Diana Navarro Ocaña is a famous Spanish singer from the Andalucía region of Spain. Born in Malaga on April 21, 1978, she is now one of the known faces in the Spanish music scene with speciality in the traditional folk genre, including flamenco.

Although she sings flamenco, but her singing exhibits different musical styles such as Andalusia folk songs, flamenco, ballad, saeta, copla, modern, new age, and largely in a fusion of pop, rhythms and electronic, with lyrics full of emotions.

With a strong musical background from her family, she grew up with the influence of flamenco, which was quite obvious as Andalucía is the birth place for flamenco. And, when she was just nine years of age, she performed for the first time as a solo singer with the group “Renacer”.

From there on, Diana Navarro started her singing career and participated in numerous events and competition. However, in between, she took classes and learned different kinds of music before moving to the professional world.

A young unknown until 2005, the year when she released her first album “No te olvides de mi” (Don’t Forget Me) that sold over 200,000 copies, her talent and amazing voice has already signalled the rising of a new star in the Spanish music industry.

However, before the release of Don’t Forget Me as her first national album, she was working with a local production company (Bahía Records) where she made two albums: “Noche de Coplas” and “Homenaje”, and both are quite popular till date.

“No te olvides de mi” earned her the reputation and recognition she needed for the years to come. She not only clinched the award Premio Ondas (Artista Revelación), but also received 6 nominations to the Premio de la Música, Premio Dial in 2006, and nomination at the Latin Grammys as new artist, among many others.

After the release of Don’t Forget Me, Navarro collaborated with some international artists and performed extensively in Spain and other parts of Europe before bringing out her second album “24 Rosas” (24 Roses) in 2007. The album, as she says, is an extension to the first one with little more lyrical.

There are 14 tracks in the album “24 Roses” and in each one, her singing and the rhythm offers you something new to look for others. Both of her albums established that Navarro is more inclined towards copla than flamenco, although the origin of the two is same.

In 2008, Diana Navarro came up with her next album “Camino Verde” (Green Path) to pay homage to her most admired flamenco singers. With each composition she has reached a remarkable musical maturity and as someone, who has reinvented the flamenco style from within the tradition.

Also known as La Pradera, Maria Dolores is a Spanish melodic singer and actress, widely recognised in the Spanish and Latin American film and theatre scene. Born in Madrid (in August 29, 1924), she gained international fame for her exceptional voice and great dramatic talents on stage.

Maria Dolores started her career as an actress both in theatre and movies, including the famous Inés de Castro (1944), Yo no me caso (1944), Los habitantes de la casa deshabitada (1946), Niebla y sol (1951), La danza de los deseos (1954), among others.

As a film and stage actress, she was very much active in the 1950’s and 60’s with much appreciation and recognition coming her way as one of the best dramatic artists of that time. However, as far as professional singing is concerned, she came with more of her works during 1950’s and eventually concentrated more in singing from the latter half of 1960’s.

Her singing has deep rooted elements of traditional Spanish and Latin American music such as bolero, ballad, vals, along with a variety of folk styles.

She performed and worked with some of the finest composers, while for many years, accompanied by guitarists James and Julian López Hernández, known as The Twins, she toured around South America and achieved enormous success.

Her works, both in her theatrical career and as a singer, has earned her numerous international as well as Spanish awards, including the National Theatre Award (Premio Nacional de Teatro) and the Medal of Fine Arts (Medalla de Bellas Artes) and the prestigious Lara Award (Premio Lara).

* This article is open for modification, in case you want to contribute to the write up with additional information about Maria Dolores Pradera and her work.

Born in Barcelona on 23rd November 1972, Antonio Orozco is a Spanish singer-songwriter who started composing songs at the mere age of 15. While living his childhood in the L’Hospitalet region of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia, he discovered his interest in music and started playing guitar.

Antonio’s exposure to music is linked to his family who are originally sevillanos. As the town Seville is known as the birthplace of Flamenco, Antonio got the right feeling of flamenco music. He was also exposed to the traditional music of the surrounding regions during his childhood trip to Triana and Osum which made him realise that music is his only interest.

Holding his flamenco guitar close to the heart, Antonio Orozco grew up as a self-taught artist and began accompanying vocalists as a hobby. Initially in the start of his career, he played in bars and even train stations, and that was the time when his talent of writing and performing flourished just to the level of any professional artist.

Although he did not have any professional experience, Orozco released his first solo album Un Reloj y una Vela which sold more than 100,000 copies. It was pianist/producer Xavi Perez who inspired Antonio and also produced alongside Tato Latorre to release the album.

A year later in 2001, Antonio recorded and released Semilla de Silencio which was more mature with characteristically style of the artist to make it even more successful than the previous one.  Even though it was only the second disc of Antonio, this made him a known face in Spain.

In 2004, Orozco released his third work, El Principio del Comienzo that received similar response from Spanish music lovers around the world. The success of all those three tempted him to perform in various concerts held in US and Latin America.

