The late queen of salsa music Celia Cruz and the first lady of reggaetón Ivy Queen came together for a virtual duet. The Cuban legend and the Boricua icon performed “La Vida Es Un Carnaval” for this year’s online Calle Ocho Live festival.
Ivy and Celia’s virtual duet was first announced in August and it was a highly-anticipated moment of Calle Ocho Live. The performance was introduced by actress Rosario Dawson, who is of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent. Dawson noted that even though “La Vida Es Un Carnaval” was Cruz’s “lifetime No. 1 hit” that no video was ever shot for it. “That changes right now,” she said.
The virtual duet of “La Vida Es Un Carnaval” spliced together an archive performance of Cruz performing the song with Ivy Queen’s own rendition. There was no hologram Celia involved. Their new update stayed faithful to the original version of the song. Ivy sang along with Cruz, took on a verse by herself, and shared an epic call-and-response of adlibs with the legend. “Reina a reina!” Ivy shouted out. This powerful performance was worth the wait to see two queens of Latin music run the carnaval like a circus.
This marks the second time Cruz has been paid tribute to this year. The mysterious Latin singer KYEN?ES? performed a medley of her hits at the Premios Juventud. Ivy Queen might have some more music cooking soon with Colombian reggaetonera Karol G.