Make Time for Joy - La Vida es un Carnaval by Celia Cruz

In 1998, Celia Cruz released her album, “Mi Vida es Cantar.” which had the song, “La Vida es un Carnaval”

Who is Celia Cruz?

Celia Cruz was was a singer from Havana Cuba who dedicated her life to the love of music and performing. She solidified her title as “the Queen of Salsa” as she started gaining popularity in the U.S. and around the world.

In 1960, she moved to New York where she joined the Tito Puente Orchestra. By working together with the group and gaining inspiration from her Afro-Latino roots, Salsa was born.

What is this song about?

In short, “La Vida es un Carnaval” is an anthem about gratitude that celebrates life and overcoming hardships. Carnaval is also reffering to the big annual event in Cuba that is celebrated before Lent. It’s also about kicking away the stresses in your life. This is where things get really interesting, especially when you consider Celia Cruz’s background. In the outro, Celia starts to state specific things like violence, war, and mistreatment. I highly encourage you to take a look at the lyric page I linked above. An awesome Genius contributor dissected the outro and shared plenty of sources that dive deeper into the hardships Cubans faced around the same time Celia was growing up.

Last Note

I’m so grateful that I got to learn more about the origins of Salsa music this week and learn more about the icon that is Celia Cruz! It’s also really interesting to share this song after the kind of week we just went through ie. el*ction. I think songs like this are timeless and remind us the importance of sitting in your joy and feeling all the feels. So if you’re like me and still celebrating the puto that is leaving office, dance, sing, scream, move your body. We owe it to ourselves to be joyful.