When Celia Cruz died in July 2003 at the age of 77, nearly 100,000 mourners paid their respects before her open casket viewing in Miami. In New York, Patti LaBelle sang at her memorial mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, then-Governor George Pataki declared “Celia Cruz Day,” more than 20,000 crowded the funeral home in the Upper East Side and a 30-block stretch of Fifth Avenue was shut down to accommodate thousands more. The death of the beloved “Queen of Salsa” from complications due to a brain tumor became an event as celebrated as her stunning performances during life.
Cruz, who defied Cuba’s communist government when she left her home country at the dawn of the 1959 revolution, also defied the odds of Latin music careers at the time by becoming the only Afro Latina singer to achieve enduring, global fame. Often compared to Ella Fitzgerald, Cruz recorded over 70 albums in a career that spanned three record labels, notching 28 entries on Billboard‘s Tropical Albums chart. More than 20 years after her death, she generated 64 million on-demand official streams in the United States in 2024, according to Luminate.
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Omer Pardillo — who became Cruz’s manager when he was in his 20s and is the executor of her estate — is a key reason the legendary artist remains relevant. When he was 17, he interned at RMM, the powerful tropical indie record label to which Cruz was signed, and worked on every aspect of her career. When Cruz left RMM, she named Pardillo her manager and executor.
“Even now, sometimes people tell me, ‘You got there at the very end [of her career],’” Miami-based Pardillo says. “But my loyalty was unconditional with Celia and something she saw from the very beginning.” That loyalty remains today. Since partnering with Loud And Live CEO Nelson Albareda in 2005, Pardillo has kept Cruz alive in the public eye with a U.S. postage stamp and a commemorative quarter, a Barbie doll, multiple exhibits, merchandise lines, a Telemundo TV series and even a namesake wine.
Billboard spoke with Pardillo as he prepares to celebrate the centennial of the singer’s birth in 2025.
You are the executor of the Celia Cruz estate. What exactly does that entail?
I manage all assets that come into the estate — royalties, approvals from the labels, creative, productions, everything. As executor, I receive a percentage, and obviously, all the business deals I had or I bring, I charge 20%. The Loud And Live team, especially Nelson [Albareda], help me a lot. We did a deal with Mattel two years ago for a Celia Barbie; we put out a [Napa Valley-produced] wine to celebrate women; Celia was the face of Wells Fargo Bank for Hispanic audiences. One of the biggest achievements was our deal with the U.S. Mint. She’s the first Afro Latina on a coin and the first Latina artist on a coin. I always say Nelson invests 25 cents and gets a dollar in return. Sometimes I get carried away with nostalgia or feeling, and I’ll say, “We have to do something with this brand because they supported Celia once.” He makes me stop and analyze.
Was the U.S. Mint deal lucrative?
We don’t make money with the Mint. But the awareness of Celia Cruz through the coin has been incredible. The dollar is the most important currency in the world. And the fact that this woman — who was poor and Black and had to flee Cuba and was able to conquer the world with just her voice — is now on a U.S. coin is very relevant. Same thing with the Celia U.S. Postal Service stamp. They both have a huge sentimental value, but also economic, because thanks to the coin, for example, many other things have followed.
Did Cruz own any of her catalog?
Not at all. That was her only mistake. Celia never owned anything. She recorded with Fania, which now is Craft; RMM, which is Universal today; and Sony. The best deal was Sony, where she was treated as an icon. It was different. The other deals were the kinds of deals from back then where they say, “Here’s X amount for a record deal, and we own everything forever.”
But Sony had great royalties, a great team behind Celia. We get royalties from Sony, Universal and Craft. I renegotiated royalties with Universal, Sony was always perfect, and Craft is something we’re working on. She’s collecting the same royalty they offered when she initially signed with them [decades ago]. Still, our revenue comes mostly from recording royalties and brand partnerships. We do three to four major partnerships a year. And on Spotify alone, we had 82.3 million [global] streams for the first six months of 2024. That’s not bad for an artist who’s been dead 21 years.
Have you tried to purchase her catalog?
No. It’s worth too much money.
It was recently announced that Hyphenate Media — Eva Longoria and Cris Abrego’s production company — was part of a group that acquired the rights to work on a movie about Cruz. What can you tell us about that?
I have three projects with Celia pending: a Broadway musical, a documentary and the film. I think in the next five years, we’ll accomplish all three. Hyphenate Media bought the rights for film and TV, and the estate was represented by Raymond García of Uncontained Media. Producer Gloria Calderón Kellett, who is Cuban American, is working on the film project. The film is very important because it will tell things she never told and were not in the [Telemundo] series. Issues with racism, for example, that she never shared with anyone. She always said the negative had to be locked away so they couldn’t cause more pain.
What are the advantages and challenges of managing the estate of an artist like Cruz?
The big challenge is we don’t own the music rights. So anything related to music, we have to go to the labels. For example, if Mattel wants Barbie to sing “Quimbara,” they have to negotiate those rights with Craft. If I had the ownership of the masters, I could do so much. With the Fania catalog, for example, I can suggest, but I don’t own. It’s frustrating. The advantage is we’re dealing with an artist that was always very respected, and that respect is still the same. There’s a love and a connection with fans, which is very, very important.
What do you have in the works for Cruz’s centennial?
We’re in the process of closing several brand deals, including a major clothing retailer who will put out Celia apparel. We’re also in negotiations with a major restaurant brand. Mostly, we’re focused on concerts. We’re talking with different venues to produce Celia Sinfónica, a series of concerts with different symphony orchestras in different countries, for example. And there’s an upcoming Smithsonian Latino exhibit that opens in May. We’ve had 20 exhibits since Celia’s death, and the Smithsonian has 33% of her outfits, shoes, documents and wigs in their collection.
I have to imagine that with artificial intelligence and new technology, you’re getting requests to produce new songs with Celia’s voice. Recently, Cuban artist Yotuel used AI to add her voice to a new version of “Patria y Vida,” for example.
I approve any use of name, music or image. We have an attorney who sends out letters declining proposals all year long. We really look after that [intellectual property]. Otherwise, the brand will either disappear or will become too accessible. Yotuel’s song was the first time anything was done with AI and Celia’s voice, and I think it came out very well. But from there to a full album, I’m not there yet. I could rerecord the entire catalog, but I feel we’ll lose the essence. I’m told there are producers who can make it sound exactly the same, but it’s not exactly the same because she’s not here.
It’s surprising to me that no other woman has emerged in the tropical music scene since Cruz’s death. Why do you think this is?
It has to do with how professional Celia was. She was fully focused on her career. She was very forward-thinking; she was so flamboyant, long before Lady Gaga. She was so humble, and yet she had a divine grace and a power onstage that I have yet to see again.
She was such a fashion icon, with her wigs and her fantastic, glitzy dresses. Did she ever consider doing a fashion line?
No. Celia modeled for Dolce & Gabbana, Thierry Mugler, Valentino. But she was very focused on her career and her voice, and she never thought of a business beyond her music. She always said, “My voice is my business, and I live for my voice.”
This story appears in the Jan. 11, 2025, issue of Billboard.