La Vida Es un Carnaval
Celia Cruz · 1998 · from the album Mi Vida Es Cantar · written by Víctor Daniel
Celia Cruz's late-career anthem, a song dancers all over the world now treat as the party song of salsa.
- coro and soneo
- congas
- timbales
Why it matters
Cuban singer Celia Cruz left Cuba in 1960, signed with Fania in the 1970s and became one of the great voices of salsa. In 1998 she released the album Mi Vida Es Cantar on RMM Records. Its lead single was La Vida Es un Carnaval, written by Víctor Daniel, and arranged and produced by Isidro Infante.
It became one of her most popular songs and a signature one. Other singers have covered it, among them Víctor Manuelle and La India, and in 2003 it won the Lo Nuestro award for Tropical Song of the Year. Víctor Manuelle sang it at Cruz's funeral in 2003.
It's the song that ends many salsa parties: a big, happy coro, a steady groove and a singer everyone knows. By the late 1990s a salsa song could be a worldwide anthem.
What to listen for
- Celia Cruz's voice: big, warm and always on the beat. She leads the band from the first line.
- A coro that is easy to sing along to. Join in: it's the chorus that fills dance floors, wherever you are.
- The salsa groove under it: congas and timbales keeping the clave, with the rest of the band around them.
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