María José Castillo

María José Castillo
María José on a press conference for her debut album María José on a press conference for her debut album
Background information
Birth name	María José Castillo Gutiérrez
Born	August 11, 1990 (1990-08-11) (age 21) Heredia, Costa Rica
Origin	Barva, Heredia, Costa Rica
Genres	Pop
Occupations	Singer
Instruments	vocals
Years active	2007—present
Labels	Sony BMG Latin America (2008-present)
Associated acts	Latin American Idol Margarita Henríquez
Website	Official Spanish Website

María José Castillo (born August 11, 1990) is a Costa Rican singer. She is best known for her participation in Latin American Idol. On the show she ended as the runner-up, losing to Margarita Henríquez. Her debut album, "María José", was released on November 25, 2008. The album had lots of success debuting on the Costa Rican Top 10 albums on position 5. Also its lead single, "Abre Tu Corazón", entered the Costa Rican Top 40 on the poisition 3.

Career

2007-2008: Latin American Idol and debut EP

Castillo made her debut for the music business on the auditions for the third season of the show, Latin American Idol in 2008. On that same year she was chosen to participate on the workshops to see if she was going to be chosen for the concerts. She was chosen on the third workshop and the later got to the top 10.

Castillo got to the semi-finals along with other three contestants. She got to the finals with Margarita Henríquez. Castillo got as the runner-up on the show, but later it was revealed that she got the same prizes that the winner, Margarita Henríquez, won. She won a music contract with Sony BMG, a contract for publicity with Westwood Entertainment and an agent. Toyota Latin America gave her a car also. When she got back to Costa Rica after her participation on the show, the National University, gave her the chance to study any career she wanted and gaving her a therapy for her voice.

María José got to release her debut album later that year. The self titled album got lots of success on Costa Rica entering the Top 10 Costa Rican albums. Also its lead single entered the Top 40 Costa Rican songs on the position 3, having one of the highest debuts of the year on that chart. The album was certified Gold by Sony BMG. The album's lead single, "Abre Tu Corazón", premiered on radio stations on November 10, 2008.^[1] On 2008, she was chosen as the leader for a Costa Rican festival called El Festival De La Luz (in English: The Light Festival).^[2] She was chosen by San José's mayor, Johnny Araya.

There has been reports that Castillo has changed her artistic name to "MaJo". Also other reports have stated that Castillo will start recording a second studio album in 2009, for a release date of late 2009 or early 2010. Castillo will start recording the album on June or July. Her agent stated that the album will not be recorded in her home country, Costa Rica, they have plans of recording it on the United States (the first option is Miami, Florida) and Mexico. Other plans will be later announced.

2009 onward: First studio album

On the 40 Principlaes event, she performed the song "Para Siempre", which is set to be included on her upcoming album. To date it has been the only song confirmed to be on the album. Castillo said that the song is "one of her favorites".^[3] Castillo also said that she will have a "new look" and she said that she has plans to change her stage name to MaJo.^[4]

Singles Chronology

The following chart contains Castillo's singles to date, the year of release and the chart peak. The peak is on the Costa Rican Top 40 Chart, the main chart is Costa Rica.

Year	Song Title	Peak
2008	"Abre Tu Corazón"	3
2009	"Vuela"	15

— (The single has not charted yet, or failed to chart)

Television Appearances

Year	Television Show	Notes
2007	Nace Una Estrella	A singing contest, first runner-up
2008	Latin American Idol	Singing contest, runner-up
	Bailando Por Un Sueño	Performed 2 songs
	Teletón 20-30, Panama 2008	Performed two duets with Margarita Henríquez and one song solo.
	El Festival De La Luz	Mariscal of the event
	El Chinamo	Performed 2 songs

Discography

Studio Albums & EPs

• 2008: "María José" (EP)
• 2009: "Mi Destino"

References

1. ^ "Abre Tu Corazón" Radio Premiere Information (In spanish)
2. ^ Castillo as the Light Festival Mariscal (In Spanish)
3. ^ Castillo's Letter to her Fans
4. ^ María José cambia a MaJo (in Spanish)

External links

• Official Website
• Westwood Entertainment Website

(NOTE: All links are on Spanish)

Persondata
Name	Maria Jose Castillo
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	August 11, 1990
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death