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Speaker 1: The year is nineteen ninety aka the year of it

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Speaker 1: must have been Love by Rock Sets.

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Speaker 2: Or Vogue Madonna, Hello.

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Speaker 1: Wow, nineteen ninety. We're talking about nineteen ninety Celia and

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Speaker 1: Madonna at.

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Speaker 2: The same time because it's also the year that Celia Cruz,

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Speaker 2: at seventy five years young, comes the closest she ever

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Speaker 2: will to return into Cuba.

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Speaker 1: Since leaving the island in nineteen sixty two, Celia has

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Speaker 1: seen the world. She's performed in practically every continent, filling stadiums, plazas,

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Speaker 1: and concert house.

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Speaker 2: But everywhere she went, her homeland was in her heart,

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Speaker 2: her voice, her every dance move.

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Speaker 1: So when Celia is invited to give her performance at

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Speaker 1: the US Naval base in Guantanamo, it's clear why she

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Speaker 1: says yes.

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Speaker 2: We should also know that this is more than a

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Speaker 2: decade before the base would gain its present day reputation.

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Speaker 1: This was a chance to breathe the same area as

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Speaker 1: she wants it as a child and as a young entertainer.

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Speaker 1: At the very beginning of her journey.

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Speaker 2: She arrives with a documentarian and a reporter in tow

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Speaker 2: and asks to be taken to the highest point in

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Speaker 2: the base. When she gets there. In her excitement, she

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Speaker 2: lets out her signature phrase Asuka. They go up and

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Speaker 2: Celia looks out beyond the shore across the bay to Kaimanita,

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Speaker 2: a small harbor town. Celia had sung the name of

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Speaker 2: this town in one of her songs, but she had

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Speaker 2: never actually seen it with her own eyes.

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Speaker 1: Okay, here come the tears.

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Speaker 2: Celia sings for the Navy personnel stationed at the base,

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Speaker 2: and before she leaves for the mainland, she stops by

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Speaker 2: a fence, crouches down and grabs a fistful of Cuban earth.

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Speaker 2: She puts it in a styrofoam cup and decides, right

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Speaker 2: then and there she will be buried with it. Get

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Speaker 2: it on, MATI got no, this is too much.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I'm composed.

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Speaker 2: Today.

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Speaker 1: On becoming an Icon, Celia leaves us with a lifetime

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Speaker 1: of psalms and soul.

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Speaker 2: I'm your host, Liliana Oosquez and I'm Joseph Carrio and

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Speaker 2: this is Becoming an Icon, a weekly podcast where we

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Speaker 2: give you the rundown on how today's most famous LATINV

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Speaker 2: stars have shaped pop culture.

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Speaker 1: And given the world some extra level.

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Speaker 2: Sit back and get comfortable.

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Speaker 3: Because we are going in the only way we know

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Speaker 3: how with buenas vias, buenasriesas, and a lot of opinions

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Speaker 3: as we relive their greatest achievements on our journey to

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Speaker 3: find out what makes them so iconic.

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Speaker 2: By the nineties, Celia had reached that era rightfully deserved

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Speaker 2: by any icon nearing retirement.

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Speaker 1: H the victory lap Era.

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Speaker 2: The year before her visit to Guantanimo, she had played

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Speaker 2: a reunion show with les Sonora Mantanza for their sixty

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Speaker 2: fifth anniversary.

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Speaker 1: Wait, she didn't play with them for sixty five years.

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Speaker 2: No no, no, no, no no. But the band was

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Speaker 2: founded back in nineteen twenty four, before Celia joined in

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Speaker 2: the fifties. But it goes to show how much Celia

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Speaker 2: was a part of history. Her legacies spanned multiple eras.

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Speaker 1: From the nightclubs of Cuba's yester years to the generation

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Speaker 1: defining satasa of the seventies and eighties.

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Speaker 2: She had also mixed it up with musicians you wouldn't expect.

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Speaker 2: There's her feature on nineteen eighty eight Vassals Vasillos with

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Speaker 2: the ska band Los Bamoso's Cadillacs, and she even performed

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Speaker 2: with hipster icon David byrne On his debut solo album

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Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty nine.

