Today, we celebrate the life of Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso de la Santísima Trinidad (wow, that’s a mouthful), who is more popularly know as Celia Cruz! Cruz was a Cuban-American salsa performer who dazzled audiences during her incredibly long career. Soulful and real, she is definitely an artist you need to be familiar with and potentially dig deeper.
More from Wikipedia:
(Celia Cruz) was a Cuban-American salsa performer. One of the most popular salsa artists of the 20th century, she earned twenty-three gold albums and was renowned internationally as the “Queen of Salsa” as well as “La Guarachera de Cuba.”[1]
She spent much of her career living in New Jersey, and working in the United States and several Latin American countries. Leila Cobo of Billboard Magazine once said “Cruz is indisputably the best known and most influential female figure in the history of Cuban music.” FULL ENTRY
To get a better sense of how amazing Celia was, we compiled a few performances below. Enjoy!
Celia Cruz – Guantanamera
Celia Cruz – La Vida Es Un Carnaval Vivo
Celia Cruz and the Fania All Stars – Quimbara (Live in Zaire, Africa 1974)
