Yembe Laroco – Celia Cruz

Available for over a year

In 1951, a young Celia Cruz recorded Yembe Laroco with the popular Cuban band, La Sonora Matancera. It was a song that would help to launch her international career, later becoming the ‘Queen of Salsa’. But it’s also a song that many years later would help revive Cuba’s economy, which suffered after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Simon Zagorski-Thomas talks to musicologist and musician, Sara McGuinness, and Cuban radio producer Sonia Perez Casola about the story behind this classic track. Produced by Rami Tzabar for BBC World Service. Image: Record label artwork, BBC