Kat DeLuna

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• Genre: Contemporary R&B
• Hometown: Bronx
• Kat DeLuna Website

About

Rihanna, watch out! Self-styled quadruple threat (singer, dancer, songwriter and, uh, looker) Kat DeLuna's hungry for some of the diva spotlight, and she might just usurp Rihanna's title as the Caribbean's favorite export for music fans under 25. Born in the Bronx but raised in the Dominican Republic, DeLuna presents the 21st century face of American pop: bilingual, as comfortable with R&B as merengue and as familiar with Latin pop as dancehall. Her feral search for fame started when she was just 12 years old, when merengue star Milly Quezada invited her onstage to sing. Inspired by that brush with fame, DeLuna went on to hone her chops in the Latina hip-hop/R&B group Coquette as a teenager. Her sense of herself as a solo artist grew when she won a Coca-Cola-sponsored karaoke contest when she was 15 for singing -- what else? -- "I Will Always Love You." She began writing her own songs and found herself signed to Epic Records before she'd hit age 20.

- Sarah Bardeen