Olga San Juan was born on March 16, 1927,[1] in Flatbush, Brooklyn,[2] New York, to Puerto Rican parents.

[6] Her singing career reportedly began when she performed with a group of schoolchildren from New York at the White House for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

[7] She left high school in ninth grade after her father became ill, performing at venues including El Morocco and the Hotel Astor.

[2][4] In Blue Skies (1946), San Juan performs a dance to "Heat Wave" with Bing Crosby.

[11] According to critic Boze Hadleigh (writing under the pseudonym George Hadley-Garcia),[12] San Juan's departure from film was driven by a shift in the public's musical preferences and by the end of World War II, which caused the Good Neighbor policy to wane.