2002 |
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"Tú y Yo" now has a second videoSource:
El Norte, June 16,2002 Monterrey, México.- Proud of having a remix/duet with Thalía, although without her standing beside them, the members of Los Kumbia Kings arrived in Monterrey to film their part of the video for the song "Tú y Yo", which they recently recorded with the artist. Before beginning their work at noon yesterday, A.B. Quintanilla, leader of the group (and brother of late Tex-Mex singer, Selena) commented that both Thalía and her husband, Tommy Mottola, were happy with the results of the version which he himself arranged. |
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Originally the singer would have completed the images for the song with them, but due to previous commitments on both of their parts it could not be done, and so she will do it in New York, the group in Monterrey, and then it will be edited together for presentation to the public.
"She was going to make the pop version one day and the following day would have been the one we were going to do with her, but she had her commitments and we had ours, so that is why we came here to do it", said A.B.
The producer is the Monterrey native named David, better know as "Leche" (Milk), who has made videos for various local rock groups.
"We are hoping that it will be ready in two more weeks, since they have already done the postproduction so that they may look at it, and God willing they will be pleased with it," A.B. added.
The meeting between the two artists took place thanks to the fact that Thalía was the one who sought them for a project together. "What happened originally is that they called me to made a remix of the song, "Tú y Yo", and before accepting I thought I ought to be careful, in the sense that to listen to it first and then see if it fit as cumbia, which was what I was about to put together", said A.B.
The "touches" which the Kumbia Kings added to the composition pleased the Mexican star so much that she decided to share the microphone with the gruperos. "I arranged the rhythms and then I handed over the cut to her and they both (Tommy and Thalía) liked it so much that they spoke to the record company and told them that it must be a duet and that it would be included in Thalía's new record."
Therefore, in the next edition which EMI Music released of the artist's most recent production, the duet was included as a "bonus track".
Among the Kumbia Kings' future plans is to return to Monterrey on July 12 in order to offer a "masivo" dance in which they will present the group Big Circo, created by A.B.
Source:
StarMedia Network, June 15, 2002
By: Claudio Quiroz
TW Correspondent: Tonchi
(See if you agree with this review written in Mexico. We found the author’s assertions that the new record is more “salsa” compared to Thalía’s previous albums to be way off base, and he completely overlooked the deliberate “retro’” slant she has given the songs and the way she performs them.)
After becoming known in our country during the decade of the '90s, and through telenovelas where she played the long-suffering María Mercedes, María la del Barrio, and Marimar, Thalía has consolidated herself as another of the stars of Latin pop with her most recent self-titled album. Produced by Estéfano and recorded in the studios of Sterling Sound in New York, Thalía's new album includes 10 songs in Spanish and 3 in English, which represent the singer's opening move to introduce herself to the anglo market, since at the end of this year she will release an album recorded completely in English.
With the inestimable support of great stars of the Latin music market, Thalía obtains a sound more anglo pop, separating herself from the half-ranchero rhythms which impregnated her previous productions such as “Amor a la mexicana” and “Piel Morena”. It appears that the formula has given good results, since two days after coming out on the market the album sold more than 75,000 copies in Mexico. After four weeks it was confirmed in the number one position by Billboard Magazine and the promotional single “Tú y yo” has been situated in the top place of the rankings.
The Aztec queen is recycling herself to get into the attractive American market and who better to do it than the hand of one of the Latin artists most adored in the territory to the north of the Río Grande, superstar Marc Anthony. The Puerto Rican singer gave a little hand to Marimar in the Spanish version of the song "The Mexican 2002", where one notices sounds which are more salsa and the unmistakable voice of the Puerto Rican phenomenon.
