Cella Cruz

Born October 21, 1924 in Havana, Cuba, Celia Cruz has been described as “the queen of salsa”. Cruz has been portrayed as the most influential female vocalist in the history of Afro-Cuban music. Even as a young girl, growing up in the poor district of Santo Suarez, with fourteen people living in her household, Cruz was able to draw attention to herself due to her singing. One of her first music auditions took place in a singing contest called “La hora del té”, and that one audition was enough to motivate her in joining many other auditions across Cuba.

Celia Cruz’s father was never a big believer in her continuing a career in the music industry. According to her father it was not a career that a woman should part take i

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He closed off a deal with Cruz’s then label known as Tico and started to progress the young stars career in many ways. She was capable of keeping her traditional love for salsa music and electrifying young audiences in keeping the salsa genre as one of the most popular musical genres world wide. A year after the broadcast of her biography, she was granted a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. Celia Cruz participated in films such as, “The Perez Family”, and “The Mambo Kings”. These artists started introducing the newly formed musical genre known as “salsa”. At that time, Hispanic fans were turning to more modern styles of music such as rock and roll and were not really in tune with traditional Hispanic music. Aside from her musical ability, she was recognized in the film industry. Cruz’s career in the United States received little success due to her refusing to sing in English. After being granted the opportunity to sing the part of Gracia Divina on the Larry Harlow’s Latin opera album, her outstanding performance gained her the support of young audiences. Despite American record executives who did not believe that the fans would approve of a female vocalist singing a rumba record would sell well, her band leader Rogelio Martinez never gave up faith in Cruz.

Jerry Masucci who co-ran salsa labels such as Fania, and Vaya started to become very interested in the talents of Celia Cruz. After releasing over 1000 recordings, and many nominations Celia Cruz has been known as a great asset in the music industry.

In 1961 after a tour in the United States with her group “La Sonora Matancera”, Cruz decided to remain in the United States to further her career as an upcoming female salsa vocalist. Her biggest break that made her change her career of being a teacher to a full time musician was when she landed the lead vocalist for a group called “La Sonora Matancera” in 1950.

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Approximate Word count = 896
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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