Ab major · Camelot 4B · 103 BPM
La Vida es un Carnaval
by Celia Cruz
- 103
- BPM
- Ab major
- Key
- 4B
- Camelot
- 82
- Danceability
- 44
- Acousticness
Victor Daniel wrote "La Vida es un Carnaval," handing Celia Cruz one of the most memorable numbers in her catalog. The song, whose title translates to "Life Is a Carnival," was produced and arranged by Isidro Infante and released in 1998 as the lead single from Cruz's studio album Mi Vida Es Cantar. Cruz, a Cuban-American singer born Celia Caridad Cruz Alfonso, was already one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century by the time the record came out. She had risen to fame in Cuba during the 1950s as a singer of guarachas, earning the nickname La Guarachera de Cuba, and later became known internationally as the "Queen of Salsa."
The song won the award for Tropical Song of the Year at the 2003 Lo Nuestro Awards and went on to rank at number 439 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It also reached listeners through film, appearing in the 2000 Mexican movie Amores perros and in the 2002 film Antwone Fisher.
Cruz's own story stretched back decades before the single. She spent 15 years, from 1950 to 1965, as a vocalist with the popular group Sonora Matancera, recording guaracha, rumba, afro, son, and bolero styles for Seeco Records. After the Cuban Revolution nationalized the music industry in 1960, she left her native country, eventually settling in the United States. Over her career she sold more than 30 million records.
La Vida es un Carnaval runs at 103 BPM, the tempo of mid-tempo pop, dancehall and indie. In classical terms it sits in andante territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.33 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 583 ms. It is in Ab major, Camelot 4B, which shares its notes with F minor and mixes cleanly with Db major and Eb major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.