But not just Anthony alone showed up on the new record; the principles responsible for the new concept which this album pursues are producers Estefáno and Emilio Estefan, who put their hand into songs like "La Loca", which mixes pop and the tropical flavor of salsa. Meanwhile, for the English songs Thalía counted on the collaboration of figures the size of Cory Rooney (producer for Destiny's Child, Marc Anthony, and Jennifer López) and Steve Morales (who has produced Enrique Iglesias and Cristina Aguilera).
Among the songs in English, “Closer to You” stands out, a modern ballad that shows proof of the courses in English that Thalía probably has taken in order to sing in this language. Another surprise that this record brings is a cover of the 1980s hit “You Spin Me Round”, which she also interprets in English. Besides that, the album includes the cover of one of the singer's favorite songs, “A Quién Le Importa” which in the decade of the 80s made Alaska y Dinarama known.
Although the record is a good mixture of pop rhythms and danceable songs (“En la Fiesta Mando Yo”), it is unthinkable that ballads might be absent. In the name of love, or lack of love, Thalía interprets “No Me Enseñaste” and “Así es el destino”, discrete songs that maintain the melodic line of the record.
To sum up, the record, which has achieved great playtime in the North American market where Thalía is pointing her spears, still maintains the style which we have known as "a la mexicana". This time the novelty is more toward the more salsa side than has been observed in her previous works, in a clear bet to penetrate a market much more attractive than the Latin one and in which her position is continuing to be consolidated more all the time.
Source: El
Gordo y La Flaca
June 13, 2002
TW Correspondent: Tonchi
In a match heavy with irony for the married couple of Mexican singer Thalía Sodi and her husband, the Italian Thomas Mottola, Mexico tied Italy in a hard-fought game of the World Cup in Seoul, Korea, allowing both teams a slot in the final rounds. Team Mexico actually led 1-0 until the last minutes of the match, when Italy sneaked in a goal and tied.
Thalía got so excited about the game, which is being play in time zones on the other side of the world, forcing Mexican citizens to get up in the middle of the night to follow the action, that when the game ended in a tie at about 9:00 am EDT she called Lili Estefan and was screaming with joy. (No word on how Tommy felt about the final score :D) When she realized that Lili had not been watching the match on TV, she said, "Get Gordo on the line!" and Lili rang up Raul on a conference call.
Raul said he could not believe it was actually Thalía on the line, because he is not exactly one of her favorite people, but Lili (who is Cuban) and Thalía convinced him with their screaming and laughing that it was for real. Everybody had a good time celebrating the astounding victory of the Mexican team who was not expected to win a single game but will now go to the semi-finals, while Team France, who won the World Cup in 1998, was eliminated in the first round, scoreless.
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Thalía’s glasses will be sold by Sears in Puerto RicoSource:
El Universal/Notimex The line of glasses by the famous Mexican singer Thalía has now arrived on the market in Puerto Rico, just at the time that a visit by the artist in order to promote her new record was announced for this coming July 8th. Priced at $85.00 by advance deposit, these interesting frames, which include a section of sunglasses, may be obtained now in the optical department of Sears stores, stated the Puerto Rican newspaper Primera Hora. "This is another opportunity that I have as a business owner to design articles of quality with the flavor and freshness of the Latin culture and to carry them to the entire world through this enterprise," Thalía had stated prior to the launching of the line of glasses this past March. The line of prescription glasses includes nine modern styles of sunglasses, with more than 15 frames for the lenses. They went on sale in this Caribbean county to the sound of her new single, "Tú y yo", from her new album entitled Thalía. |
It is expected that the singer of "Entre el Mar y Una Estrella" will arrive in Puerto Rico on the coming 8th of July as part of a promotional tours that she is realizing for her most recent production.
Who was Carlos Berlanga, whose name keeps coming up in all the interviews that Thalía gave in Spain? Actually he was a very significant person in modern music history, although his work was not that well known outside the Spanish-speaking world. Here is a brief obituary which appeared in US newspapers this week and an article about him from a Madrid newspaper published after his death.
