written well over two hundred songs, many of them recorded by other artists.

Azua

She was born in Azua, in the south of the country, in 1953. She studied solfège, piano and guitar there, sang in the municipal choir and in her school’s tuna, and gave her first performances at school and church events.

Television and the first record

Her professional career began in 1979, encouraged by the journalist Frank Natera and supported by the musician Bienvenido Bustamante and the broadcaster Yaqui Núñez del Risco. She first appeared on El Show del Mediodía, and other television programmes followed.

Her debut album arrived in 1981 on Combo Records, the label of Johnny Ventura. Every song on it was her own, and it brought her a nomination as songwriter of the year — an unusual footing for a singer to start from.

The great shows

Much of her reputation rests on staged productions rather than on records alone. She debuted at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in 1982, and presented a programme at the Teatro Nacional under the musical direction of Manuel Tejada. Two years later she staged Mi Vida at Bellas Artes with Jorge Taveras directing the music.

In 1985 she took the concert Olga Lara es otra cosa through stadiums around the country. The title outlived the tour: in Dominican speech the phrase attached itself to her, and her name came to stand for something singular.

Her tribute to the poet Héctor J. Díaz, staged at Bellas Artes in 1987, won the Casandra award for production of the year. She left the stage in 1995 with Cristal, at the Teatro Nacional, which won the same award and was filmed for television.

The songwriter

Her catalogue as an author is larger than her catalogue as a performer. Among the artists who have recorded her songs are Fernando Villalona, Las Chicas del Can, Belkis Concepción and the Combo Show. Alex Matos remade her song Aprenderé as a salsa, and in 2024 the Mexican singer Thalía recorded an unreleased Lara composition as a bachata.

Her own best-known titles include Cualquiera Se Engaña, Mi Vida, Desconéctalo, Estrellita and Ladrón de Corazones. In the studio she worked with arrangers and musical directors including Manuel Tejada and Jorge Taveras, on her own material and on songs by other writers.

Books and return

She trained as a psychologist and has published as an author, beginning with a 1988 collection of fifty of her own lyrics and continuing with books of poetry and of psychology. She was named a distinguished daughter of Azua, received the Soberano al Mérito for her career, and was recognised by the Senate for her work in music, culture and psychology. She has kept composing, and now publishes new recordings, readings and book presentations through her own channel.