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Guarding Celia Cruz’s Legacy: Omer Pardillo on Respect, Future Deals & the Queen’s ‘Only Mistake’
Celia Cruz's manager Omer Pardillo talks AI, brand partnership deals, centennial plans and upcoming projects in an interview discussing her legacy.
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. 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. Cruz’s dedication, which is framed with her 1998 album, Mida Vida Es Cantar, reads: “To Omer Pardillo, the person I most admire for his talent, professionalism, and I love him because I’m his second mom.” Alfonso Duran
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