Spanish pop musician Carlos Berlanga diesSource:
Associated Press Madrid, Spain - Carlos Berlanga, a pop singer and composer who was a leading figure in Madrid's cultural revival after the 1975 death of dictator Gen. Francisco Franco, died at the age of 42. Mr. Berlanga died Wednesday night in Monteprincipe Hospital in Madrid after a long battle with liver disease, his family said. He had been awaiting a transplant, according to state news agency EFE. |
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Mr. Berlanga wrote some of the most emblematic songs associated with the explosion of music, art, and theater that surfaced in Madrid in the years after Franco's death. The phenomenon was so new and contagious that a word was made up to name it: La Movida, or "The Happening."
Mr. Berlanga was buried Thursday outside Madrid at a brief, rainy ceremony that drew many figures from Spain's show business world, including Oscar-winning film director Pedro Almodovar.
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Carlos García Berlanga, former member of Alaska and Los Pegamoides, dies at 42Source:
http://www.elpais.es, from EFE, Madrid Musician Carlos García Berlanga, foremost protagonist of the "Movida Madrileña" at the end of the '70s and the beginning of the '80s, died last night in Madrid at 42, according to information from his family. Son of filmmaker Luis García Berlanga y and member of legendary groups such as Kaka de Luxe, Alaska, Los Pegamoides and Alaska y Dinarama, the musician died at 10:00 pm in the Hospital Montepríncipe de Madrid, after a long battle with liver disease. |
In a press release broadcast after his passing, the musician's family asked that all the media respect their grief and that of his friends, "as well as they should recognize after his death his contribution to the recent history of music in our country."
There will be a mass celebrated this morning in the chapel of the Hospital Montepríncipe, after which his mortal remains will be transferred to the Pozuelo de Alarcón in Madrid, where they will be buried at noon.
A composer of enormously successful songs like Perlas ensangrentadas and A quien le importa, Carlos García Berlanga was known at the end of the '70s as a member of the group Kaka de Luxe, one of the founding musical groups of the Movida Madrileña. Multi-faceted, García Berlanga combined his work in music with the graphic arts and design. It's his work, for example, on the poster for the film Matador, by Pedro Almodóvar, with whom he also prepared the costumes for Laberinto de pasiones.
In Kaka de Luxe, the ephemeral group which was for many the one to introduce punk music to Spain, leaving a transcendental legacy to the history of Spanish pop music which was the germination for later bands such as La Mode or Radio Futura, Carlos García Berlanga collaborated for the first time with Nacho Canut and Olvido Gara, Alaska, with whom he would form one of the most brilliant and productive triumvirates of Spanish pop music in the ‘80s.
After Kaka de Luxe, Berlanga, Canut, and Alaska would form, together with Eduardo Benavente and Ana Curra, Alaska and the Pegamoides, which published their first single, Horror en el hipermercado, in 1980. The authentic success of the group would arrive two years later with their first album, Grandes éxitos, and the universally-known Bailando, which was the most popular song of that summer.
At the end of 1982, Carlos García Berlanga left the group in order to begin a new project: Dinarama. A little later, Canut and Alaska were also incorporated into this group, becoming known as Alaska y Dinarama. Thus would begin a career replete with artistic and commercial successes, as much in South America as in Spain, in which they would eventually publish five albums: Canciones profanas, Deseo carnal, No es pecado, Diez, and Fan fatal.
The alliance between these three people broke up at the end of the ‘80s with the end of Dinarama. Canut and Alaska formed Fangoria, while García Berlanga began a career as a soloist, releasing his first album, El ángel exterminador. in 1990. Nevertheless, lack of promotion made the album go unnoticed. A similar fate befell his second effort, Indicios (1994).
After a new detour working in composing the sound track of the TV series Villarriba y Villabajo, which was directed by his father, Luis García Berlanga, and returning to his facet as a painter, which he never actually abandoned completely, his third album appeared in 1997, Vía satélite alrededor de Carlos Berlanga. The novelty on this occasion was the collaboration of his old friends, Alaska (vocals) and Nacho Canut (lyrics), with whom he had not worked since the end of Dinarama in 1989. Impermeable (2001) was his last work.
