At the age of 12, she was invited by the ‘Queen of Merengue’, Milly Quezada, to sing with her on stage in front of a big crowd of over thousand people. In April 2004, she opened for J Records musician Cassidy as part of the all Latino girl group Coquette. Kat and her family moved from The Bronx, United States to the Dominican Republic early, where she was raised in poverty. Kat spent her time listening to Aretha Franklin and Billie Holiday records. At the age of 14, they moved back to the United States, where Kat realized her potential as a singer. With that goal in mind, Kat was accepted to the New Jersey School of the Performing Arts. As a freshman, she scoured the pages of The Village Voice for auditions. After many auditions, DeLuna received a call for an all girl group, which later became the first latina, hip hop/r&b group: Coquette. While being a part of Coquette, Kat continued to search for opportunities to pursue her dream of becoming a solo artist. At age of 15, Kat entered a Coca-Cola sponsored karaoke competition. Her version of “I Will Always Love You” won the competition. The competition also resulted her into meeting the legendary Cuban salsa singer Rey Ruiz. Ruiz gave Kat advice and with it, she started writing her own music and has continued to do so since. Currently, Epic Records, her label, is in the process of launching a promotional campaign for her worldwide first single “Whine Up”. The song features Elephant Man and Ivy Queen and a music video is in the works. On the official website, a video of DeLuna doing a choreography to the song is shown on the front page. Also Elephant Man is shown in the short rehearsing video. The song will be released to radios in the United States on May 15, 2007. In July 2008 Kat Deluna stated via a MySpace video that she is back in the studio working on her second studio album which is yet to be titled. She premiered a new song called “Calling You”, specifying that it was only an exclusive single and not a single from her second album. She premiered the song on her MySpace page and her website. Dawn Richard, Danity Kane member, is confirmed to be writing for Kat DeLuna’s upcoming album. Kat has filmed the video for her third worldwide single “In The End,” which is only being released in Europe. On September 11, 2008, Kat won two Flemish TMF Awards in the categories Best Urban and Best New Artist. She also recorded with Akon on the official released remix to his single “Right Now (Na Na Na),” which was released on her official Myspace profile. In 2008 Kat also recorded a duet with Swedish pop singer Darin, the track “Breathing Your Love”, produced by RedOne which appears on Darin’s album “Flashback”.In September 2008, Kat DeLuna and Epic Records decided to part ways.According to her recent interview with Latina Magazine, she has signed with Universal/Motown and the first single for her second album will feature Lil Wayne. |
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