MercoPress 

Uruguay declared official mourning for Ruben Rada, dead at 83

Ruben Rada’s family said the Montevideo singer, composer and percussionist died at 3.30pm on 26 August 2026, aged 83, after a month of pneumonia and its complications. President Yamandú Orsi’s government decreed official mourning for 27 August, with a wake in the Salón de los Pasos Perdidos of the Palacio Legislativo. MercoPress describes more than six decades fusing Afro-Uruguayan candombe (UNESCO-listed as intangible heritage in 2009) with rock, jazz, funk and murga, including El Kinto, Tótem and Opa, a 2011 Latin Grammy for musical excellence and Uruguay’s 2014 Delmira Agustini Medal. He was born in Montevideo on 16 July 1943.

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