salsa: Quick Facts

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Queen of Salsa Music

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Key People

Ruben Blades, wearing a dark suit and gold tie, sings into a microphone on stage with musicians from the Spanish Harlem Orchestra playing instruments in the background.

Rubén Blades

Panamanian musician, actor, and political activist

Queen of Salsa Music

Celia Cruz

Cuban American singer

Jazz master and salsa pioneer Eddie Palmieri

Eddie Palmieri

American musician

Willie Colón

Willie Colón

American musician, composer, and activist

Young girl wearing a demin jacket playing the trumpet (child, musical instruments, Asian ethnicity)

Sound Check: Musical Vocabulary Quiz