1	PolitIcons From Bill Richardson to Mel Martinez, a look at the Latino power brokers shaping the national elections. read more...
2	The Pride of Puerto Rico The delicate gait and beauty of the Paso Fino horse makes it an icon of the island. read more...
3	In Good Company The people and organizations leading the way for Hispanics in business. read more...
4	Grand Slam Tennis champ Fernando González perseveres to the top of his game. read more...
5	Into the Light Latin pop star Fanny Lu burns bright with the success of her first release and plans for her next CD. read more...
6	Killer Instincts Music impresario by day and DJ by night, Camillo Lara follows his gut in creating his trademark sound. read more...
7	Mixing it Up Gilberto Santa Rosa reaffirms his top spot in tropical music while claiming new ground as a balladeer. read more...

in to the LIGHT

Pop artist Fanny Lu continues to burn bright

By Victor Cruz-Lugo

To many fans of Latin pop, the rise of artist Fanny Lu is as much a pleasure as it is a surprise. Her debut release Lágrimas Cálidas (Warm Tears) netted two Top 20 hits in Latin America and the U.S., while the CD itself climbed to the top spot in Colombia shortly following its release. Yet even as the debut single No te pido flores (I Don’t Ask for Flowers) garnered a Latin Grammy nomination last year, for many, Fanny’s emergence on the music scene came as something of a surprise. Suddenly, this slender blonde better known for interviewing Latin music artists on television and radio had turned the tables and was speaking, indeed singing, from what must be called the other side of the microphone.
While she concedes that now and again she stands in awe of the success she has reached, the Caleña-born and raised performer’s arrival is far from accidental. In fact, it has been her single-minded dream for most of her life. Today, Fanny Lu is hard at work in the studio (and out of it), on her follow-up album. She says it will offer more of her signature musical energy, a quality she describes as emanating light, rays awash with color and delivered via Caribbean rhythms.
“The first time I heard the single No te pido flores played on the radio was the moment,” explains Fanny via phone from Colombia. “I said to myself, ‘My God, thank you. That’s me on the airwaves, and I really am an artist.’ ”
Fanny Lu worked toward that moment for as long as she can remember. “It was my dream to have a life in music since I was a little girl,” she says. “I’m very Latin, very tropical. And growing up in [Santiago de] Cali, meant hearing all of those salsa influences: Celia Cruz, Ruben Blades... But I studied in an American school so I also listened to everything from Elton John to Celine Dion to Sting... I listened to New Age, too, and Shakira was just starting out ... as well as Juanes... and I always wondered what it would be like to hear my own music coming through the radio,” she says.
Beginning her professional career as a 17-year-old model in Cali, Fanny later went to Bogota where her charisma and early dramatic training landed her a range of entertainment positions. She did it all: radio, music television and, yes, the obligatory years working as a telenovela actress. All the while she sought out the right allies and situations to nurture her musical career. “I look at that period as my university studies in entertainment,” she says.
Now, following the success of Lágrimas Cálidas, Fanny speaks of making the sort of total commitment to music she sees exeplified in Grammy-snaring Dominican Juan Luis Guerra. But while Luis Guerra, an artist known for getting deeply into your head, offers his savvy observations on a wide range of subjects, Fanny’s approach, in counterpoint, is more romance-driven lyrically, narrower in scope.
The comparison between Fanny—who has just launched her musical career—and Luis Guerra—who is 20 years and millions of sold albums into a career, is best examined in terms of intent. Fanny aspires to approach the music with the same faith and commitment as the top artists of her time, earning her place with honesty and sincerity.
After eight years preparing for this recent musical debut, Fanny Lu remains focused on strengthening her talents, studying music from home through the Berklee School of Music’s online studies program, for example, and continuing to be the central figure behind the crafting of her sound. “I didn’t just want to do two or three good songs,” Fanny says. “My goal was to make every moment on the CD of the best quality.”
She appears to have done just that on Lágrimas Cálidas, which is likely why, by press time, each single released off the CD climbed to the top of the Billboard charts.
What was key to making that possible was all of the years she spent honing her craft and developing the sort of supportive relationships with her producers and industry allies that encouraged her hands-on approach to the music. Like many pop artists of her time, Fanny is a group creation, a phenomenon enabled as much by her own talent as by the expertise of the folks she surrounds herself with. But here, Fanny is the prime executor of her sound, a nurturing and nurtured presence during the entire creative process.
Essential to her success are her producers, Colombians José Gaviria and Andrés Munera, who worked with artists such as Carlos Santana, Olga Tañón and Ricardo Montaner. Their unique and tropical approach to pop make the 10 tracks on Lágrimas Cálidas all capable of existing as stand-alone singles.
In keeping with the temperament of this self-described tropical girl, the future CD promises to offer more of that merengue and vallenato infused concoction of pop that Gaviria and Munera have become so adept at creating. If at her best Fanny Lu’s music transmutes light into sound, then time will soon tell if she can continue to burn as brightly with her next musical release.