The late legendary Cuban singer is now depicted on a U.S. quarter.
Widely known as the Queen of Salsa, Cruz was chosen along with four other exemplary women from history to be featured on the U.S. quarter as part of the American Women Quarters Program this year.
She also makes history as the first Afro-Latina to appear on the coin.
“Celia received so many accolades during her lifetime that it was hard to expect a greater honor than what she had already accumulated during her legendary career,” said Omer Pardillo-Cid, Cruz’s last artistic representative and the executor of her estate, in a press release. “But to have been honored by the U.S. Mint in this way is something that would have surprised her greatly since she was a simple and humble woman.”
Celebrated for her iconic shout “¡Azúcar!” — a phrase also inscribed on the coin — Cruz is acknowledged as a cultural symbol and an influential vocalist in history, boasting nearly 40 albums.
On the U.S. quarter, she is depicted in her customary Cuban attire, captured with her characteristic vivacity.0
The U.S. Mint’s other 2024 honorees are Patsy Takemoto Mink, the first woman of color to serve in Congress; Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, a women’s rights advocate and Civil War era surgeon; poet, activist, and lawyer Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray; and Native American writer, composer, educator and political activist Zitkala-Ša.
The four-year American Women Quarters Program “celebrates the accomplishments and contributions made by women of the United States,” states the official website, which also sells the coins individually and as a set.
“All of the women honored have unique accomplishments that have significantly impacted the history of our nation,” said Ventris C. Gibson, director of the Mint, in a press release.
The face of the legendary Cuban singer will be depicted on a U.S. quarter, according to the United States Mint.
Widely known as the Queen of Salsa, Cruz was chosen along with four other exemplary women from history to be featured on the U.S. quarter as part of the American Women Quarters Program in 2024. She’ll also make history as the first Afro-Latina to appear on the coin.
Cruz, who is considered one of the most influential Latin singers of all time and a cultural icon, is remembered for her lively expression of “¡Azúcar!,” and for her highly influential body of work consisting of 37 albums.
The other honorees include Patsy Takemoto Mink, the first women of color to serve in the U.S.Congress; Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, women’s rights advocate and Civil War era surgeon; poet, activist, and lawyer Pauli Murray; and Native American writer, composer, educator Zitkala-Ša.
The four-year program “celebrates the accomplishments and contributions made by women of the United States,” states the official website.
From joining La Sonora Matancera in the early ’50s up until her death in 2003 due to cancer, Cruz was unquestionably one of the most exuberant performers of Latin music. Her larger-than-life onstage presence coupled with her captivating charisma made her a legend in Latin America and beyond.
In the 1970s, she became a leading force in salsa music and joined Fania All Stars alongside Johnny Pacheco, Willie Colón, Tito Puente and other icons of the genre, a cultural phenomenon that took place in New York City and beyond.
She later explored other tropical genres such as merengue and reggaetón. Some of her most memorable hits in history include “La Vida Es Un Carnaval,” “La Negra Tiene Tumbao,” and “Químbara” also featuring Johnny Pacheco.
She never lip-synched, and when asked to do it for TV performances, she refused. Cruz was also incredibly influential for many of today’s Latin stars. Her last 2003 album, Regalo del Alma, remained at No. 1 on the Top Latin Albums chart for three weeks.
“I’ve never thought of retiring. I’m healthy, I’m rolling, I’m rolling. I remember Celia Cruz,” reggaetón pioneer Ivy Queen previously told Billboard, who has long idolized and emulated Cruz. “Her last Premios Lo Nuestro performance, she had cancer. She walked from her chair to the stage, she sang, and … she sang. That’s what I’m doing. F–k it. She did it, I’m gonna do it.”
Although Cruz died two decades ago, her legacy continues to appear in various corners of pop culture.
Last year, the estate of the salsa legend partnered with Archetype-IO to release her first NFT collection, which debuted in Art Basel 2022. In 2016, an 80-part series about her life became available for streaming on Netflix, titled Celia, by Telemundo.
For each year commencing in 2022 and running through 2025, the U.S. mint will issue five new reverse designs, and the obverse of the coin will still feature George Washington, but with a slightly different design from the previous quarter program.
This year celebrates Bessie Colemen, Edith Kanaka’ole, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jovita Idar and Maria Tallchief.