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Speaker 1: And Last We Forget Our Queen was on the screen

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Speaker 1: along with tele novelas. She appeared in movies like Mambo

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Speaker 1: Kings alongside Antonio banderas Lucky and nineteen ninety five's The

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Speaker 1: Bettest Family starring Alfred Molina and Angelica Wait for It, Houston.

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Speaker 2: Okay, that's big But my favorite Celia TV appearance has

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Speaker 2: to be when she taught Big Bird how to dance salsa.

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Speaker 1: I thought it was so so adorbed I wanted to

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Speaker 1: hug her. Ah.

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Speaker 2: I love that moment. Okay, but here's the point. Semia

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Speaker 2: had become a household name. Whatever home meant for her.

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Speaker 2: Her voice sounded like home to millions of fans in

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Speaker 2: the US, in the Caribbean.

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Speaker 1: And beyond, and the accolades came pouring in. In nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety four, she was awarded the National Medal of the Arts,

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Speaker 1: one of the United States' highest creative honors.

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Speaker 2: She had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,

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Speaker 2: a street named after her in Miami. Three honorary degrees.

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Speaker 2: She was smartyo, and she had an asteroid named after her.

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Speaker 2: There was no question she was an American ic, A

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Speaker 2: Cuban icon, you know what? Fuck it? A global icon.

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Speaker 1: Oh and let's not forget she got Grammys.

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Speaker 2: Right you are, Joseph. Back in nineteen eighty six, she

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Speaker 2: won for Best Tropical Latin Performance for Rifmo and Coresson,

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Speaker 2: and then more than a decade later, in two thousand,

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Speaker 2: she helped inaugurate the first ever Latin Grammys at Los

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Speaker 2: Angeles's Staple Center.

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Speaker 1: And she opened the ceremony with fellow Cuban icons Gloria

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Speaker 1: Estefan and Ricky Martin shout out to Season one.

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Speaker 2: That night, she won one of the very first Latin

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Speaker 2: Grammys for her live album Celia Crusen Friends a Night

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Speaker 2: of Salsa along with Vita Ponte.

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Speaker 1: She would win another one the next year for her

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Speaker 1: album sianpre vi Videt, which we'll talk about in a bit,

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Speaker 1: but first I must point out it has a cover

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Speaker 1: of Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive Amazing.

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Speaker 2: But it also just makes perfect sense one hundred percent.

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Speaker 1: Celia was in New York during the golden age of disco.

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Speaker 2: Do you think she went to Studio.

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Speaker 1: Fifty four, Yes, I don't doubt it.

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Speaker 2: I need to find evidence of this because if she

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Speaker 2: wasn't there, Like what was Ian Schrager thinking.

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Speaker 1: She was there? She was there, she was invited, she atty.

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Speaker 2: I know she was like her and and there's got

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Speaker 2: to be a picture. I feel like she would be

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Speaker 2: living it up in like seventies Studio fifty four.

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Speaker 1: Honey, she was the costume hair queen.

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Speaker 2: And you know what, it's crazy because the golden age

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Speaker 2: of disco overlapped perfectly with the heyday of salsa. And

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Speaker 2: let's be honest, they both have roots and mumbo, which

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Speaker 2: took New York by storm before the finan years.

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Speaker 1: They moved to the beat of the same gona and

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Speaker 1: it shows how natural a part of the quote unquote

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Speaker 1: American music artists like Celia.

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Speaker 2: Art case in point, Celia paid tribute to another soul

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Speaker 2: icon that same year. Together with Mark Anthony, she joined

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Speaker 2: VH one's tribute to Aretha Franklin.

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Speaker 1: But Celia wasn't just reliving the glory days. One of

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Speaker 1: the biggest hits of her career was yet to come.

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Speaker 2: And no, it wasn't a salsa standard at all ready.

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Speaker 2: It was a foray into reggathon.

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Speaker 1: Oh yes, La negra.

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Speaker 2: Go Joseph. That's something I'm telling you a singing contract

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Speaker 2: is coming in season thirty. La Negratubao was one of

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Speaker 2: just a handful of forays Celia made into reggaton during

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Speaker 2: its early crossover days.

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Speaker 1: And Honey, this was pre auto tune reggaeton that down

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Speaker 1: and dirty shit and laveeha. She wears it like she

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Speaker 1: had it custom made.

