Mónica Naranjo
Who is Mónica Naranjo?
Mónica Naranjo Carrasco was born on May 23, 1974, in Figueres, in the province of Girona (Catalonia), to Andalusian parents. Interested in music from a young age, she began studying solfège and piano, and as a teenager, according to popular accounts, she met Salvador Dalí, a famous resident of her hometown. At 16 she left home to devote herself entirely to music alongside Cristóbal Sansano, the composer and producer she would later marry.
Career
In 1994 she released her debut album, simply titled “Mónica Naranjo,” on Sony Music. The record went largely unnoticed in Spain, but the singer tried her luck in Mexico and Latin America, where audiences embraced her with huge enthusiasm: she sold more than 1,500,000 copies of that first album, making her the first Spanish artist to reach such a figure abroad with a debut record. Singles from that album included “El amor pone,” “Sola,” “Sólo se vivir una vez,” and “Fuego de pasión” (a cover of a Donna Summer song), and she performed at Mexico City’s Teatro Metropólitan.
Her real breakthrough in Spain came in 1997 with her second album, “Palabra de mujer,” which went platinum just eight weeks after release and yielded as many as eight singles, including “Desátame.” With this record, Mónica Naranjo reinvented herself as a diva with a powerful voice and a bold image; that same year she received a World Music Award in Monaco as the best-selling Latin artist, along with the Best New Artist award at the Latin Awards. A third album, “Minage,” followed, backed by a world tour.
Notable discography
In 2005, after nearly two years away from the spotlight, she released “Colección privada,” a compilation covering her first eleven years of her career that included one new track, “Enamorada de ti.” She returned to the public eye in 2008 with the single “Europa” and an appearance as a mentor on the TV show “Operación Triunfo.” In 2010 she presented the album “Adagio” on a tour backed by a symphony orchestra, including a stop at the Palacio de Congresos in Madrid, where she performed both classics like “Desátame” and “Sobreviviré” (a cover of Italian singer Mina) alongside new symphonic material.
Personal life
Over the course of her career, Mónica Naranjo has sold several million records worldwide and earned the nickname “the Panther of Figueres” for the power of her voice and her stage presence.