Celia Cruz was one of the most popular salsa performers of the 20th Century, earning 23 gold albums and internationally renowned as the "Queen of Salsa" as well as "La Guarachera de Cuba." Cruz was born on October 21st, 1925: although she sadly passed in 2003, today would have marked her 88th birthday and thus we remember and commemorate this incredible Cuban sensation. Google has indeed created a doodle commemorating the singer. After emigrating to the United States in 1959, Cruz lived and worked many years in New Jersey and many countries throughout Latin America. Leila Cobo of Billboard Magazine once wrote that "Cruz is indisputably the best known and most influential figure in the history of Cuban music."
Growing up in Havana, Cruz was influenced by the burgeoning variety of Cuban music in the 1930s. In her early career, she performed in Cuba, Miami and Venezuela. She found her first success with well-known orchestra, Sonora Matancera, but when Fidel Castro assumed control of the country in 1959, Cruz and her husband Pedro Knight left Cuba permanently and became citizens of the United States. Known for her incredible voice, her striking performance style and her trademark shout "Azucar!", Cruz became a salsa sensation, truly defining salsa for the American audience. She won a string of Grammy Awards and also starred in a number of films. In 1994, President Bill Clinton awarded Cruz the National Medal of Arts.
Cruz was a proud American, however, she never forgot her home of Cuba, supporting education, helath and culture in her birthplace, as well as in Latino communities across the United States. On Miami's WQBA radio show, the singer once proclaimed "I am the voice of Cuba, from this land, far away,..., I am liberty, I am WQBA, the most Cuban!"
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