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Speaker 2: She was embracing the new generation's music, just like she

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Speaker 2: did with Fanya in the seventies and Joseph So you know.

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Speaker 2: Dumbao came two years before Gasolina Wow.

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Speaker 1: Man, seventy five years old and ahead of the trend.

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Speaker 2: In Billboard Magazine, the producer and co writer of the track,

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Speaker 2: Serrio George and.

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Speaker 1: Producer for j Looh, Talia Evy, Queen Mark Anthony, just

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Speaker 1: to name.

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Speaker 2: A few, described wanting to throw something new at the

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Speaker 2: Queen of Salsa. He said that of all the tracks

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Speaker 2: he played for Celia, the beat for La Negraumbau was

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Speaker 2: the track she had the strongest reaction to.

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Speaker 1: God sounds like the cool dea who lets your do

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Speaker 1: parties at her place because she likes the music. You

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Speaker 1: know what I mean.

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Speaker 2: I want to be that cool like I want to

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Speaker 2: be that ya do you have ada like that? No,

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Speaker 2: I'm that dea on la nega tumbao. Celia matches the

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Speaker 2: sabiluria of old age with the braggadocio of regaton. So

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Speaker 2: she yells slash raps, I don't know, does she rap

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Speaker 2: kind of like a little She says, guandola hente semue

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Speaker 2: your meal seli sick? Yeah boo, I mean we did

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Speaker 2: really good. Are we getting a music card?

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Speaker 1: Both of us? It's a duo probably okay, but translate

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Speaker 1: this for us. What were you even saying?

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Speaker 2: Okay? So she's basically saying, when you die, people speak

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Speaker 2: better of you than they did when you were living

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Speaker 2: like night and day. And then she says, say it

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Speaker 2: to my face, bitch, say it to my face. When

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Speaker 2: you read the song title, it's really just like, oh yeah,

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Speaker 2: that black girl's got rhythm.

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Speaker 1: Right when the girl comes around, everyone takes notice that

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Speaker 1: girl is on her hot girl shit.

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Speaker 2: But just like Asuka means more than just literal sugar boombao,

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Speaker 2: in Celia's performance means more than just rhythm.

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Speaker 1: Mm confidence, attitude, patience, power, and not taking no shit.

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Speaker 2: She then continues these fruito biende la vida amando me.

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Speaker 1: She's enjoyed her life well, but that doesn't mean she

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Speaker 1: hasn't had to fight her battles.

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Speaker 2: She's the boss, and maybe that's why Sechel George called

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Speaker 2: her an ambassador of good music. For the use of

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Speaker 2: time understatement, Let's talk about Celia's iconic.

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Speaker 1: Looks, the wigs, the dresses, stop it.

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Speaker 2: There's so many looks that we could reference here, but

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Speaker 2: I think what people really remember is like, there's like

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Speaker 2: a peacock gown that she wears. It's like blue almost

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Speaker 2: kind of like the very like deep red, like burgundy hair.

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Speaker 2: There's obviously like the orange dress with the feathers and

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Speaker 2: the blonde hair.

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Speaker 1: Wait wait, wait, but I know something about you, because duh,

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Speaker 1: you're a stylist. So what what is the style of

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Speaker 1: her dress called? Is it like a trumpet dress or

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Speaker 1: like a mermaid dress?

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Speaker 2: I love that you brought that up. So when you

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Speaker 2: think of her and you think of the Celia Barbie.

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Speaker 1: Her Celia dress, like, it's like, I don't know what

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Speaker 1: it's called.

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Speaker 2: I love that you're calling it the Celia dress. Yes,

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Speaker 2: so it's called a batta kubana is what it's called.

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Speaker 2: And that is that kind of like signature, very form

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Speaker 2: fitting through the bodice, through the legs to the knees

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Speaker 2: that then flares out almost like a mermaid style. But

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Speaker 2: then you also have to have the big, billowy trumpet

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Speaker 2: sleeves to match.

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Speaker 1: Always the sleeves were there. It wasn't without because maybe

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Speaker 1: without hey, maybe without it would be like a tango

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Speaker 1: dress or a flamenco dress, because it kind of has

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Speaker 1: that exactly.

