With just 10 years old, Isolina made her bow at the music world, substituting a member of his father`s orchestra. She was born in Havana, 1907, when the most audible music was Danzón and grew up in a humble home, propitious for the musical development, her father played laud, tres and cueros, her brother was flutist and drummer the other.

Isolina studied at the Municipal Conservatoire of Havana with excellent results gaining as prize the possibilityof lead the orchestra of this institution.
Melody and versatility were the hallmarks of her union with music. She played trumpet with the Cayo Hueso`s troubadours and the piano with Guyún Conjunct. Furthermore, she sang with Siboney Vocal Conjunct and created a giant orchestra of danzon for the radio station RHC Cadena azul, being in charge also of its musical direction. Together with her husband Guillermo Arronte, she conformed a quartet and travelled around the entire South America.

Around the 40's, the first musical compositions came to surpass the amount of 200, although only 80 were recorded, including boleros, montunos, guarachas and even lyrical songs.

The Isolina`s most famous songs were, among others, Miedo a ti, awarded as the best composition of 1948, Soy tu destino, Canción sin amor, Viviré para amarte, Fiesta de besos, Increíble, Sombra que besa -with texts of Rosendo Ruiz Junior- and her most revered hit: Dos Gardenias, recorded on April 23, 1947, about which its author confess once: ''Dos gardenias with its countless recordings and versions, is something more than a commercial success or a hit. It's a piece of my life''.
Dos Gardenias became a sort of hymn in many countries, especially in Spain and Mexico, where it gained the ariel Prize in 1952 due to its permanence in the top places of the popularity charts during two years.

Many people wonder why a song can be a hit during so many years. In the case of Dos Gardenias, according to some critics` viewpoints, its lyrics does not possess so much poetry. So, there`s no doubt, the permanence of this song lays on the melody .

Puerto Rican Daniel Santos was the first one to record and spread the song under the orchestral arrangement of Pérez Prado, who added the acoustic piano, new work for that epoch. Other luminaries embraced the song, Pedro Vargas Toña la Negra and Nat King Cole.

In our country have been revered the versions made by Vicentino Valdés, Elena Burke, Fernando Álvarez, Alberto Ruiz, Roberto Sánchez and Antonio Machín, who soon before dying placed this song the popularity pinaccle in Spain.

Let's remember then Isolina Carrillo, who gave her best until her death in this Villa de san Cristóbal de la Habana, which embraced her Dos Gardenias.

Taken from the work in Cubarte: Isolina Carrillo y sus Dos Gardenias. By Josefina Ortega.

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