File:Celia_Cruz_1957_color.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
OverviewAI-generated
Celia Cruz, born Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad de la Santísima Trinidad Cruz Alfonso in Havana, Cuba, was a singer and actor. She began her professional work in 1948 and performed in genres including Cuban rumba, salsa, bolero, and guaracha. A contralto who spoke Spanish and English, she recorded for Fania Records. Her career spanned both Cuba and the United States, where she held citizenship in both countries.
Cruz received several honors, including the National Medal of Arts, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Grammy Award for Best Tropical Latin Album. She also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her notable works include *Best of Celia Cruz*, *Celia SPA*, and *Cuentos para niños*. She died of natural causes in Fort Lee in 2003 and is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery.
Synthesized by Vinony from 41 facts across 8 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, TMDb, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Works
- 18
Top works
- Best of Celia Cruz
- Celia SPA
- Cuentos para niños
- Celia
- Celia
via Open Library + Wikidata
Film & TV
Acting · Havanna, Cuba
Known for
- Los lunes a las 9 — Self (Archive Footage)2022
- Nueva York: A Musical History of Latin New York — Self (archive footage)2021
- Cachitos de hierro y cromo — Self (archive footage)2013
- Soul Power — Self (archive footage)2009
- Celia: The Queen — Self (archive footage)2008
- From Mambo to Hip Hop2007
- Celia Cruz | ¡Azúcar! — Self2004
- Gloria Estefan - Live in Atlantis — Self2000
- Celia Cruz & Friends: A Night of Salsa1999
- From Son to Salsa1997
via TMDB
Music · MusicBrainz
- Type
- Person
- Gender
- Female
- Origin
- Cuba
- Active from
- 1925
- Active to
- 2003
Discography
- Ocana Sordi / Para que sufran los pollos1947
- Quedate negra / La mazucamba1948
- Cao cao maní picao / Mata siguaraya1950
- El guajirito contento / Baila Yemayá1951
- La danza del cocoyé / La guagua1951
- Las frutas y mi son cubano / El disgusto de la rumba1951
- Mambo del amor / Rumba para parejas1951
- Selecciones favoritas de Celia Cruz1952
- Burundanga / Nuevo ritmo omelenko1953
- Matiagua / A todos mis amigos1953
via MusicBrainz · CC0
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 587,846
- Total plays
- 5,047,337
Tags
Celia Cruz (born as Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso in La Habana, Cuba on 21 October 1925 – died 16 July 2003) was a Cuban-American and was one of the most successful salsa performers of the 20th century, having earned twenty-three gold albums. She was renowned internationally as the "Queen of Salsa" as well as "La Guarachera de Cuba. In 1950, Cruz made her first major breakthrough, after the lead singer of the La Sonora Matancera, a renowned Cuban orchestra, left the group and
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- A global reference for human genetic variation
· 2015 · cited 17,786x
- Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019
· 2020 · cited 15,964x
- Sarcopenia: revised European consensus on definition and diagnosis
· 2018 · cited 11,547x
- Global Burden of Cardiovascular Diseases and Risk Factors, 1990–2019
· 2020 · cited 10,231x
- Sarcopenia: European consensus on definition and diagnosis
· 2010 · cited 10,044x
via Crossref · CC0
Quotes
- “When people hear me sing…I want them to be happy, happy, happy. I don't want them thinking about when there's not any money, or when there's fighting at home. My message is always felicidad - happiness.”
- “Women are afraid to sing salsa…I don't know why; maybe they think it's for men. I am not a composer, or a soneo, a singer and a poet, which is very difficult. But I think everybody can sing everything.”
- “Everybody looks at Celia Cruz and thinks, she is very happy…But I don't have a mother, a father, I don't have a country - I only have Pedro.”
- “I was having dinner at a restaurant in Miami, and when the waiter offered me coffee, he asked me if I took it with or without sugar…I said, ‘Chico, you’re Cuban. How can you even ask that? With sugar!’”
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
~28 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Celia Caridad Cruz Alfonso (21 October 1925 – 16 July 2003), known as Celia Cruz, was a Cuban-American singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Cruz rose to fame in Cuba during the 1950s as a singer of guarachas, earning the nickname La Guarachera de Cuba. In the following decades, she became known internationally as the "Queen of Salsa" due to her contributions to Latin music. She had sold over 30 million records, making her one of the best-selling Latin music artists.
The artist began her career in her home country Cuba, earning recognition as a vocalist of the popular musical group Sonora Matancera, a musical association that lasted 15 years (1950–1965). Cruz mastered a wide variety of Afro-Cuban music styles including guaracha, rumba, afro, son, and bolero, recording numerous singles in these styles for Seeco Records.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Celia Cruz” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.