Francisca Valenzuela

Francisca Valenzuela
Francisca Valenzuela performing her hit single "Dulce" on stage.
Background information
Birth name	Francisca Valenzuela
Born	March 17, 1987 (1987-03-17) (age 22) San Francisco, California, United States
Genres	Pop, jazz, folk, alternative rock
Occupations	Singer, song-writer, poet, composer
Instruments	Vocals, Piano, Guitar
Years active	2006 – present
Labels	Feria Music Records
Associated acts	Los Bunkers, Inti-Illmani, Violeta Parra, Julieta Venegas
Website	FranciscaValenzuela.com

Francisca Valenzuela (born March 17, 1987) 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 in Chile, where it was certified Gold.

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 with her four brothers and her parents, who were both scientists. There 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. 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 California, where she gave poetry readings and performed songs of her own composition.

2004-2006

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. 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.

2007-present

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 called 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. She has performed in Mexico and Uruguay, and continues to perform at various venues in her native Chile. Valenzuela is currently in the pre-production stages for her second album. In addition to performing her own music, she contributed in the Chilean water conservation documentary, "H2O:Cero", by composing a new song called 'En Blanco' for the film in early 2009. She has also participated in CD tributes for Violeta Parra, recording her own version of Run Run Se Fue Pa'l Norte' as well as recording a version of Inti-Illmani's song, "Vuelvo". ^[1]

Discography

• 2007: Muérdete La Lengua

References

External links

• Official music website
• Official MySpace
• Official Blog