Miriam Aracelis Cruz Ramírez, born on August 17, 1968, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, is a singer who began her career in 1982 as a member of Las Chicas del Can, a group founded by Wilfrido Vargas. In 1985, after the departure of Belkis Concepción, she became the group's lead vocalist and released a new album each year until 1992. Her solo breakthrough arrived with the 1993 album Nueva Vida, featuring hit singles such as "Tómalo Tú", "La Loba", and "Te Propongo", the latter produced by Juan Luis Guerra. Following the success of Nueva Vida, Miriam Cruz y Las Chicas del Can embarked on concert tours across Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Puerto Rico, the United States, and Europe, and achieved another hit with "Agua de Sal" at the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana festival in Valencia. In the early 2000s, she starred in the musical Evita produced by Amaury Sánchez. Her subsequent studio releases include Punto y Aparté (2001), Aquí Estoy (2006), and Siempre Diva (2013), the latter of which solidified her status in the world music scene. In 2015 she issued Me Sacudí, followed by Salí de Ti in 2017, and continued to record singles such as "Dicen que andas por ahí" (2019) and "No creo en él" (2020). In 2022, she marked four decades in music with the single "Tú ganas" and a merengue program at New York’s Lincoln Center. In the first half of the 2020s she remained active with compilation albums Collection 1 and Esenciales, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (2022–2023), collaborations including "Ámame (Bachata)" with Elvis Crespo and features with Papi Sánchez, Kinito Méndez and Johnny Ventura, and a run of singles such as "Ámame", "A Las Ilusas De Mi Marido", "Me Duele", "Las Pequeñas Cosas" and Christmas and bachata releases, leading into 2025 projects like the album Miriam Cruz (Ensamble etéreo), the EP Orgullo Merenguero and the singles "Tú No Tienes Alma" and "Esa Diva."
