Noelia

February 21, 2009

By cool-chicks.com

Noelia Lorenzo Monge (born August 31, 1977 in San Juan, Puerto Rico)[2], mostly known as Noelia, is a Puerto Rican pop singer who rose to fame in 1999. She is the first daughter of Puerto Rican singer Yolandita Monge and Alfredo Lorenzo.

Her self-titled debut album was certified as a gold album in the United States for 500,000 units sold. During her career she has had nine Latin Billboard Top 40 hits.

Recently People en Español named Noelia as one of the “50 Most Beautiful People” in 2008.

Musical career

Noelia started working on her first full-length album in 1998. The self-titled album was finally released in 1999. The album produced the hit single “Tu”, written by Estéfano, which was awarded by Billboard.[4] In 2000, the album was certified gold by RIAA..

In 2000 she released her second album, Golpeando Fuerte.

Her third album, Natural, released in 2003 featured another hit song, “Clávame Tu Amor”, which peaked at #5 on Billboard Hot Latin Tracks. The album also featured songwriting contributions from her then boyfriend, Alexis Grullón.

In 2004, she surprised with her fourth studio album titled Melao, which was a fusion of pop with reggaeton. The album was produced by reggaeton producer, DJ Eric, and features Yamil sharing lead vocals with Noelia. They also co-wrote most of the songs of the album.

In 2006, she returned to her musical roots with the album 40 Grados, produced by Adrián Posse. The album featured the single “Como Duele”, which was nominated by Billboard as Pop Song of the Year[10]. The song was also chosen as the theme for the Mexican telenovela Barrera de Amor and peaked at #8 on Billboard Hot Latin Songs.

In 2007, she released her sixth full-length album titled Volverte a Ver. She is also working on her first English language album. The album will be titled Caribbean Queen and the first single, “Caribbean Queen Reloaded” became available in May 2008. The song is a cover version of Billy Ocean’s hit song of 1984.

In 2007, she was featured on the cover of the Spanish edition of Maxim magazine. In 2008, she was named as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People en Español.

Personal life

Noelia, the first daughter of Puerto Rican singer and actress Yolandita Monge and Uruguayan businessman Alfredo Lorenzo, showed interest in music from childhood. Noelia has two half-siblings from Monge’s subsequent marriages, sister Paola and brother Imanol.

Noelia has been romantically involved to show-biz personalities throughout her career. She had a four-year relationship with former MDO member, Alexis Grullón. In 2004, she also had a brief relationship with rapper Yamil, with whom she worked on the album Melao. As of 2007, she was in a relationship with Mexican producer, Jorge Reynoso, who is also managing her international career. Rumors have circulated about them getting married, but both have denied it.

Controversies

In June 2007, a sex tape of Noelia and former boyfriend Yamil started circulating on the Internet, which caused a media hype around her person. In August 2007, Noelia accused her step-father and former manager, Topy Mamery, of sexually assaulting her back in 2003; she claimed to have filed a lawsuit, calling singer Ricardo Montaner as a witness. However, Mamery denied having received any lawsuit, and Montaner denied ever having been called to testify. During an interview with Primer Impacto, Montaner was asked about this and he said, “I have never seen anything weird (between Noelia and Mamery). Mamery is a gentleman that has loved Noelia as her daughter.” .

According to Mamery, he was not the first person Noelia had accused of sexual assault. He claimed that in the last five years, the singer had pointed the finger at Guillermo Santiso, former president of Fonovisa (her old record label), and singer Alejandro Montaner, son of Ricardo Montaner.

In October 2007, Mamery went to the FBI with evidence that allegedly incriminated Jorge Reynoso with the distribution of Noelia’s sex tape. Weeks later, Mamery sued Noelia and Jorge Reynoso in Federal Court for defamation and libel. In February 2008, Noelia’s lawyer decided to quit representing Noelia in the defamation lawsuit against her. In May 2008, the judge José A. Fusté did an annotation of defiance to the singer Noelia and to his partner and manager, Jorge Reynoso, in favor of the petition presented by Mamery, who sued the couple for defamation for knowingly making a false declaration that he had sexually assaulted Noelia. However, on June 13, 2008, Fusté dismissed the case by declaring that there was no defamation or libel since Mamery was a public figure. Fusté concluded that “although it is true there might be some indication that Reynoso could be connected to the website where the video was sold, the court could not say for sure if he was the one that put it” up for sale. Fusté also reprimanded both sides for public airing of their personal issues.