Lucrecia is ready to bring a legend’s story to life in the Big Apple…
The Lehman Center for the Performing Arts has just announced the New York premiere of Celia Cruz: The Musical!,starring the 52-year-old Cuban singer as the late Queen of Salsa, scheduled for November 16.
The show, which premiered at the Starlite Festival in Marbella, Spain, and has been performed at Miami’s Adrienne Arscht Center, was written and directed by Gonzalo Rodríguez and Jeffry Batista, with Omer Pardillo-Cid, the executor of the Celia Cruz Estate, as executive producer.
Pardillo has described Cruz as “a black woman, who was poor, who left Cuba and conquered the world,” becoming, he says, “the Lady Gagaof her time.”
The musical, which Pardillo ensures tells the true story of the woman known all over the world as the “salsa queen,” re-creates Cruz’s final concert before her death in 2003 at age 77, flashing back to episodes cued by well-known songs, from “Quimbara”to “La Negra Tiene Tumbao.”
“Celia conquered the world with her voice and her huge heart,” Lucrecia says. “She was noble, a woman of the old school. She remembered everyone’s name. You’d meet her once and she’d be sending you postcards for the rest of her life.”
During the show, Lucrecia makes 18 costume changes, wearing dresses and wigs that a Miami seamstress painstakingly copied from Cruz’s original show wardrobe. The singer performs monologues that encapsulate different periods of Cruz’s life, setting up songs that took her career from Cuba, where as a young woman she had her big break with La Sonora Matancera, to the heady days of New York salsa with the Fania All Stars, to her later years as an international icon.
“My admiration, respect and love for Celia runs very deep,” Lucrecia says. “I do the show with love, without any sense of rivalry or trying to take her place. I come out on stage to bring her alive.”
Lucrecia, whose given name is Lucrecia Pérez-Saéz, became known in Cuba as a lead vocalist and pianist with the iconic all-women band Anacaona. In 1993, she settled in Barcelona and formed her own group. The Latin Grammynominee (for 2010’s Álbum de Cuba), frequently recognized on the street by her trademark colored braids, is now a household name in Spain for her role as the singing host of the children’s television series Los Lunnis; she also appears in movie based on the series that premiered in Spanish theaters early this year.
Lucrecia is set to receive recognition as the Best Latin American Children’s Movie Actress and Best Children’s Music Singer at the Premios Latino 2019 awards in Marbella in September.
In 1998, Lucrecia appeared with Cruz, the great bassist Israel “Cachao” Lopez and actor, musician and producer Andy Garcia at an event organized by Bacardi rum in Marbella.
“I met her at the press conference,” she recalls. “I was so nervous.” During that presentation, Cruz called Lucrecia her successor. Lucrecia wrote a song in Cruz’s honor, “Agua con Azucar y Ron.”
Lucrecia recalls Cruz calling her when she was pregnant, and later bringing gifts for her son. “La Vida Es un Carnaval” was the first song that Lucrecia sang to him in the hospital. They remained friends until the end of Cruz’s life.
“Celia’s career was long, and when you have a career like that you can start on one path and then take another,” notes Lucrecia. “Of course, there are evolutions,” she says, pointing to Cruz’s 2001, “La Negra Tiene Tumbao,” which has an urban beat and premiered accompanied by a fabulous video by Cuban director Ernesto Fundora.
“Reggaeton was just coming out at that time, and there she was, doing reggaeton!
“They called her the queen of salsa,” Lucrecia adds, “but she was always the guarachera de Cuba. It was always about her Cuba, and taking it with her around the world.”
Gente de Zona is preparing to pay tribute to a late compatriot…
The Cuban reggaeton group, comprised of Alexander Delgado and Randy Malcom Martinez, will perform at the the Hollywood Bowl’s special tribute honoring Celia Cruz.
In addition to the Latin Grammy-winning duo and Kidjo, Pedrito Martinez will also perform at the tribute.
The Pedrito Martinez Group, whose Habana Dreams album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Tropical Albums chart last June, will be the opening act.
It’ll be the first time Gente de Zona has performed at the iconic Hollywood Bowl.
“We are thrilled to be part of the Hollywood Bowl’s summer season this year. See you soon in California,” the “Traidora” singers tweeted.
The Celia Cruz tribute is part of the Hollywood Bowl’s summer 2017 lineup recently announced. Other Latin artists on the summer schedule include Café Tacvba, La Santa Cecilia and Mon Laferte, who will perform at the Bowl on Sepember 17 as part of the Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA series.
