LUCY CALCINES

A Tribute To The Great Latin Divas

Cuban-Spanish singer-songwriter, Lucy Calcines, became an overnight sensation when her Blind Audition on the The Voice UK became the show’s most viewed performance globally, with over 32 million views. She achieved a 4-chair turn by superstar coaches Meghan Trainor, Sir Tom Jones, Olly Murs and Will.i.am and went on to become a Semifinalist.

Lucy has since returned to her roots of singing in Spanish and last year wowed our audience on the 2nd stage at LatinoLife in the Park with an impromptu medley of the songs from Selena Quintanilla, the beautiful, charismatic, tejana singer, whose life was tragically cut-short in 1995 when she was murdered just before her 24th birthday, by her own friend.

The audience reaction to Lucy’s incredible voice and tribute to one the most influential and loved Latin artists of all time, sowed the seeds of an idea we have been working on ever since – to honour the great women of Latin music. There are few female voices currently on the Latin music scene who have either the chops of Celia Cruz or La India or the charisma of Selena, Gloria Estefan and J-Lo to even attempt to sing their songs – spanning a range of genres from ranchero and pop to house and salsa, a genre notoriously difficult to sing. But in Lucy we found that person, which is why we were so excited to invite her to take the most coveted spot in UK Latin Music – The LatinoLife Headline Act.

Lucy’s mastery of the switch between English and Spanish, her extensive vocal range and on-stage charisma, as well as her understanding of diverse music, is what makes this artist special. As well as taking on some of Latin music’s most iconic anthems, she’ll sing her own hits ‘Fresa’ and ‘Bombon.’ In addition, she has rearranged two of her own compositions ‘Alas’ and ‘Pop’ as salsas, and will perform J Balvin’s ‘Mi Gente’, the tune she brought the house down with in the studios of The Voice.

Four years on from that phenomenal UK debut, and with last year’s stunning festival performance under her belt, we find a more seasoned artist, a woman who knows herself better and is more ready to take on the biggest challenge of her career; putting her own stamp on the music of her idols and revealing the fully blossomed Latina singersongwriter that she is, to her Latino home crowd. We can’t wait!

Nobody does diva like a Latina, and in a music industry dominated by machismo and male leads, you damn well have to know how to be one, with charm included, to get ahead. Some of our divas have great voices, others electrifying stage presence, all of them have made their careers as immigrants. From the ultimate Latin diva to the original Latin diva, here are the women who have had to prove their talent to become superstars and their iconic songs, ahead this year’s LatinoLife in the Park where we honour them.

Selena

Long before the likes of J-Lo and Shakira appeared on the scene, a young Texasborn mexicana single-handedly familiarised US audiences with Mexican music and brought pride to the US’ Mexican population. By 1995, at the time of her untimely death at the age of 24, Selena Quintanilla had become the world’s first crossover Central American superstar, breaking down racial barriers and uniting audiences with her winning combination of rancheras, cumbias, soul and pop and her unique relationship with fans. Her single, “Como la Flor”, became one of her most popular signature songs and , with her album Live! (1993), she was the first Tejana artist to win a Grammy. In 1994, she released Amor Prohibido, which became one of the best-selling Latin albums in the United States.

At the height of her popularity, Selena was shot dead on March 31, 1995, by Yolanda Saldívar, Selena’s friend and manager of her fan club. In the months leading up to the murder, Saldívar had been accused by Selena’s father of mismanagement, after he discovered she had embezzled more than $30,000 via forged checks. He banned Saldívar from having any contact with Selena, but Selena did not want to dissolve their friendship. On the day of the murder, Selena met with Saldívar in her motel room at the Days Inn in Corpus Christi. Saldívar shot her. Critically wounded, Selena ran towards the lobby and collapsed on the floor as the clerk called the emergency services, with Saldívar chasing after her.

News of Selena’s death generated complete hysteria. Fans lined up for almost a 1 mile to see her casket. Rumours that the casket was empty began circulating, prompted the Quintanilla family to have an open-casket viewing, allowing 40,000 fans to pass by, with 78,000 signing a book of condolence. They say the reaction at the time was akin to the death of one of the Beatles and Elvis. What was it that made her such an icon? It is easy to forget just how many people took comfort from someone who looked and sounded - she sung in English and Spanish - just like them.

Two weeks later, Texas Governor George W. Bush declared Selena’s birthday Selena Day in Texas. Her posthumous crossover album, Dreaming of You (1995), debuted at the top the Billboard 200, making Selena the first Latin artist to accomplish this. Selena has sold around 30 million records worldwide, making her the best-selling artist in Latin music, bigger than Marc Anthony. America called her the “Tejano Madonna.” Perhaps Madonna was the American Selena. In 1997, Warner Bros. released the movie ‘Selena’ which starred Jennifer Lopez as Selena, a role that gave birth to the next Latina superstar. playing Selena in the Tejana star’s bio-pic, La Lopez began to hit the big time. “When I was doing Selena, I thought, ‘God, I really miss singing and dancing and sharing that with the public,” she recalls. More realistically, Lopez clearly got a taste of the kind of stardom that Selena had coveted. That was what she really wanted. She wanted to surpass Selena, not be her.

As divas hungry for fame do, Jenny from the block managed to engineer a meeting with Tommy Mottola, the president of Sony Records. Impressed by her demo, he signed her up, and in 1998 she started work on her debut album, On The 6, which unashamedly piggy-backing on the explosion of R&B, went platinum in the States within months of hitting the stores. Her relationship with Sean Combs, aka P Diddy didn’t hurt of course, along with her appearance in a stunning green Versace dress at the Grammys, and a small scandal in a night club involving a ‘shooting’ (ooh dangerous) on the front pages, but by the time was well and truly an A-list celeb she’s moved on, now with her new name J-Lo.

This ultimate Latin diva needs no intro. J-Lo is simply the biggest Latina star on the planet. Never mind Latin diva, we’re talking Mega-Uber Global diva. Born on July 24, 1970, in New York’s Bronx to Puerto Rican parents, Jennifer never wanted an ordinary life. Although her mother, a kindergarten teacher, and her father, a computer specialist, wanted her to study, Jennifer was having none of it. She wanted to sing, to dance, to act and most of all, she wanted to be beyond famous. At 17, she landed a place at Manhattan’s Dance Studio, dividing her time between the Studio and high school but it wasn’t until 1997 that, having landed the part

The rest is history, starring roles in Hollywood blockbusters, Grammy winning albums, lots of high-profile affairs, with other Hollywood stars that “kept her in the news. Raunchy “Bennifer” (Jennifer and Ben Affleck) called it quits in January, 2004. And she was soon linked to Marc Anthony, the biggest Latin Artist. And, in a surprise turn of events, the two suddenly tied the knot in June, 2004, just four days after Marc’s divorce from former Miss Universe. How very Latino. But it was J-Lo’s undeniably phenomenal performance, at the age of 50, at the Super Bowl half time cemented her status of greatest Latin Diva of all time that. Whatever you think of her singing talents, nobody could deny the spellbinding acrobatics and singing spectacle and the plain sexiness of a woman who, in another life, might be sitting on a sofa like the rest of us. In honour of this very performance, Lucy has chosen one of its key songs: ‘Let’s Get Loud’.