Thalia 101: In the Beginning

The Mrs. Mottola Nobody Knows

Mariah’s successor may be the "Queen of Latin Pop," but will her new husband help her "crossover" to MTV?

By Ed Grant
(First published in time.com and used with the written permission of the author and publication of first instance)

Sure, Madonna got married. So what? Hardcore media junkies like myself have grown weary of her constant struggle to struggle to devise new identities, and her highly publicized wedding to filmmaker Guy Ritchie was such a tired fait accompli — "the Material Girl finally goes domestic!" — that it’d be fair to say it produced no broken hearts among male pop fans. On December 2, 2000, however, I’m a proud enough fanboy to admit that I felt a slight twinge of envy when Latin music megastar Thalía, 28, tied the knot with music mogul and Mariah-molder Tommy Mottola, 52, in a $3 million dollar wedding ceremony at NYC’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Though a superstar in her native Mexico and many other countries from Greece to the Philippines, Thalía is only known in the U.S. to one large section of the populace, namely those who follow Latin pop music (you know, the kind MTV refuses to air at any time — the kind in Spanish), and regularly watch the telenovelas seen on the three Spanish-language networks. Thalía’s fans as a whole have been politely avoiding the somewhat Faustian aspect of her romantic merger with Mottola, but the tabloids, both in English and Spanish, haven’t been quite so kind. She’s been portrayed in English publications as a young Latin soap star positioning herself to be "Mariah II," while Spanish publications have printed as many pictures as they could obtain of her publicly nuzzling her older beau — elaborating how much money and influence Mottola has. The conclusions were implicit: Mottola chose another gorgeous younger woman, but this time he picked a foreign one to avoid the sort of problems he had with Carey (who conducted bitter public arguments with her "starmaking" hubby); Thalía, having already noted in many interviews that she was "too busy" to sustain a relationship at this stage of her career, suddenly found her "twin" in a man whose wiseguy-wannabe wardrobe earmarks him as a conspicuous consumer (he constructed a $10 million mansion for Carey, in which he installed a fully functional recording studio). It’s enough to make a fan like myself shrug, sigh, and simply try to forget it all by remembering the intial thrill of discovery....

Diehard channel surfers rendered catatonic by the pabulum served up by the networks and basic cable channels have always known that the most vibrant, unpredictable entertainment can be found on the foreign language channels, particularly the three Spanish networks. Those of us who studied the language in school but get lost when people begin to hablan rapidamente (talk quickly) can still follow and become absorbed by Spanish-language telenovelas, variety shows, and music programs. Fans of vintage movies and TV shows will find formulas they recognize, but the passion and spontaneity with which they are carried out makes one thing certain: the most routine program on Univision is a thousand times more compelling than the sad fare being offered up on Nick at Night these days (when Facts of Life becomes "classic TV," it’s time to fold up shop, fellas).

I first encountered Thalía (pronounced Tah-LEE-ah) on La Movida, a late-evening talk/variety program. About 20 at the time (1992), Thalía was already a show-biz veteran (she started in her first prefab band at the tender age of nine), Her look was what struck home first — a lithe, energetic brunette with a white streak running through the front of her mane-like hair, clad in a series of outlandish, eye-catching outfits. Her songs were the next aspect to register — an assortment of well-crafted pop tunes, with clearly salacious overtones. The coup de grace were the interview segments, in which the sexpot singer talked quietly and sweetly about her career, her fans, and her-then controversial image. The fact that the show appeared to have a minimal budget, the choreography was slightly off at points, and the sound quality on the live musical performances abysmal, made the experience all the more charming. Thalía’s one number in English was a heavily accented version of "Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend," done in full Marilyn regalia — here, it seemed, was a young woman truly unafraid of comparisons with the then-still-vital Madonna.