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In 1951, a young Celia Cruz recorded Yembe Laroco with the popular Cuban band, La Sonora Matancera. It was a song that would help to launch her international career, later becoming the ‘Queen of Salsa’. But it’s also a song that many years later would help revive Cuba’s economy, which suffered after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Simon Zagorski-Thomas talks to musicologist and musician, Sara McGuinness, and Cuban radio producer Sonia Perez Casola about the story behind this classic track. Produced by Rami Tzabar for ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service. Image: Record label artwork, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½