Thalia
Thalia is considered as «a queen of soap operas» and a Mexican Cinderella. Being a child, Thalia went to a ballet school and took piano playing lessons at the musical institute. Thalia made her first steps to the career of a vocalist singing in the group Din-Din. Being a member of the group, the future star got a great experience touring in Mexico. Her undisputed talent impressed the producer of the group Timbiriche, who invited Thalia to the group in 1986. Later, the group Timbiriche became very popular. Thalia recorded three albums with the band, which were titled Timbiriche VII, Timbiriche VIII y IX, and Los Clasicos de Timbiriche. At the same time Thalia launched an acting career and cast in supporting roles of several series. In 1989, Thalia left Timbiriche and the same year she traveled to Los Angeles to prepare for a solo career. In a year, Thalia returned to Mexico and released her first album titled Thalia. Although, Thalia’s image in this album was rather controversial and aroused a lot of critical comments and some songs were forbidden on radio for the reason of morality questions, the album was successful. In 1991, Thalia went to Spain and starred in different television programs. That year, she released her second album Mundo de Cristala, and in 1992 – the album titled Love. Both albums were successful. They included many hits, for example, «La Vida en Rosa» – a Spanish language version of Edith Piaf’s song «La Vie en Rose».
Thalia, as an actress, continued to enslave audience’s hearts and became a real star of «soap operas». Thalia starred in three telenovellas, where she played Maria. The first novella was Maria Mercedes released in 1992. It took the premier place among series of USA. It was followed by the second and third novellas titled Marimar and Maria la del barrio. Starring in this series and performing the title songs brought Thalia an international success and recognition. Bathing in the popularity, Thalia released an album En Extasis in 1995. The first international hit in her solo career was a song «Piel Morena». Later on, the singer released albums Nandito Ako (1997), which included the equal number of Spanish and Tagalog songs, and Amor la mexicana (1997). The album Amor la mexicana mainly included Mexican and Cuban rhythms. Such hits as «Amor A La Mexicana», «Por Amor», and «Mujer Latina» earned an international recognition. In 2000, an album Arrasando was released. This album turned to be very successful for the singer. Aside fans’ recognition and positive comments of critics, this album earned Thalia two nominations at Latin Grammy Awards 2001 and the victory in one of them. In 2001, she released an album Thalía con banda: Grandes éxitos, which included 10 hits of Thalia performed in one of the Mexican musical direction called ‘banda’. The album Thalia (2002) was also successful. It included already popular hits «No Me Enseñaste», «Tú y Yo», and «¿A Quién Le Importa?». Thalia released her first English language album titled Thalía in 2003. The single «I Want You» featuring the rapper Fat Joe, was the only song of Thalia listed on Billboard Hot 100. The next album was El Sexto Sentido (2005). The most songs of the CD were recorded in Spanish, the rest – in English. Singles «Amar sin ser amada», «Un alma sentenciada», and «Seducción» became the most popular. The album Lunada, released in 2008, was recognized the most successful in the singer’s career. In 2009, Thalia recorded her first concert live album Primera Fila in Miami. In 2010, she released a new version of this album titled Un Año Despues.