Singer-songwriter Angelique Kidjo is set to perform a special tribute to the late Cuban singer, who passed away in July 23 at the age of 77, at the Hollywood Bowl.
It’s all part of the 2017 Jazz at the Bowl summer series, kicking off July 19, featuring eight Wednesday evening concerts.
Cruz is hailed as the most popular Latin artist of the 20th century, earning 23 gold albums. She was a recipient of the National Medal of Arts. She was renowned internationally as the “Queen of Salsa“, “La Guarachera de Cuba“, as well as The Queen of Latin Music.
Guided by Herbie Hancock, the L.A. Philharmonic’s creative chair for jazz, this year’s series features performances by a diverse lineup of established and emerging artists, including Kidjo’s Cruz tribute on August 9.
The lineup also includes performances by Jill Scottand the Robert Glasper Experiment, Andra Day, Leslie Odom Jr. and more in a salute to Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie, and Steve Winwood with Mavis Staples.
The complete 2017 Jazz at the Bowl schedule, as well as ticket information, is available at www.HollywoodBowl.com.
Celia Cruz may be gone, but she’ll be remembered in a big way at the inaugural Latin American Music Awards.
The late Cuban-American salsa singer/performer and seven-time Grammy winner, who passed away in 2003 at the age of 77, will receive a musical tribute produced by Sergio George at the Latin AMAs.
George, a tropical music legend, has rounded up a diverse group of performers to honor the late Queen of Salsa’s legacy during the October 8 telecast on Telemundo, airing live from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
Colombian sensation Maluma, princess of salsa India, Mexican icon Yuri and singer/actress Aymée Nuviola — who portrays Cruz in the new Telemundo series Celia— will sing a medley of her most beloved hits.
Presenting the tribute are Puerto Rican actors Jeimy Osorio and Modesto Lacén, who play Cruz and her husband/manager Pedro Knight during their younger years on Celia (Nuviola and renowned theater actor Willie Denton play the couple later in life).
Slated for an October 13 premiere, Celia chronicles Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso‘s evolution from a shy teen in pre-revolution Havana, Cuba, to a larger-than-life figure that brought the world to its feet with the power of her voice, inimitable style and exuberant presence. Along the way, Cruz battled racism, sexism and defied expectations of what a black female musician could achieve in the ’50s.
Other performers confirmed for the Latin AMAs include Paulina Rubio, Daddy Yankee, Jesse & Joy, Reik, Farruko, Fonseca, Shaggy, Lil Jon,Yandel, Natalie La Rose,Jencarlos Canela,Luis Coronel, CD9, Gloria Trevi, Gerardo Ortiz and Il Volo.
It’s a special Christmas gift for Celia Cruz fans…
Festive footage has surfaced of the late Cuban salsa singer performing with the great Cuban orchestra Sonora Matancera.
The video was captured as part of the orchestra’s holiday album, which featured the young Cruz. It was recorded during Cuba’s last Christmas season before Fidel Castro claimed victory for the Revolution at the start of 1959.
In the vintage video, Cruz is spotted swinging her hips and flashing the bright smile that would make her famous as she sings a Spanish version of “Jingle Bells,” titled “Soy Feliz en Navidad.”
The 1958 album Navidades con la Sonora Matanceraalso included such Cuban-flavored Christmas numbers as “El Cha-Cha-Cha de la Navidad” and “Rumba en Navidad.”
Two years later, Cruz would leave Cuba, never to return. The singer who became known as the Queen of Salsa died in 2003. She remains the world’s best known Cuban artist.
Christmas celebrations were officially banned in 1969, following Castro’s declaration that Cuba was an atheist country at the start of the Revolution. The holiday was reinstated in 1997, anticipating Pope John Paul II’s visit to the island. Some artists in Cuba have since recorded new Cuban Christmas music.
One of Linda Ronstadt’s most acclaimed recordings will live on in the archives of American history…
The 67-year-old Mexican American singer’s Grammy-winning fifth solo album Heart Like a Wheelhas been inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.
The album, released in 1974, is considered to be Ronstadt’s masterpiece recording and a pioneering blueprint of country rock.
In the 1970s, a decade that saw the rise of singer-songwriters, Ronstadt – who will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this month – was a bit of an anomaly. Primarily an interpreter, she was blessed with excellent taste in song selection and the talent to put her own stamp on each of her covers.
