Shantal Méndez

Infobox Musical artist


Img_size = 150
Name = Shantal Méndez
Background = solo_singer
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Born = birth date and age|1975|10|17
Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States
Origin = flagicon|Mexico Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
Occupation = Singer, Dancer
Genre = Pop, Latin
Years_active = 1989 - present
Instruments = Vocals
Label = Warner Bros. Records (1989 - 2003)
Universal Music Group (2003 - present

Shantal Lucía Méndez is a four-time Grammy Award winning American-Mexican singer-songwriter, actress and dancer. She is noted for her dance and pop songs and her Latino-inspired power ballads. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) ranks her album "¡Baile! ¡Baile! ¡Baile!" as the first best-selling Latin music album in America and as the seventh best-selling singer in America's history. Most known for her hits "Boda-Pantano", "Universe Heroes", "I'm Here to Save The World'", '"You Start" and others.

Early life and discovery

She was born Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States, a year after her parents moved from Guadalajara, Jalisco. Her mother, Marisabel Romero Quintero was a stage actor and now is a screenplay writer and songwriter who also wrote some songs for Méndez. Her father, Adelmar Méndez is a well-known architect. Méndez is named after the well-known Mexican actress Lucía Méndez who is a very close friend of the family.

Méndez has four brothers, Melin, Regino, Pierre and Robert, and one sister, Gloria. She is the third child in the family.

Discovery

Méndez was early discovered by William Orbit while she performed with Ricky Martín in Phoenix, Arizona in 1989. She won that collaboration in a mini-competition she took part in Kids Incorporated, there, kids sang well-known American classics. She sang "You're All I Need to Get By", by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. Orbit took her for some recordings and in March 16, 1990 she signed with Warner Bros. Records.

1990 - 1993: Roots and Vivas

For first two years as a recording artists, William Orbit was her manager and worked with her on a debut Christmas album, including covers of popular Christmas songs and American classics. It was released under the name "Roots" on December 3, 1991. The only single from that album was "Let It Rain!" that surprisingly succeed and reached the Top 20 in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Right after Christmas ended Warner Bros. Records and William were about to work on another album with Méndez, this time an expressing album of her Latin roots and music style. On that album she worked with Gloria and Emilio Estefan and started to write some songs in Spanish. Meanwhile she was touring all around South America, mainly Argentina, covering well-known Spanish-language classics, in her version. On October 1992 one song leaked into the radio, called "Molestado". That song charted in Argentina, although it never released as a single.

The first single was officially released on January 7, 1993. Called "Celebración", that song became a hit in South America reaching the third place in Brazil, the fifth place in Mexico and the first places in Argentina and Hot Latin Tracks American chart. Following that single there was "You Start" that became a huge hit also, achieving the first place in the Hot Latin Tracks chart, sixth in Argentina, United States and even the United World Chart. That song was also the debut successful song of Méndez in Europe.

"You Start" and "Celebración" were the only singles from her second album, but another song from it was very successful; "Boys Can't be an Issue" that became a leading dance track in dancing clubs and discotheques. "Vivas" released only after them in September 29, 1993 and charted tenth on the American album chart. Following the album Méndez went to a tour around America with guest stars Frankie Beverly, Illya Kuryaki and the Valderramas, Mercedes Sosa, Julieta Venegas and Gloria Estefan.

1994 - 1996: Career establishment

After the tour has been over Méndez was about to record another album, again with Gloria and Emilio Estefan but this time also with Julieta Venegas, a near friend of Méndez. The working process about the album started in November 1993 and ended in May 1994.

Angel Rojo

Angel Rojo debuted in a small CD shop in Santa Fe where she used to buy CDs at a young age on the date of July 8, 1994. Méndez's fans and music writers rushed into the shop to buy the album. It debuted in the Europe, Australia by July 17, 1994, in South America by August 2, 1994 and finally in North America and other countries in August 8, 1994, a month after the release in Santa Fe.

The debut single from the album was "Tenemos Tiempo", a power ballad that peaked first places in 5 countries, including it Mexico for five weeks and her debut first place in the United States for two weeks.