Barbie goes on sale in honor of Celia Cruz

The long-awaited Barbie doll with the figure of the “queen of salsa” Celia Cruz goes on sale today, an event that the singer’s fans have been waiting for for two years, since the Mattel company announced the news and unveiled the photo of the doll in 2021.

As a preamble to Hispanic Heritage Month 2023, Starting September 15, this doll is released as part of Barbie’s Inspiring Women Series, which pays tribute to incredible heroines of her time; “Brave women who took risks, changed rules and paved the way for generations of girls to dream bigger than ever,” Mattel said.

This new barbiewhich will sell for $35, shows a young Celia, wearing a tight red Cuban rumbera dress, in a lace fabric that culminates in a ruffle at the bottom and on the sleeves, with a blonde wig with her hair up. in a high bun, long necklace and earrings and her distinctive gold shoes.

Celia Cruz’s Barbie comes true when they are fulfilled twenty years of the death of the “Guarachera of Cuba”, on July 16, 2003 when he lost his battle against cancer, after a career that spanned six decades in which he recorded 75 albums.

The eternal “queen of salsa” who brought that music to the world with the Fania Stars, received countless awards, including multiple platinum and gold records, three Grammy Awards, four Latin Grammy Awards, the Presidential Medal of the Arts and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Plus the unconditional affection of his faithful audience, who danced to the rhythm of his powerful voice and do not forget his “war cry”: Sugar!!.

Mattel highlighted in a statement that Celia Cruz was a “dazzling performer of many genres of Afro-Caribbean musichad an energetic stage presence and a unique style that endeared her to fans of different nationalities and generations.”

“One of the few women who was successful in the male-dominated world of salsa. For more than half a century, the ‘queen of salsa’ carried her title with class and distinction,” the company added.

“Her boundless enthusiasm, genuine warmth, and deeply rooted humanitarianism made her the most successful and revered performer in the music industry and the most notable ambassador of Hispanic culture in the world,” Mattel further noted.

The Barbie collection of inspiring women opened by Mattel already has dolls of other personalities such as the Chinese film actress Anna May Wong; the first black and native american female aviator Bessie “Queen Bess” Coleman; the poet Maya Angelou; the former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt; singer Ella Fitzgerald; the mexican painter Frida Kahloamong other.

Cruz will also be remembered on a 25-cent coin that will be in circulation next year and next to his image will have the word Sugar!

The Cuban singer was previously immortalized in a collection of United States postage stamps under the series “Forever Stamps” next to Selena, Carmen Miranda, Tito Puente and Carlos Gardel, which they put on sale in 2011.