Heart Like a Wheel continued her tradition of eclecticism and featured covers of songs by Hank Williams,Paul Ankaand Little Feat’s Lowell George. Italso shows a keen ear for new material, like the achingly beautiful title track byAnna McGarrigle.
What made this album different from Ronstadt’s previous efforts was the additions of producer Peter Asher, who had been crucial to the career of James Taylor, andAndrew Gold, who arranged the music and played several instruments on the album sessions.
Ronstadt told the Library of Congress that the title track on the album “became an iconic song for me. That was the first chance I got to record a little bit more complex, emotionally, pieces instead of just trying to sing rock ’n’ roll. I never thought of myself as a rock ’n’ roll singer. I sang rock ’n’ roll because I liked to eat.”
Heart Like a Wheel was the first of Ronstadt’s three No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 chart, reaching the summit for the week ending February 15, 1975, alongside the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100, “You’re No Good.”
But Ronstadt’s prized work isn’t the only Latin album among the latest batch of 25 “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” recordings to be preserved this year.
Celia & Johnny, the album released in 1974 bythe late Celia Cruz and Johnny Pacheco, is also being inducted into the National Recording Registry.
Cuba’s Cruz was a dominant artist in the Afro-Cuban scene of the 1950s, when she sang with the great Sonora Matancera band. She came to America in 1962 and did well initially, but by the early 1970s, her career entered a slump as Latin styles nurtured in the U.S. became dominant.
For this album, rather than re-create the large orchestras that Cruz usually fronted, Pacheco – a New York-based bandleader and co-founder of the Fania Records label — assembled a small group that included pianist Papo Lucca, tres player Charlie Martinezand several percussionists, including himself.
This proved to be the perfect setting for Cruz to reach a newer and younger audience while remaining true to her roots. And she responded with some of the most inspired singing of her career, especially in the album’s many improvised passages. The album’s opening rumba, “Quimbara,” was a huge dance-floor hit, and Cruz soon was acclaimed as the Queen of Salsa.
This year’s 25 selections raise the number of recordings in the registry to 400, a fraction of the Library’s vast recorded sound collection of more than 3.5 million items.
Every year, the Librarian of Congress, with advice from the Library’s National Recording Preservation Board, selects 25 recordings that are at least 10 years old; the best existing versions of each are housed in the Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Va.
“These recordings represent an important part of America’s culture and history,” Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said. “As technology continually changes and formats become obsolete, we must ensure that our nation’s aural legacy is protected. The National Recording Registry is at the core of this effort.”
Nominations were gathered through online submissions from the public and the NRPB.
It’s been nearly 10 years since Celia Cruz passed away… But she’s remained one of the most influential artists in Latin music… And, now she’ll be memorialized in our nation’s capital.
The legendary Cuban-American singer—known as the “Queen of Salsa” —will be the subject of a new biographical portrait by Robert Weingarten, a noted photographic artist, at the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.
As part of the museum’s “Frame an Iconic American” contest, officials selected five iconic American figures who represented a different set of ideas. And after more than 11,000 votes cast, Cruz’s story of immigration, music and entertainment resonated with a clear majority of the voters.
“The comments on our contest pages hint at some of the challenges museum staff face when thinking about how we collect, preserve and present history” says Shannon Perich, curator of the upcoming Pushing Boundaries: Portraits by Robert Weingarten exhibition. “Which stories do we tell and why? For some commenters, local allegiances were most important. For some, having a personal connection was the deciding factor. Others wrestled with the various ways in which we recognize the many kinds of contributions our heroes make to our society. This dynamic dialogue is important and we thank you for sharing your points of view with us.”
Cruz, who passed away in July 2003 at the age of 77, recorded more than 80 albums and songs, many of which went gold or platinum, during a professional career that spanned more than 60 years. Cruz, who became known around the world for her piercing and powerful voice and larger-than-life personality and stage costumes, won five Grammy Awards and received various other honors for her contributions to Latin music. She collaborated with Gloria Estefan, Cheo Feliciano, Ismael Rivera, David Byrne, Wyclef Jean and many other musical legends.
Widely known as the Queen of Salsa, Cruz was chosen along with four other exemplary women from history to be featured on the U.S. quarter as part of the American Women Quarters Program this year.
