Now every time I say cuchi-cuchi, people give me money

From an article in the Las Vegas Sun in 2009:

How old is Charo?

Some say she made a deal with the devil to avoid ageing entirely. A Las Vegas bartender says she claims 58, but he knows her to be 68, which has been officially confirmed by documents in her birthplace of Murcia, Spain. Others have reported that she had her age legally lowered by 10 years - the amount of time she was married to then-60-year-old bandleader Xavier Cugat before divorcing him and becoming an American citizen.

It is whispered that images of a tiny, whirling blond figure have been discerned in cave paintings in Western Europe. We may just have to wait for carbon dating to establish the facts...

As we embark on another joyful week's work, we first pay due homage to one of the ultimate "Queens of Tackiness" herself, Charo - who celebrated (according to her, anyhow) her 70th birthday on Saturday! We rather suspect that there might be ten more candles due on that particular cake...

Regardless, on this Tacky Music Monday, what better than her tribute to a 1970s classic?

From the same article as above:

Charo has built a multi-decade international stage-TV-recording career by essentially performing a drag performance of herself. It’s campy, kitschy and yes cuchi-cuchi, and Charo cheerfully (always cheerfully) acknowledges the self-caricature.

And we love her for it.

Charo - Love Will Keep Us Together

Peerless.

Facts:

• Charo long maintained that her stated date of birth was incorrect due to a "clerical error". Official documents in Spain and the United States maintained she was born on 13th March 1941, but Charo argued she was actually younger. In 1977, she went to court, and was able to successfully convince a Los Angeles judge, Roger Foley, to rule that her correct date of birth was 1951. This would have made her 15 at the time of her marriage, and the legitimacy of this date is widely questioned.
• Her first screen appearance was in 1963 in a Spanish film called Nuevas amistades. I haven't been able to find any clips of this movie with her in it, but since at this date according to her she was supposedly only 12 years old, it would be very interesting to see.
• She was considered for the role of Eva Perón in Evita in 1996, which went to Madonna.
• She appeared on The Love Boat 10 times during its run, most of them as the character April Lopez. The only guest stars who appeared more on the show were Florence Henderson and Marion Ross.
• Her trademark "cuchi, cuchi" comes from her nickname for her dog, Cuchillo (Spanish for "knife"): "When Cuchillo was happy, he wiggled. I copied him and I used to say 'como Cuchi, como Cuchi'. Everybody thought that it was very cute when I wiggled and say cuchi-cuchi, and they give me cookies and candy. Now every time I say cuchi-cuchi, people give me money."
• As a youngster she studied studied classical guitar with Andrés Segovia; and she won Guitar Player magazine's Readers Poll "Best Flamenco Guitarist" two years in a row.

Feliz cumpleaños, María Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza (aka Charo, 13th March 1941, or 1951, or even 15th January 1951)