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Speaker 2: But that was really kind of signature to her early

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Speaker 2: performance looks. And then as of course, as she got

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Speaker 2: older in age, she loosened the gowns up. But she

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Speaker 2: never gave you anything less than drama, drama, drama, whether

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Speaker 2: it was sequence or a feather or a Peluca, the

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Speaker 2: Beluca now the Belucas.

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Speaker 1: Honey. She was Nicki Minaj, She was everybody. She she

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Speaker 1: was the wig store. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: And you know there's this famous quote at her fashion

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Speaker 2: that she says, if I look in the audience and

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Speaker 2: see somebody dressed better than me, I feel like I

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Speaker 2: have failed. People pay good money to come hear me sing,

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Speaker 2: but also to see me saying, and I should always

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Speaker 2: look the part. Buntal Hereriet.

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Speaker 1: She just keeps on giving and serving.

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Speaker 2: She does but Joseph, we can't just talk about her

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Speaker 2: looks forever. And she was serving serving me.

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Speaker 1: Excall me, excouse me. What are you talking about? Of

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Speaker 1: course we can or I can.

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Speaker 2: Okay, yes we can, but.

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Speaker 1: No, nope. She got her Grammys and we got songs

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Speaker 1: to crunk until Kingdom calm. So story over, Sorry, Joseph,

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Speaker 1: that's how it ends.

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Speaker 2: That's not okay. After the break, the world says goodbye

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Speaker 2: to Celia Cruz. In the summer of twothwo thousand and two,

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Speaker 2: Semya I was playing yet another jam packed outdoor festival,

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Speaker 2: Central Park Summer Stage in New York. Hold on a second,

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Speaker 2: hold the phone, story time, shut your butt, tell me everything. Okay.

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Speaker 2: I was not there in two thousand and two, but okay, blocked.

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Speaker 2: Did you know that my first real paying media job

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Speaker 2: was as a host of the show Central Park Summer

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Speaker 2: Stage on NYCTV.

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Speaker 1: No way, how crazy that we're talking about it, I know, And.

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Speaker 2: It's one of my favorite things about New York City

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Speaker 2: is all of the free concerts that come to Central

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Speaker 2: Park every summer. And it also gave me my very

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Speaker 2: first opportunity to cover music on television.

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Speaker 1: That is really cool. Well, Okay, so you weren't there

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Speaker 1: in two thousand and two.

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Speaker 2: I was not.

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Speaker 1: This was during one of New York's hottest summers on records.

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Speaker 1: So I'm glad for you. And that is a sweaty show.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember these summer shows. We would be drenched.

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Speaker 2: I don't even understand how Celia could put on that

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Speaker 2: kind of performance. But old age hadn't slowed Celia down,

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Speaker 2: at least not yet.

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Speaker 1: Behind the scenes, Celia was battling breast cancer. Shortly after

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Speaker 1: her summer stage performance. She would undergo multiple surgeries in

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Speaker 1: August and September.

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Speaker 2: Unfortunately, her medical battles would continue. In November, she was

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Speaker 2: diagnosed with glioma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. The

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Speaker 2: following month, she underwent surgery again.

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Speaker 1: She would later reveal her diagnosis in People in Espano, saying,

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Speaker 1: when the doctor told me I had a tumor, I

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Speaker 1: told them, well get rid of it, which, my god,

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Speaker 1: the fearlessness.

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Speaker 2: Right in the month leading up to the interview, she

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Speaker 2: recovered at her home in Fort Lee, New Jersey, where

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Speaker 2: she says she did not shed a single tear. She's

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Speaker 2: a bad bitch, And.

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Speaker 1: After she recovered, she got right back into their courting

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Speaker 1: booth to finish her next album, Regalo de Lalmaesumbao all Right.

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Speaker 2: Baby, speaking of which in February she would pick up

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Speaker 2: her fourth Grammy, winning in the Salsa Album category for

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Speaker 2: lad Ne Gratienne Dumbau.

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Speaker 1: Then in March, Telemono produced a blowout tribute special for

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Speaker 1: Celia in Miami. Multiple generations of star seng Lorena's hits

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Speaker 1: for her, Mark Anthony Victor Manuel, Gloria Stefan Tenam, a

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Speaker 1: few Patti LaBelle even jumped in on Kimbarra, and Gloria

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Speaker 1: Gaynor closed the sect with I will.

