IN
MEMORIAM: THE QUEEN OF SALSA, CELIA CRUZ
Spanish-language radio
stations in Miami aired hours of tributes and the daily newspaper El Nuevo
Herald devoted its entire front page to a photo of the singer and an elegy to
"Eternal Celia". Known as the Queen of Salsa and considered the most
influential woman in the history of Afro-Cuban music, she is credited with
bringing salsa to a wide audience. The Cuban-born performer died of a brain
tumor at her home in Fort Lee, surrounded by family and friends, after
undergoing surgery for the condition late last year. Known as the Queen of
Salsa and considered the most influential woman in the history of Afro-Cuban
music, she is credited with bringing salsa to a wide audience, notably through
her collaboration with Tito Puente, one of the stars of Latin music in the
US. Dominican composer Rafael Solano said that an artist of Cruz's standing
"come to the world only once every 200 years" and that "we must all express
our sadness at her passing". Cruz's death comes three days after another
prominent Cuban musician, Compay Segundo, died in Havana at the age of 95.
Photo: Cruz
helped Latin jazz legend Tito Puente celebrate receiving a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame
She
received several Grammys for her work, collecting her fifth in February 2003
for best salsa recording, and was also honoured in 1995 with the Billboard
Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1994, she was presented with the National Medal
of Arts, the highest US official honour, by the then-president Bill Clinton.
Cruz attended a concert evening in her honour in March in Los Angeles
featuring some of the biggest names in US and Latin music, including Jose
Feliciano, Gloria Estefan and Gloria Gaynor. Born in 1924, Celia Cruz studied
at the Conservatory of Music in Havana. She then sang on Cuban radio
programmes and, in 1950, became the lead singer of the legendary Sonora
Matancera. But along with her band Cruz left Cuba shortly before Fidel Castro
took power in 1959, and was never allowed to return to her homeland.
BIOGRAPHY:
Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alonso, 21
October 1924, Santa Suarez district, Havana, Cuba. Described as the "Queen of
Salsa" - just one of her several superlative epithets - Cruz is the most
influential female in the history of Afro-Cuban music. Her family and
neighbours became aware of the young Celia's singing ability from listening to
her croon lullabies to her younger relatives. While she was training to become
a literature teacher, an older cousin entered her in a competition on the
talent show La Hora Del Té on Radio García Serrá, in which she won first
prize. Her 1983 biography refers to 1947 as the year when this contest
occurred, but the sleeve notes to two of her early albums, Canta Celia Cruz
(Celia Cruz Sings) and Cuba's Queen Of Rhythm, mention 1935. Celia's father,
Simón Cruz, viewed music a dishonourable career for a woman, but he was
overridden by his wife, Catalina Alfonso. Professional radio work followed.
Celia concluded her teacher training and did some classes at Havana's National
Conservatory of Music. She eventually switched to singing full-time when a
trusted teacher advised her that she would be foolish to do otherwise. Cruz
first appeared on Santero, an album of Afro-Cuban cult music on the Panart
label.
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