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Artist
Celina González
12+ albums
cubanlatincubafemale vocalistsAll
about
Celina González (1928 - 2015) was a Cuban singer and songwriter of musica campesina, traditional music of the Cuban countryside. She is best known for writing Santa Bárbara, one of Celia Cruz's signature songs. Known as the Cuban Queen of Country Music, Celina Gonzalez was born in Jovellanos, Matanzas, Cuba on 16 March 1929. She met Reutilio Dominguez at the age of sixteen in Santiago de Cuba. He became her singing partner and husband resulting in a collaboration that lasted until Reutilio's death in Guantanamo in 1971. In 1948 they began working with the famous Nico Saquito and gained increasing popularity on radio, film and television. They performed in New York with two of the greatest Cuban artists of all time: Beny Moré and Barbarito Diez. In 1964 the duo stopped performing together and Celina continued as a soloist singing traditional guajira music. The musical form she prefers is the decima. Most of her songs are written in this style and although, in the past the rhythms in her music were more guaguanco than pure Afro, they are now mostly guaracha. She sings about 'guajiros' and 'puntos' (country people) because she believes that these sectors of society are not fully appreciated. In 1980 she won Egrem's coveted Disco de Plata award for the record entitled Celina. This was the beginning of many more awards to come in the 80's. Santa Bárbara later became one of her biggest hits and is featured on the album of the same name on Egrem available via Tumi Music. In 1984
