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Thalía Sodi - Biography

Thalía Sodi - Biography: Encyclopedia II - Thalía Sodi - Biography

In 1981, Thalía began her career as a child with the national group Din Din and perfomed in the music festival Juguemos a Cantar, first as a member of the group and then as a soloist. In 1984 she was cast in the teenage version of the stage production Grease, ending up with the lead as Sandy. She later replaced one of the female vocalists of Timbiriche in 1986, making the band's fame skyrocket. That same year she was cast in her first soap opera Pobre Señorita Limantour. A year later, she starred in the Mexican telenovela Quinceañera after which she went to Los Angeles, California t ...

Thalía Sodi: Encyclopedia II - Thalía Sodi - Biography

Thalía Sodi - Biography

In 1981, Thalía began her career as a child with the national group Din Din and perfomed in the music festival Juguemos a Cantar, first as a member of the group and then as a soloist. In 1984 she was cast in the teenage version of the stage production Grease, ending up with the lead as Sandy. She later replaced one of the female vocalists of Timbiriche in 1986, making the band's fame skyrocket. That same year she was cast in her first soap opera Pobre Señorita Limantour. A year later, she starred in the Mexican telenovela Quinceañera after which she went to Los Angeles, California to prepare herself to pursue a solo career.

In 1990, she released her first album earning a gold record the following year. She later traveled to Spain and starred in different television programs and also released her second album, which also went gold. By 1993 her third album Love went platinum. The year 1992 was also the beginning of a successful acting career in México. She starred in Televisa's telenovela María Mercedes, following a series of others like Marimar, María La Del Barrio and later on Rosalinda. These became a huge success, not only in Mexico, but also in countries like USA, Indonesia, Portugal, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Peru, Senegal, China, Greece, Cyprus, The Philippines, Brazil and have been sold in over 180 countries. Her telenovelas are simple stories and all are based on adaptations to the well-known Cinderella story, the main caracter is born in poverty and then meets a wealthy young man and later they get married.

In 1997 Atlantic Records released the soundtrack for the animated feauture Anastasia, which included as a bonus track the Spanish version of "Journey to the Past", performed by Thalía. Also in that year, she traveled to the Philippines and had a major concert at the Araneta Coliseum and filled almost 15,000 thousand capacity. Thalía released her only Philippine album entitled Nandito Ako, her also carrier single. She also did the Tagalog version of Wilfrido Vargas' popular merengue song called "El Venao" whose title in Tagalog was "Chika Lang". She recorded that particular album mostly in Tagalog and English language.

She has been a guest on television programs like Hard Copy, Entertainment Tonight, El Show de Cristina and The Rosie O'Donnell Show. She also starred in Mambo Café, a modest Hollywood production in which she played a young Puerto Rican girl alongside Danny Aiello and Rosanna de Soto with Paul Rodriguez as her father.

On December 2, 2000, Thalía married the former Sony Music president, Tommy Mottola (ex-husband of the American superstar singer Mariah Carey) at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, in a three-million dollar ceremony and reception. They currently live in New York City.

Thalía's next album, Thalia (2002), was largely written and produced by Estéfano, the hitmaker who had taken Paulina Rubio's career to megastar heights two years earlier with Paulina. Buoyed by a pair of chart-topping singles ("A quien le importa?", "No Me Enseñaste" and "Tu y Yo"), this album hit number one for 6 consecutive weeks on the Top Latin Albums chart, reaching number 22 on the overall Billboard 200 chart, which itself was a supreme feat for a Spanish-language artist.

"No Me Enseñaste" is probably her best hit to date, receiving many Latin Grammy nominees, many other awards, as well as, chart-topping success. It was #1 in Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks. It also topped Latin airplays and was #1. She has earned two Billboard Latin Music Awards for Best Female Pop Album of the Year and the People's Choice Award.

In 2003 Thalía released her first self-titled English language album Thalía, featuring the rapper Fat Joe in one of the tracks. Even though it wasn't the crossover everybody hoped it would be, it sold over 150,000 within the first weeks in the United States and introduced her to the music market of Japan, where she sold more than 200,000 copies and became a huge celebrity. She also released a successful clothing line, exclusively available in Kmart, under the name Thalía Sodi Collection. With huge success, her clothing line went from 300 Kmart stores to 1,500 and more than doubled Kmart's popularity.

Thalía later signed a contract with the chocolate company, Hershey's. She appears in the company's Spanish-language advertisements and sells her own branch of Hershey's products called La Dulcería Thalía (The Thalía Candy Shop).

Her album El Sexto Sentido was released July 19, 2005 and was recorded mostly in the Spanish, but with a few of the cuts sung in English as well. It was the most expensive CD produced in Latin America in 2005. It has mild success so far, mostly because of lack of enough promotion. Though the sound and the overall result is one of her most integrated projects. "Amar Sin Ser Amada" (To love Without being loved) was the first single of the album. It is an infectious rock-edged tango-based song. "Un Alma Sentenciada" (A Sentenced Soul), the second single, is a feverish and, at points, hyperdramatic ballad. The explosive "Seducción" (Seduction) was the third single. El Sexto Sentido sold nearly 85,000 copies during the first week in Mexico.

In the summer of 2005, Thalía's multi-million dollar contract with Televisa was canceled, due to her not wanting to star in a soap opera or a show with the company. After several notices the head of Televisa Emilio Azcárraga Jean, decided to cancel her contract after several attempts to make her go back into telenovelas. The contract was made for three telenovelas and only one was made, Rosalinda (1999). Thalia was payed $75,000 U.S dollars a month for the contract.

Now (in 2006), Thalia is the 'godmother' of 'Cantando Por Un Sueño', a Mexican TV reality show. Once again she proved to be the favorite and 'Cantando Por Un Sueño' was viewed by 45% of all the Mexican Audience during the entire day. The title song of the show was recorded by Thalía too, and it will be included in El Sexto Sentido Re-Loaded (a rereleased version of Thalia's current album). Release date unknown and features four new songs, including a duet with the group 'Aventura'. Thalia then plans to release her twelveth album in which she will completely modify her looks into a more rebellious, juvenile "Thalia" in order to attract the young American public. The album will be sung completely in english and will be released around August of this year.

The 21st of April has been declared "Day of Thalía" in Los Angeles. She has a broad fan base around the world and has allegedly accessed people's houses in over one hundred and eighty countries, thanks to her famous "telenovelas". Her face is familiar among millions, and has been named one of the "25 most beautiful people" by reputable magazine People en Español many times.

On January 11, 2005, Thalia officially became a U.S. citizen at a swearing-in ceremony in New York, where she resides with her husband. Although she is allowed to retain her Mexican citizenship without having to renounce it, she hasn't decided if she will keep it.