Nélida Roca

Who was Nélida Roca?

Nélida Roca, was one of the first showbusiness divas and sex symbols of Argentina. She was an actress, dancer, singer, model and theater supervedette.

Born Nélida Mercedes Musso in Buenos Aires, her friends and colleagues fondly called her La Roca. From childhood, she sought to become a famous artist, but had to confront her parents' strong opposition to the idea. Her mother was from the Galicia region of Spain, and her father was an Italian man from Genoa.

Nélida married Julio Rivera Roca, a jazz piano player, in 1949, which got her to complete her dream as the lead vocalist in his orchestra. She was discovered in 1950, during one such performance, by Luis César Amadori, owner of the Maipó Theatre, and first starred on the professional stage in Amadori's The Maipó Theatre is Telling its Stories. The show's commercial success allowed Amadori to triple the price of the seats, and she became a legend in her genre during the 1950s. Crtics and her public came to know her as The Venus of Corrientes Avenue.

She remarried in 1963 with vocalist Aldo Perricone, though the marriage ended in 1969. In her last show, in the winter of 1974, she shared top credits with the then up-and-coming star, Susana Giménez. The show, The Golden Revue, her last performance, dealt with cultural changes in Argentina over the years.