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 Entertainment | December 2007 
Cover Singer Yuridia Begins Using Her Own Words
 Ayala Ben-Yehuda - Reuters/Billboard
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| | Yuridia Francisca Gaxiola Flores was the runner-up on the 2005 season of TV Azteca's "La Academia" singing competition. |
Los Angeles - What's a 21-year-old reality show graduate to do when she's sold more than 1 million copies of covers albums? If you're Mexican pop star Yuridia, you pick up a pen and write songs for the first time in your life.
Yuridia Francisca Gaxiola Flores was the runner-up on the 2005 season of TV Azteca's "La Academia" singing competition. Though she came in second, her two albums of covers sold a combined 1 million copies in Mexico, according to record industry trade group Amprofon - an almost unheard-of feat these days in a market rife with piracy. In the United States, those albums shifted 186,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, despite almost no stateside promotion from the artist herself, though the contest was televised in the States on the Azteca America network.
Yuridia's handful of stateside radio hits includes a feature spot on Victor Manuelle's 2006 "Nuestro Amor Se Ha Vuelto Ayer" and "Como Yo Nadie Te Ha Amado," a Bon Jovi cover that went to No. 16 on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart in February.
Now the pop star, who had a baby last year, is ready for the next phase in her career. She co-wrote three songs on "Entre Mariposas," her first album of original material, due December 4 on Sony BMG.
"Life has given me the opportunity to go on and do something of my own, not just covers of songs that have been made by other artists and have already been out there," said Yuridia, who has done Spanish versions of Robbie Williams' "Angel," Roxette's "Listen to Your Heart" and Billy Joel's "Piano Man." "It's time that I risk it."
Full of radio-friendly power ballads and a couple of catchy uptempo numbers, "Entre Mariposas" isn't too big of a gamble. The album counts on songs written especially for Yuridia by Sony BMG's most successful singer-songwriters, including Julio Ramirez from the group Reik, Reyli Barba, Ilan Chester and Noel Schajris from Sin Bandera.
Single "Ahora Entendi" was co-written by Mario Domm of the group Camila, whose latest album has topped the U.S. Latin and Mexican sales charts. The single is climbing the Latin pop airplay chart, where it stands at No. 30 this week.
Yuridia, a single mom, admitted that a couple of the songs were inspired by her life, but "more than just my life, I try to see what other people are feeling so that when they listen to the CD, they can like it and see themselves in that song."
Yuridia, who spent her teenage years in Mesa, Ariz., said she relishes the prospect of gaining new U.S. fans - and of some day recording in English. (Her last album included an English cover of "The Rose.")
But for now, the big step is presenting original material in Spanish. "Now that I get to do my own stuff, I don't think I'm going back." |
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