More about Thalía's visit to SpainSource:
El Norte, June 6, 2002 The queen of the Mexican telenovelas and internationally renowned singer presented her latest album in Madrid today. Entitled Thalía, it includes a duet with the Puerto Rican singer Marc Anthony, three songs in English, and renders homage to the Spanish composers Carlos Berlanga, Alaska, and Nacho Canut with a version of "A quién le Importa". |
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"This morning I woke up to the news about the death of Carlos G. Berlanga and it affected me deeply, because he was a man who broke molds and planted a youthful musical perspective, free and real at the same time. The song which I have recorded was a gay hymn (Note: our emphasis) which I now embrace as a hymn to the one who triumphs, who is always criticized and who many would like to see in decline, like myself. I render this tribute to him from my heart.” With these words the Mexican singer remembered the figure of the late Spanish singer and composer Carlos García Berlanga, who will be buried today in Madrid.
Thalía appeared before the communications media like a pop-star, with a pink camisole decorated with black sequins and very tight jeans which showed off her always-perfect hips, her long chestnut swaying to the rhythm of her own music, and that characteristic face always smiling.
With this new album, the singer wanted to explore new rhythms, because as she herself said, “I had already done rock, pop, rap, salsa, and rancheras, and a voice inside me said that I ought to return to my roots, to that alternative Thalía at the beginning, from those albums like Thalía (1989), Mundo de Cristal (1991) and Love (1992).”
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To do that she has surrounded herself with a
team of producers - she herself collaborated in the
production - formed by Emilio Estefan, Estefano, and
Corey Rooney, with whom she has created new musical
directions, stealing a little from retro compositions and
the sounds of the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. She
already worked with Emilio Estefan on her albums En Éxtasis
(1995), Amor a la Mexicana (1997), and Arrasando
(2000). "He has been my lucky charm, my older
brother,” she stated. The collaboration with Marc Anthony was on the song "El Mexicano" - she had already recorded it alone and also in English as "The Mexican". “It was a huge surprise, but he was also working with Rooney, he liked the song, and we recorded it together.” "I am an artist who has triumphed in Spanish, my own language and for which I will always fight. I have reached the top 10 in countries such as France, Greece, Germany, the Philippines, and Indonesia, but the English songs can open other horizons for me and I think that they won’t sound bad to anybody. There are songs that when you write them in one language it is impossible to adapt them to another. Besides, we all know that music isn’t about languages.” |
"Music is an atmosphere which aims at the feelings and senses,” Thalía explained, looking just like the little-girl image on the cover of her new album. “I am a mutant girl who loves to reinvent herself. I am chameleon-like, I don’t like to keep doing the same things, and I play with fashion trends.”
The song chosen as the first single is called "Tu y yo", a "powerful and aggressive song which I dedicate to my public", confessed Thalía, who in September will begin in the United States with a long tour through Central America, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Hungary, France, Germany, Switzerland, Indochina, and the Philippines.
| "But I will go and return home, with my
family. I don’t want work to cancel out my private
life", said the singer, married to Tommy Mottola,
president of Sony International. As an actress, she debuted in the movies two years ago with the film Mambo Café and her greatest success has been produced for television, converting her into the Queen of the Telenovelas thanks to the international success of the trilogy María Mercedes, Marimar, and María la del Barrio. "If I return to television it will be to produce a miniseries, which I will star in myself, although before that I want to record a record totally in English", she stated. |
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"As far as I'm concerned, there is no competition between Latina artists"Source:
OCIO/Terra News Service España, June 6, 2002 MADRID, SPAIN. An image cultivated to emaciation, a constant smile and a somewhat standard attitude is what accompanies Thalía. But there is no doubt that it produces results. The explosive Mexican was talking to us about her supposed grudges with artists such as Paulina Rubio and Shakira, about her new record, about Alaska y Dinarama... Upon arriving at the room where Thalía is located, the Mexican greets you with a wide smile (although truthfully it is hard to see her not smiling). Her face is childlike , which aids to create that typical Mexican sweetness. Always watching out for her image, before beginning the interview she requests the monitor be turned around so that she can test if she is coming out well. When she is sure of this, the interview begins. |
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--Right now your first and your latest records have the same name. What differences are there between the first work, Thalía, and this latest record Thalía?
