Celia Cruz (1925-2003)

In honor of Hispanic Heritage month for the month of September, we're diving in to the story about the Afro-Cuban singing sensation, the Queen of Salsa herself, Celia Cruz!

" Blessed with a powerful, clear voice, able to improvise and deliver chants honed in two decades as a consummate performer, Celia seemed to carry Africa in her throat. Salsa was born on the streets of New York, but with her confidence and ease, her striking wigs, sequined gowns, custom-made shoes, and colorful African “batas,” Celia brought some old-school showbiz glitz to Fania.

After winning a radio contest, eighteen-year-old Celia, a schoolteacher, began to sing professionally and soon became the voice of Cuba’s best-known big band, the Sonora Matancera.  Like many prominent 1950s Cuban musicians, Celia and her husband Pedro Knight chose exile from the Castro regime. The Sonora Matancera continued to perform from Mexico, but Celia left the band in 1965 to record with Tito Puente in the United States. The collaboration yielded eight albums. But Jerry Masucci, who’d seen her perform in Cuba, had long had his eye on her. As Salsa went international in the late 1970s, Celia, with her trademark catch-phrase “¡Azúcar!” became Masucci’s biggest international star, recognized the world over as The Queen of Salsa.

In her career Cruz won 3 Grammys and 4 Latin Grammy Awards, and in 2016 she was honored with a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Grammy. But her legacy, deeply embedded in the history of Latin Music and Latin culture in America, surpasses her achievements."

Reference

PBS.org