Chenoa

María Laura Corradini Falomir (born June 25, 1975), known professionally as Chenoa, is an Argentine-Spanish music artist who rose to fame as a contestant on reality television singing competition Operación Triunfo. Her music style could be described as pop. Most of her music is in Spanish, although a few tracks on some albums were recorded in English. She has sold more than 1,000,000 records since 2002.

Early life

Chenoa was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina on June 25, 1975, although her family moved to Mallorca, Spain, when she was eight. She grew up in a musical family; both parents were musicians who used to sing in hotels at live music shows. At the age of 16, Chenoa began to sing professionally, taking part in her parents' show. When her mother fell ill, Chenoa had to stand in for her. Her fathers family is of Italian descent and her maternal grandmother is Lebanese.

She graduated as a nursery school teacher and started performing in the Casino de Mallorca shows when she was 20. There, Chenoa acquired a good stage presence before entering the first edition of the Spanish television show Operación Triunfo in 2001.

Career

Her first album was Chenoa, released in April 2002 in Spain. The first single was Atrévete, a song whose English version is also included in the album as Mystify, but the greatest hit of this album was Cuando tú vas, played all over Spain in the summer of 2002. Chenoa sold over 500,000 copies in Spain after 61 weeks in the Top 100 chart, and she was nominated for the Spanish music industry awards Premios Amigo as best new female artist and best female artist. Year 2002 finished with a Spanish tour that included more than 90 dates. In April 2003, Chenoa competed in and won Eurobest, a European singing contest in which she performed "It's Raining Men".