Web surfers woke up Monday to a sprinkling of azúcar.
Google celebrated what would have been Celia Cruz's 88th birthday Monday with a doodle honoring the Cuban singer who rose to international stardom as one of the world's greatest salsa singers.
"There have been many posthumous tributes to Celia in these last ten years, but this one by Google is certainly one of the most important and far-reaching," Omer Pardillo-Cid, sole executor of the Celia Cruz Estate, said in a press release. "She would have loved it!"
Born Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso to a working-class family in Havana in 1925, Cruz took up singing as a child -- an interest later encouraged by her aunt, who introduced her to the world of Cuba's nightclubs, according to Billboard. A student of Cuba's Conservatory of Music, Cruz's career took off in 1950 when she joined La Sonora Matancera, one of Cuba's most prominent dance orchestras.