Francisca Valenzuela

All Music Guide:

Francisca Valenzuela is an American-born Latin pop singer, songwriter, and pianist from Chile who broke through to mainstream success there in 2007 with the smash hit single "Dulce." Born March 17, 1987, in San Francisco, CA, she began studying music at a young age, learning both classical piano and acoustic guitar. She also began writing at a young age; most notably, a book of her poems, Defenseless Waters, was published in 2000 by El Andar Books with a prologue by famous Chilean author Isabel Allende. Around the same time her book was published, Valenzuela moved with her family from the United States to Chile. In 2004, as she was completing high school, she began performing her music in the clubs of Santiago. A couple years later she began hosting her music on MySpace, and one of her songs, "Peces," was picked up for radio airplay. Meanwhile, she was offered a recording contract with the label Feria Music and collaborated with producers Mauricio Durán and Francisco Durán of Los Bunkers on her full-length debut album, Muérdete la Lengua (2007). On the heels of "Peces," the single "Dulce" was given an official release in December 2006; moreover, its promotional video was released in January 2007 and eventually picked for rotation on MTV Latin America in March. One of the most popular songs of 2007 in Chile, "Dulce" went all the way to number two on the national singles chart. A series of follow-up singles was released in its wake, including the Top Ten hit "Muérdete la Lengua," the Top 30 hit "Afortunada," and "Muleta." In 2008, amid the continued success of Muérdete la Lengua and its long run of hit singles, a deluxe edition of the album was released with a bonus track remix of "Muleta" by Jorge González of Los Prisioneros and a bonus DVD comprised of promotional videos and live recordings.

Wikipedia:

Francisca Valenzuela (born March 17, 1987 in San Francisco, California) is an American born Chilean singer, songwriter, poet, instrumentalist, and composer of Pop and Rock songs. She was born and raised in San Francisco, California, where she resided until the age of 12, before moving to Chile. She is considered to be one of the singing revelations of Chilean music from 2006. On June 30, 2007 she released her first solo studio album Muérdete La Lengua ("Bite your Tongue") in Chile, where it was certified Gold. Her second studio album Buen Soldado ("Good Soldier") was released on March 2011 in United States, México and Chile simultaneously.

Early life

Francisca Valenzuela's career is divided between the United States and Chile. She lived her first twelve years in San Francisco, California, United States. Valenzuela is the fourth oldest and only daughter of five children, born to two Chilean born scientists, Pablo DT Valenzuela and Bernardita Méndez. She demonstrated interest in music at a very early age. She began taking music lessons at the age of 7. By the age of ten she was playing acoustic guitar, was studying classical piano and was taking her first steps in writing songs. She lived and attended school in San Francisco and Berkeley, California. During summer vacations, she and her brothers would travel to Santiago, where they would visit relatives. Eventually, the family would make the permanent move to Santiago, when Francisca was 12. In 2000, Francisca published her first book,"Defenseless Waters" a collection of her poems. She released her second book,"Abejorros/Madurar", which was distributed in Spain and Latin America. As part a promotional tour for "Defenseless Waters", she brought her guitar and keyboard to venues in northern California, where she gave poetry readings and performed songs of her own composition. Valenzuela is fluent in English and Spanish, and often composes songs in both languages. Although she and her family still live in Santiago, Valenzuela often returns to San Francisco to visit.

Career

2004-2007: Music debut Muérdete la Lengua

Shortly after the release of her first book, she and her family moved to Chile when she was 13. Residing in Chile, Francisca took part as singer in interschool festivals presenting her original songs and she continued with training in classic piano. In 2004 she attended an intensive jazz program at the Berklee College School of Music in Boston.

In 2006, Valenzuela released her first solo single called "Peces", which she wrote at age 13. After a few months after its release, "Peces" gained popularity on Chilean radio. Valenzuela gave radio interviews and concerts to promote her new song. "Peces" was recognized by Rolling Stone magazine, as one of the best 100 songs of the year 2006. The song was written in 2000, when Valenzuela was thirteen years old. She and her family had moved to Santiago that year from San Francisco. Valenzuela wrote the song about a boy she liked at school who didn't reciprocate her feelings. At the end of that year, she released her second single "Dulce" to radio Rock & Pop. "Dulce" reached number two on the national charts in Chile.

To add more achievements to her short musical career, on May 19, 2007, she was invited by Julieta Venegas to open her concert at Teatro Caupolicán. On June 30, 2007, she released her first solo album called Muérdete La Lengua with the production of the brothers Mauricio and Francisco Durán (Los Bunkers), who contains 10 songs (included "Peces" and "Dulce"). The Chilean press quickly dubbed her as The Princess of Rock, calling her, " new musical revelation". Soon after its release, the album was certified as Gold in Chile. Valenzuela performed in New York City at the annual LAMC conference in July 2008. This was Valenzuela's first musical exposure in the US and gave her an opportunity to showcase her music outside of Latin American. She has performed in Mexico and Uruguay, and continued to perform at various venues in her native Chile.

2009–present: second studio album Buen Soldado

In early 2009, Valenzuela began the pre-production stages for her second album, in addition to performing her own music contributing to the Chilean water conservation documentary H2O:Cero, by composing a new song called "En Blanco" for the film. She has also participated in the album tribute for Violeta Parra, recording a new version of "Run Run Se Fue Pa'l Norte" as well as recording a version of Inti-Illimani's song "Vuelvo".

She also was guest vocalist on Latin Bitman's 2009 album Colour; Valenzuela co-wrote and sang two songs, "Help Me" and "Someday". "Help Me" was later released as a single in the United States and Chile and a music video was also filmed in Los Angeles in November 2009. In the summer of 2010, Valenzuela began recording for her second studio album in Santiago. She continued to perform at various festivals and concerts in both Chile and Mexico. Valenzuela completed the recording and production phase for her second album in late 2010. On January 1, 2011, Valenzuela released in digital formats her first single "Quiero Verte Más" from her second studio album called Buen Soldado; the album was released on March 3, 2011 in Chile as a physical and digital release.