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Speaker 2: Survive, but that's not all, folks. Then Celia joined the

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Speaker 2: entire lineup on stage during a nearly twelve minute encore performance,

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Speaker 2: mashing up Gimbara with her cover of I Will Survive.

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Speaker 1: This huge, explosive celebration of Celia's life would be her

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Speaker 1: last public appearance.

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Speaker 2: On July sixteenth, two thousand and three, Celia passed away

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Speaker 2: at her home in Fort Lee. She was seventy seven.

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Speaker 1: Her remains were transported to Miami and displayed inside the

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Speaker 1: Freedom Tower, the History the work building where refugees from

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Speaker 1: the Cuban Revolution were processed in the sixties.

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Speaker 2: An estimated crowd of seventy to two hundred thousand mourners

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Speaker 2: lined the streets outside.

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Speaker 1: Then Celia's remains were transported back and north. She would

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Speaker 1: be buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.

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Speaker 2: In a short memorial for Entertainment Weekly, David Byrne would write,

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Speaker 2: her voice embodied sensuality, pleasure, melancholy and spirituality simultaneously. In

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Speaker 2: that one voice, you could hear millions. Sixteen days later,

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Speaker 2: Celia's final studio album, Reggaalo de Lalma, was released. The

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Speaker 2: album featured a mix of modernized Latin pop and traditional salsa.

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Speaker 2: Two singles were.

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Speaker 1: Released, Celia's other regaton banger aat Enna Fuego and rey

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Speaker 1: Illora Laugh and Cry, the last song Selia ever recorded.

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Speaker 2: Cuban writer Jose Kidoga called the song an appeal to

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Speaker 2: live for the moment. In it, Celia sings, it's not

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Speaker 2: that I remember, but that I don't forget.

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Speaker 1: Get.

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Speaker 2: That's forgiveness, to remember without pain.

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Speaker 1: To go through what Celia went through in her life

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Speaker 1: and be capable of forgiveness, I feel.

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Speaker 2: Like you have to be superhuman, and we know that

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Speaker 2: she was, but maybe it takes great pain to truly

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Speaker 2: know how to forgive. And all throughout her career, Celia

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Speaker 2: sang about that pain, about her yearning to return to

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Speaker 2: her homeland.

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Speaker 1: In her last song on that subject, Portia Regresso in English,

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Speaker 1: in Case I never come back, she literally describes this

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Speaker 1: pain as something that would kill her.

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Speaker 2: Celia never got to return to Cuba, but even with

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Speaker 2: the band on her music still in place, some Cuban

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Speaker 2: musicians on the island would recognize her legacy. Celia died

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Speaker 2: just two days after her old piano accompanist Gombe Segundo.

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Speaker 1: Silvio Rodriguez, the Cuban folk singer, would remark, I imagine

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Speaker 1: the two of them must be up on a cloud

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Speaker 1: having a good time, gom By playing and Selia singing.

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Speaker 1: I hope that's the case.

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Speaker 2: As we were working on this episode of the podcast,

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Speaker 2: I immediately started thinking about my grandmother and how she

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Speaker 2: never got to go back home either, Like she never

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Speaker 2: traveled a lot once she kind of settled here in

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Speaker 2: the United States, and she never went back to her

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Speaker 2: hometown where she was born and where she grew up.

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Speaker 2: And part of me like really aches about that for her,

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Speaker 2: because I think that experience happens to a lot of

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Speaker 2: people who come here and choose to never go back

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Speaker 2: for whatever reasons. Right, Sometimes it's too painful, Sometimes it's finances,

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Speaker 2: sometimes it's the economics of things. But I can't imagine

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Speaker 2: having that be so present in your pain. Like everybody

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Speaker 2: needs closure, you know. I feel like she never got that.

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Speaker 1: Well, you know. I think it's because she was always

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Speaker 1: hopeful for it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, she was able to go once.

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Speaker 1: To me, she thought she could go again. And I

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Speaker 1: also think she also lived a hopeful life.

