RUTH LORENZO WILL REPRESENT SPAIN AT THE 2014 EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

In a national final consisting of five artists, the Spanish public and the jury elected to send Ruth Lorenzo to Copenhagen with the song “Dancing in the Rain”, a nice and dramatic ballad, sung both in Spanish and English.

Ruth Lorenzo Pascual, better known as Ruth Lorenzo, was born on November 10, 1982 in Murcia, a south-eastern region of Spain. At a very young age she became a fan of the musical Annie and although she had no idea of what the words meant she would sing along to the songs in English. When she was six years old she discovered music by Montserrat Caballé, a Catalan opera singer, and after her mother bought her an album by Caballé, Lorenzo began to sing opera, imitating Caballé's vocals until she was pitch perfect. 

At the age of 12, Lorenzo's family moved to America and this was the first time she had the opportunity to be involved in music at school. After much encouragement from her teachers, Lorenzo was entered into competitions and played lead roles in musical productions such as "The Phantom of the Opera" and "My Fair Lady".

When Lorenzo turned 16 the family returned to Spain and although having had singing lessons by this time, she had to cancel these lessons due to family financial difficulty and as a result Lorenzo gave up on her dream of becoming a recording artist.

When Lorenzo was 19 she joined a rock band, which was a challenge for her as she had only sung opera music. In 2002, she auditioned for the second series of Operación Triunfo, the Spanish version of  Star Academy, where she was rejected in the first rounds of auditions. She also made a big decision to quit her job in her family's business in order to pursue her dreams once again, but after three years of touring around Spain the group decided to split up. Ruth landed a contract at Polaris World where as well as performing, she worked as a PR consultant.

In 2008, Lorenzo auditioned for the fifth series of The X Factor in front of judges Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole and Louis Walsh. There, she impressed the judges with her performing such as “A natural woman”, “True colors”, “Take my breath away”, “I just can’t stop loving you”, “Knockin’on Heavens Door”, “Purple rain” and “Always”.

Lorenzo performed at gigs across the UK and Ireland in December 2008 and January 2009, and at the Spirit of Northern Ireland Awards.

She has worked with Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler, Carlos Santana and Danii Minogue, for whom she had been writing several songs as “Because you are beautiful”. And also has written songs for the Spanish group Auryn.

And finally, last January she was selected as one of the five candidates to represent Spain at the 2014 Eurovision song contest on 10^th May, after rejecting the proposal to represent the United Kingdom. The song “Dancing in the rain” was released on February 18 and quickly it became number one on iTunes Spain. 

Now we will have to wait for the Eurovision contest to take place in Copenhaguen and to wish Ruth all the best luck for this young woman whose favourite Disney character is The little Seamaid, not because she is looking for love but because she is looking for freedom.

HAPPY ROYAL CHRISTMAS!

On Monday, the Spanish Royal House has posted on its website "Christmas with the Royal Family" welcoming holidays to the Spanish. 

Two days after the previous year, they have followed the same pattern as in 2012: it only appears congratulations of the Prince and Princess of Asturias and the Infanta Leonor and Sofia, who signs the card with their parents. No sign of Elena and her children, Froilan and Victoria Federica Infanta, who sent separately as they did last year, or the family Urdangarin, still in his Swiss retreat.

With a picture with his daughters, the Prince and Princess have chosen again by congratulating Christmas holidays in a very personal way with a snapshot on the Prado Museum with the exhibition Velázquez and the family of  Felipe IV, inaugurated on October 7th in the Reina Sofia Museum. It has as background a portrait of the Infanta Margarita, painted by the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez (1599-1660).

This time King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia wanted to congratulate the holidays with a very traditional Chritsmas, a reproduction of Adoration of the Shepherds by Jacopo Bassano, part of the Royal Collection of the National Museum of the Prado.

If you want to see the Royal Christmas congratulations of previous years, click on these links:

Royal Christmas Cards 2011

Royal Christmas Cards 2010

Source:

www.vanitatis.com

BANKSY GRAFFITIES DECORATE THE NEW ANTONIO BANDERAS HOUSE

It is very well known the passion for the art of Antonio Banderas, who is not only reduced to his work as an actor but extends to other fields, such as painting or photography, a passion that the artist has brought to light in several exhibitions such as the recent "Women in gold" by portraying the female figure through its objective and for which he had to the Spanish actress Paz Vega as muse.

And now Antonio Banderas and his wife Melanie Griffith have decided to radically change their new New York exclusive penthouse of 371 square meters, combining classic Hollywood style with Art Decó and the most famous graffiti art currently, Banksy (born in Bristol in 1974), has been chosen to decorate it with some of his works, forming an explosive combination of mainly dark colors with a flash of color.

Banksy, who refuses to reveal his identity so far, began his career spray painting buildings in Bristol, England. With his acid humor and strong sense of social criticism, went from being considered a criminal by the British police to be revered as a street artist, whose works reach thousands of euros in the art market. Loved by many and criticized by others, what it is certain is that he doesn’t leave anyone indifferent, as it has happened to Antonio Banderas.

  I am really very curious to know what will be the grafitti
that Antonio will choose for his new house

And as if  Antonio Banderas wouldn’t be versatile enough, he has also heavily involved with the world of fine arts painting a replica of the " Guernica" by Pablo Picasso to learn more about the personality of the great painter from Malaga, the character that  Antonio will play next year in the movie "33 days " directed by Spanish director Carlos Saura and co-performed by Gwyneth Paltrow, whose title refers to the 33 days that took Picasso to paint his masterpiece.

 

Picasso (1957)