XIMENA SARIÑANA EXPERIENCES BANNER SALES AS LATIN GRAMMYS AND MTV AWARDS APPROACH
Young Mexican Singer-Actress’ Breakthrough Album Reaches
#1 on iTunes Latin and Amazon Latin Charts, #38 on Billboard Latin Chart, #11 on Billboard Latin Pop Chart and More This Week, Following Feature on National Public Radio’s “Weekend Edition”
Ximena Sariñana, the young singer-songwriter whose debut album has been a runaway success in her native Mexico, continues her rapid emergence in the U.S. This week, following a feature on National Public Radio’s “Weekend Edition with Scott Simon,” the album, Mediocre, experienced explosive sales growth, just as nominators’ ballots were being mailed in for the Latin Grammy Awards in which she has three nominations, including Best New Artist.
The accolades this week includes:
• #38 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart
• #11 on Billboard’s Latin Pop Albums chart
• #1 iTunes Latin
• The only Latin artist in iTunes overall Top 100
• #1 Amazon Latin Music chart
In the upcoming Latin Grammy Awards, Sariñana is nominated for Best New Artist, Best Producer and Best Alternative Song (for “Normal”). The 9th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards will be held Thursday, November 13 at the Toyota Center in Houston, and broadcast live on the Univision Television Network at 8:00 P.M. Eastern/7:00 P.M. Central.
She is also nominated for four awards in the Los Premios MTV (the Latin MTV Awards): Artista Revelacion (Best New Artist), Mejor Artista Pop (Best Pop Artist), Mejor Solista (Best Solo Artist) and Mejor Artista Norte (Best Artist North America). The Los Premios MTV awards will air live October 16 from the Telmex Auditorium in Guadalajara, Mexico; award wins are based on votes from viewers throughout Latin America.
The nominations culminate months of growing acclaim for Sariñana, who released Mediocre July 15 in the U.S. via Sei Track International/Warner Music Latina, after achieving a level of success unprecedented for a new artist in her native Mexico: The album debuted at the top of the albums chart and remained there for five weeks, earning her Gold sales status in the recording’s first few months on sale.
The 22-year old Sariñana—who received her musical training at Berklee, having been a famous actress in Mexico since age four—has won over discerning critics, tastemakers and audiences with music that is extraordinarily mature and distinctive recording while being a unique product of her generation: Sariñana’s MySpace page has surpassed 1,000,000 views, she has been featured on the site as “Artist of the Week” twice; and she met the Brazilian composer Leo Minax, who co-wrote one of the album’s songs, via her MySpace page.
Sariñana recently made her performance on U.S. radio on the highly influential KCRW show “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” hosted by Nic Harcourt; has been the featured “Ignition Artist” on Microsoft Zune; had the Single of the Week on iTunes Latino; and spent six weeks as MTV Tr3s’ “Descubre and Download” featured artist.
A team of highly accomplished collaborators–one that evidences Sariñana’s sensibility—helped Sariñana create the recording, including Argentinean producer Tweety Gonzalez (Soda Stereo, Gustavo Cerati), and Uruguayan producer Juan Campodonico (Jorge Drexler, Bajofondo) who convinced the singer to undertake further vocal studies before interpreting songs like “Sintiendo rara” (“Feeling Weird”) by Erik Couts and “Gris” (“Gray”) by the famous Uruguayan rock band Loop Lascano. The album was recorded in Buenos Aires with a skilled ensemble of Argentine players.
Sariñana’s maturity as an artist is probably due, in part, to her having grown up in a family full of filmmakers. Her father is the famous Mexican movie director Fernando Sariñana, and her mother the screenwriter/producer Carolina Rivera.
Ximena made her first serious forays as a singer at the age of 14, in the film Amar Te Duele. Aside from her role in the film, her band Feliz No Cumpleaños (Happy Un-birthday) had a hit with a song on the movie’s best-selling soundtrack. She was already proving herself to be as influenced by Björk as by jazz.
Sariñana is especially beloved for her live show, in which her training as an actor is apparent in her charisma and theatricality. She will tour the U.S. this fall and winter in support of Mediocre; dates and cities will be announced soon.
