The singer who popularized "Babalú" internationally — Miguelito Valdés brought Margarita Lecuona's song to American audiences in the early 1940s, making it a cross-cultural hit that became the definitive pop reference to Babalú Ayé outside Cuba.
Miguelito Valdés was a Cuban singer with a dynamic, athletic performance style who worked with major orchestras in Cuba and then in New York. He recorded "Babalú" — a song referencing the Yoruba/Lucumí deity Babalú Ayé — and his recording became widely known in the United States, eventually leading to Desi Arnaz's famous television version on I Love Lucy.
His recordings demonstrate the way Afro-Cuban religious content traveled into mainstream popular music — the song retains references to the Orisha tradition while functioning as an entertaining popular song for audiences with no knowledge of that tradition.