"Well, this record reflects the returning to my roots, to my origins, to my first nest. This is Thalia's record number nine, so exactly for that reason, because that was what my first work was named. It was a little more alternative, a little more pop rock, a little more open, and wll, I have had the fortune to interpret every musical genre."
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--A lot is being said about the rivalry that
exists between you, Shakira, and Paulina Rubio. Do you
think that is something created by the media rather than
a reflection of reality? "Definitely it is something they made up. Our culture always tends to make comparisons or competitions that do not exist. I believe that what exists between us is respect, affection, it's because it gives us pleasure what each one of us is doing... it's marching in a team as triumphant latinas because we are breaking the Latin stereotypes." --Not even healthy competition? "No, it does not exist. For my part, I am a “chick” who is very focused in what I do and I love it and I respect the work of the rest.” |
--In this record there is pop, dance, ballads... With which of them do you identify more?
“I identify will all these sounds, with all the material. There is a backbone and there is a spiral around it which gives movement between ballads, half time, the most danceable... and all is enclosed in what I am."
--What does that Hindu symbol which you have adopted as part of your new image and which also appears on your web page?
“It is the OM. It is the eternal sound which is used a lot in meditation. I utilized it because I felt it, because I felt that connection with the people who enter my website because it is a little more spiritual.”
--This stuff about symbols is something that you like a whole lot because a long time ago you also used a type of Egyptian “T”.
“I love the power to be a changing person, chameleon-like.... And suddenly I like this symbol for my name and the next day I want some other type of thing. It is always a reinventing, a rediscovering."
--Returning to the record, why did you choose the theme “A quién le importa” by Alaska y Dinarama?
“It is a song that reminds me of the first times that I went out to dance at a discothèque with girl friends. It’s a song that now fits me like a ring on my finger. It’s the criticism of a winner, toward a person who is outside the normal and who looks for a new horizon. You are always going to see people pointing you out, people wanting to bring you down... It’s a hymn to the one who triumphs."
--What was “Moderna Niña Rock” talking about, the one with which you won the contest as a little girl?
“About rock! Don‘t you see, how I have always been a little rock child? (laughter) It was a rock song about a little girl who was not like the rest, she didn’t play with dolls but she liked rock and was a ‘modern rock child.’”
--Have you ever said: “I am honesty and that is what I offer in my music”. What is honesty in music for you?
"It's guiding yourself by your heart, by your feelings... not being a hypocrite, I am not an artist, and even less a person who is hypocritical. I like to give what I feel at that moment and not to use masks. Neither to marry myself to an ideal, what I do is simply to let myself flow. Like human beings who are not the same every day. There are days in which you are happier than in others, there are days that you feel stronger, more triumphant. That's the way I am and that's the way it is reflected in my music."
| --María Felix is a personality who is not
known so much here as in Latin America. You mention her
quite a lot lately. How would you describe her? "She was a myth, a person who broke with the cult of the submissive woman in Mexico and in all Latin America, with that idea of the woman dominated by the macho husband. She was one of the women who broke with all this with her characters in the movies and with her own personality. A very strong person who never gave in." --Do you have a date for your tour? "In September begins what will be a world tour. We will begin in the United States, Mexico, then we will continue through South America, afterwards Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Switzerland, France, and then well will cross to Indonesia and the Philippines." |
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