Encarnita Polo died on the night of Thursday to Friday in a residence in Ávila. He was 86 years old. According to the first indications, a 66-year-old man who had just entered the residence, had sneaked into his room, causing his death “through asphyxiation or strangulation.” This has been confirmed to EFE by sources from the Government Subdelegation. The man had “mental deterioration” and was initially confined in the psychiatric ward.
Alerted by the noise, the staff came to the room and tried to revive Ercanita, but nothing could be done to save her life. Police point to no motive for the crime other than the man’s mental deterioration. Encarnita and the murderer had only met at the residence for a couple of days and would not have met. The man is in police custody in a psychiatric hospital, according to El País.
The funeral took place this Saturday, in privacy, attended by his daughter Raquel Waitzman Polo and his friend Antonio Albella from Locomía, among a few other close friends.
Icon of cinema and pop music of the second half of the 20th century, Encarnita Polo began singing in the street as a child so that a “whore house” would throw coins at her with which she could pay for the cinema. At the age of 10 he already won a radio contest and at 12 he moved from Seville to Barcelona to perform at parties and galas.
Well-known was his ‘Paco, Paco, Paco’ (1969), which was actually an adaptation of ‘The Seven Children’ by Concha Piquer, a song that had come out in 1943. In 2009, it was readapted to the video for ‘Single Ladies’ by Beyoncé. Other works such as ‘Pepa Bandera’ or the Spanish adaptation of ‘The Ballad of Bonnie & Clyde’ should also be highlighted. In film he highlighted the Italian comedy ‘Scaramouche’ and on television his time in the contest ‘Passport to Dublin’. The competition to represent Spain in Eurovision in 1971 was won by Karina with ‘In a new world’.
Polo recently recorded a tribute to Vainica Doble. ‘Three were three’, a cappella, was included in the album ‘A la moda de Vainica Doble’ (2017), along with contributions from Carlos Berlanga, Paco Clavel and La Monja Enana.