The self-titled album Antonio Orozco released in 2005 which was a compilation of some of his best songs, including “Te Esperaré”, and “Déjame”. It was a tour edition that added together everything that was for this artist till 2005. This also includes three new tracks: Una y otra vez, Soñando volver, and Tapas.

It is available both in CD and DVD. The DVD of the album contains materials that had never before been published like concerts, videos, tour photo gallery and documentary.

After the release of Edición Tour 05, the artist released his next album named Cadizfornia in 2006 with 11 tracks and then Renovatio in 2009 with 12 beautiful self-written and composed songs.

This apart, Antonio has worked with English singer Lucie Silvas and Spanish multi-selling singer Malú (María Lucía) in two duets What You’re Made Of and Devuélveme la vida respectively. In 2006, he also released two singles: “Tres Corazones” and “Dime Por Qué”.

For more information about the artist and scheduled live concerts, visit the official website.

Well-regarded as one of the most popular Spanish Pop rock bands, La Oreja De Van Gogh has been quite successful worldwide with each of their album selling million copies. As the name suggests, their artistic inspiration comes from the Dutch post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh, who cut off the lobe of his own ear.

The band was formed by four men: guitarist Pablo Benegas, bassist Álvaro Fuentes, keyboardist Xabi San Martín, and drummer Haritz Garde while they were in college. They write and compose their own songs, and since their debut in association with lead vocalist Amaia Montero, who they met in a local party, the band officially started their musical journey together.

Amaia is a singer-songwriter from Basque Country who along with other band members worked and presented band’s first album Dile al sol in 1998 under the label Sony BMG. They obtained the contract from the music company after winning the pop-rock music festival in San Sebastián.

La Oreja de Van Gogh’s second studio album El viaje de Copperpot (Copperpot’s Trip) released on September 11, 2000. It is till date considered the band’s most successful album in Spain for which they won an award for Best Spanish Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards held in Germany in 2001.

In 2003 the band released their third album with eight singles Lo que te conté mientras te hacías la dormida which not only received well in Spain and other parts of Europe but also in the United States. This earned them a Grammy Award nomination, for Best Latin Album along with various other individual awards, including the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards Latinoamérica.

After some best time and some excellent work by each band members, Amaia Montero decided to quit in her interest to start a solo career after the release of their last album together called Guapa (Pretty) on December 5, 2006. This was La Oreja de Van Gogh’s last album with Montero as lead singer and to the credit; this won a Latin Grammy Award for Best Pop Album.

After Amaia Montero’s departure in 2007, the band held an audition to search for a new vocalist and found Leire Martínez, who was then a participant in the Spanish television show ‘Factor X’.

As the band writes in its official website: ‘after meeting many friends and people, we hooked up with Leire and just enough for a moment in our rehearsal room to feel that the search was over: we returned to be five.’

With Leire, the band released their first single El Último Vals of their new album A las cinco en el Astoria (At five in the Astoria) in September 2, 2008. The album which received a 2009 Latin Grammy nomination for Best Pop Album by a Duo/Group is also counted as the 12^th biggest selling album in Spain in the released year.

So, year after year, the band continues to grow with their creation and passion towards music. The band continues to strike the cord while catch the attention of all as their songs typically talk about love, friendship and relationships.

For more information about the albums, world tour, music, and videos, visit the official website.

Isabel Pantoja (María Isabel Pantoja Martín), born on August 2-1956, is a prominent Spanish singer known for her distinctive Andalusia style music. Coming from a musician family from the famous Triana district of Seville, in which both her father and grandfather were singers, Isabel developed keen interest in music and dreamed of being an artist.

Her father Juan Pantoja was a musician and song writer in a flamenco group Los Gaditanos while her mother Ana Martín was a flamenco dancer. Thence, Isabel inherits the qualities of both her parents to be a complete musician, a singer and dancer.

Nicknamed Maribel, Isabel joined her cousin’s Chiquetete dance troupe when she was just 7 and at the age of 13 she performed for the first time at the El Embrujo flamenco club on a contractual basis. She then moved to Madrid for a better career where she was trained by Juan Solano. In 1974, she recorded her first album with songs written by Rafael de León and composed by Juan Solano.

Isabel’s personal life was full of mirth in a milieu of singing and dancing while it was beset with tragedy too. In May 1980, Isabel met bullfighter Paquirri during a local festival and later on April 30, 1983 they got married. But after a year and few months of their marriage with a little baby to support, tragedy struck when Paquirri died during a bullfighting accident on Sep 26, 1984.

It took over a year for her recovery from the personal shock, and she came with a new album that was full of songs which reflected her melancholy state of mind. However, in 1990, Isabel was offered to act in the musical film “Yo soy esa” (1990) directed by Luis Sanz, and then in another one named “El dia en que naci”.

With her career spanning many decades as singer and dancer, Isabel Pantoja is the true ambassador of Spanish music in particular and culture in general. Her life represents music and arts, while being a true champion of the Spanish Ballad (Copla) and music with a universal appeal.