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Otilia Donaire Band, fronted by Otilia Donaire and backed by some of the finest blues and rock musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area playing danceable/upbeat originals and covers that engage their audience with a fun, and interactive show filled with blues, rock and soul. Otilia is a dynamic and versatile performer with a powerful, sultry and gritty vocal style reminiscent of Blues and Rock icons, Koko Taylor and Janis Joplin. She is as comfortable belting out down-home blues standards as she is taking on power driven rock classics and sultry ballads in making her a crowd favorite. One thing you can always count on: when Otilia is singing, people are engaged and dancing.
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A San Francisco native, Otilia Donaire is a natural born performer, and it’s obvious when you see her perform live.
As a child, Otilia sang in school talent shows and always had a passion for performing but left it dormant for many decades. Like a sad Blues song she never pursued music to the professional level because of a jealous partner, and it wasn’t until her final blues band performance workshop in 2008 at The Blue Bear School of Music in San Francisco, she knew that blues music was her calling.
The late, great, San Francisco Bluesman, Johnny Nitro was her instructor at Blue Bear that highly encouraged and mentored Otilia to pursue blues music professionally.
In 2009, Otilia started an original Original/Cover Blues band with another Blue Bear alumni playing clubs all over the Bay area, and released a CD of original music. Feeling creatively restricted, Otilia branched out on her own in 2014, and has been working hard building a name for herself playing clubs, and recording with an EP, "The Queen Bee" in 2016 recorded at Greaseland, and as of recently a new album, "Bluesin' it Up" of blues-rock originals/covers on Jan. 1st 2024 recorded/mixed and mastered at Afterdark Recording in San Francisco. Otilia loves writing and is constantly working on new music.