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Celia Cruz music biography continued...

began singing in talent contests as a youngster and her first recording were made in Venezuela in 1948. In 1950, she made her first major breakthrough, when the lead singer of the famous Cuban band La Sonora Matanzera returned to Puerto Rico, and Cruz was called to fill in. Hired permanently by the orchestra, she soon became famous throughout Latin America where the band toured. In 1960, in the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution, Cruz moved to the United States. In 1961, she and her orchestra began performing at the Hollywood Palladium. Soon after, a partnership with Tito Puente would lead to eight albums for Tico Records. The albums did not do as well as expected, however, and later, Cruz joined the Vaya Records label. There, she joined accomplished pianist Larry Harlow and was soon headlining a concert at New York's Carnegie Hall. Her 1974 album, with Johnny Pacheco, Celia y Johnny, went gold, and Cruz soon found herself in a group named the Fania All Stars, an ensemble of salsa musicians from every orchestra signed by the Fania label (owner of Vaya Records). With the Fania All Stars, Cruz toured worldwide and became an international success story.



During the 1980s, Cruz made frequent tours in Latin America, doing multiple concert and television shows wherever she went, and singing both with younger stars and stars of her own era. She began a crossover of sorts, when she participated in the 1988 Hollywood production of Salsa, alongside Draco Cornelio Rosa. In 1990 Celia Cruz earned official acceptance with American audiences when she won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album. Taking her love affair with American audiences further, in 1992, she starred with Andy Garcia and Antonio Banderas in the film The Mambo Kings. She intended to continue to work indefinitely, but was stricken with brain cancer in 2003 and passed away at her home in Fort Lee, New Jersey, leaving an almost unrivaled contribution to the Salsa genre.