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Speaker 2: One thousand percent. I think when people listen to her music,

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Speaker 2: or they listen to some music and you just hear it, right,

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Speaker 2: like if you don't speak the language, and you're just

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Speaker 2: like taking in the energy of the song. Right, it's

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Speaker 2: like an energy transfer when you're listening to music room

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Speaker 2: where and you're appreciating art, whatever it is, If you

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Speaker 2: just take in that energy transfer, there is a joyfulness

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Speaker 2: to her music that exists regardless of the subject matter.

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Speaker 2: And I think that's what's so beautiful about her music

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Speaker 2: and why people connect to it so much, because I

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Speaker 2: think it initially kind of brings you in on that

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Speaker 2: like very like high vibration, high frequency like we're having fun,

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Speaker 2: we're dancing, we're at a party. But if you listen

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Speaker 2: to the words and a lot of SADSA songs like

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Speaker 2: they're incredibly painful and they're really deep. Same thing. I'm

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Speaker 2: not gonna constantly take it back to Bad Bunny, but

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Speaker 2: a lot of Bad Bunny's music, when you actually break

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Speaker 2: down the lyrics and you listen to what he's saying,

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Speaker 2: it sounds like music you can shake your ass to,

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Speaker 2: but he's actually talking about the state of mental health

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Speaker 2: for him, his struggles. So I think with this kind

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Speaker 2: of music, it's nice because it gets it out to

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Speaker 2: a wide audience because it feels so joyful and high energy.

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Speaker 2: But when you actually listen to the song and you

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Speaker 2: actually process the lyrics, you're like, damn, that's deep. Isaac Delgado,

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Speaker 2: at the time, the last remaining artists living on the

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Speaker 2: island to have played with Celia, said, she is an

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Speaker 2: artist who really always carried the name of Cuba in

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Speaker 2: her mouth. I have to say this, when we translate

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Speaker 2: phrases from Spanish to English, I feel like it loses

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Speaker 2: a lot of like the beauty of the sentiment, because

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Speaker 2: like I can hear him saying that saying like, like

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Speaker 2: that's what he would say.

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Speaker 1: It's more. It's more than that. It's more than what

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Speaker 1: this sentence.

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Speaker 2: It just gives more. So please forgive if like when

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Speaker 2: we say it in English, it's like, well, that doesn't

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Speaker 2: sound right. No, it doesn't sound right because it's not

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Speaker 2: meant to be translated, right. But I just had to

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Speaker 2: add that footnote because often when we translate, I feel

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Speaker 2: like it loses all of the heart and language and

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Speaker 2: spirit of it. So okay, moving on.

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Speaker 1: Sinceelia's passing, streets and schools have been named after her

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Speaker 1: in theronx, Miami and throughout Latin America, the Smithsonian would

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Speaker 1: put up an exhibit honoring her life and featuring several

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Speaker 1: of her most iconic dresses.

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Speaker 2: In twenty twenty one. I remember this very clearly. Mattel

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Speaker 2: released a barbie in her honor, clad in her classic

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Speaker 2: red rumbera dress, and this year she was put on

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Speaker 2: the quarter belting in that same dress, along with her catchphrase, Joseph,

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Speaker 2: give it to us Asuka. But most importantly, Celia's music

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Speaker 2: continues to bring Cuba as she lived and remembered it

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Speaker 2: to the world.

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Speaker 1: Camilla Cabello saying that she can visit Cuba through Celia's songs,

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Speaker 1: and in.

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Speaker 2: Twenty nineteen, African artist Angelie Kidjo won a Grammy for

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Speaker 2: her album of afrobeat renditions of Celia's classics titled Simply Celia.

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Speaker 1: Whether she had even a glimmer of an idea of

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Speaker 1: where her voice would lead her, Celia would leave this

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Speaker 1: world having changed it forever.

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Speaker 2: Four years after Celia's death, her husband, collaborator and the

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Speaker 2: business partner, Fedro Knight, passed away at the age of

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Speaker 2: eighty five.

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Speaker 1: The two are buried together in the same mausoleum at

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Speaker 1: Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Next Time on Becoming an

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Speaker 1: Icon the Queen.

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Speaker 2: Of the Hanno. Music to Becoming an Icon is presented

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Speaker 2: by Sonoo and Iheart's Michael Guda podcast network. Listen to

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Speaker 2: Becoming an Icon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or

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Speaker 2: wherever you get your podcast