Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda (Spanish pronunciation: /aˈɾjaðna taˈli.a ˈsoði miˈɾanda/; born 26 August 1971) is a Mexican singer and actress. Recognized for her enduring influence on Spanish-language music and television, she has been dubbed the "Queen of Latin Pop" and the "Queen of Telenovelas". Considered a Latin pop icon, Billboard has ranked her among the greatest Latin music artists of all time.
Thalía rose to fame in 1987 as a member of Timbiriche, one of the most influential Mexican pop groups of the era. That same year, she began her acting career by co-starring in the teen telenovela Quinceañera (1987). After leaving the group in 1989, she made her leading acting debut in Luz y Sombra, and launched her solo music career with Thalía (1990), Mundo de Cristal (1991), and Love (1992), all of which were commercially successful in Mexico. She later gained international recognition through the "María Trilogy"—María Mercedes (1992), Marimar (1994), and María la del Barrio (1995)—as well as Rosalinda (1999).
She further established her international music career with En Éxtasis (1995), Amor a la Mexicana (1997), and Arrasando (2000), all among the best-selling Latin albums. In the following years, she continued her success with Thalía (2002), her English-language album Thalía (2003), El Sexto Sentido (2006), and the live album Primera Fila (2009), one of the best-selling albums in Mexico. According to UNICEF, her telenovelas have aired in 180 countries and reached an estimated audience of 2 billion people. She is also the highest-paid actress in Televisa's history, and Billboard named her the world's most recognized telenovela star.
Thalía is one of the best-selling Latin music artists of all time, with more than 25 million records sold worldwide. Her accolades include six Billboard Latin Music Awards, eight Lo Nuestro Awards, the Latin Recording Academy's President's Merit Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Outside her entertainment career, she has also found success in fashion through a partnership with Macy's. In addition, she has hosted a nationally syndicated radio show and authored four books, including a memoir. She has also been involved in humanitarian work, serving as a UNICEF Mexico Goodwill Ambassador since 2016.
Early life
Thalía was born on 26 August 1971 in Mexico City. She is the youngest of five daughters of Yolanda Miranda Mange (d. 2011), a painter who was Thalía's manager from 1980 to 1999 and Ernesto Sodi Pallares (d. 1977), a scientist, doctor of pathology, criminologist and writer. Her father's paternal grandfather, who was born in Florence, Italy, emigrated to Mexico during the Italian diaspora. Her four sisters are Laura Zapata (daughter of Guillermo Zapata Pérez de Utrera), Federica, Gabriela and Ernestina Sodi.
When she turned one, Thalía appeared in her first TV commercial in Mexico. At the age of four, she began taking ballet and piano classes at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (Mexico). Her father suffered from diabetes and died in 1977 when Thalía was six years old.
Years later, Thalía admitted publicly that her father's death had traumatized her drastically, since she had lost her voice for a whole year. This led to her being diagnosed with childhood disintegrative disorder (CDH), which belongs to a series of developmental disorders related to autism spectrum. She has said that she had psychological therapy for few years. She has reportedly mentioned that she was a victim of bullying as a child because of the loss of her father.
Thalía attended Lycée Franco-Mexicain elementary school, where she learned to speak French fluently at a very young age. In 1976, a year before her father's death, she had a guest appearance in the Mexican film La guerra de los pasteles ("War of Cakes"), although her name doesn't appear in the film credits.
Music career
1981–1989: Career beginnings and the Timbiriche era
In 1981, when Thalía was nine years old, she was incorporated as a vocalist in a children's group named Pac Man, which was formed to participate in a popular music festival known as Juguemos a cantar ("Let's play like we're singing"), a TV program by Televisa. Later, Pac Man changed their band name to "Din-Din". Thalía performed various times along with Din-Din in occasional events and parties, touring all over Mexico. The band recorded a total of 4 studio albums between 1982 and 1983 (En acción, Recordando el Rock and Roll, Somos alguien muy especial and Pitubailando), and later it was disbanded.
After Din-Din broke up in 1984, Thalía participated as a solo artist in two annual music festivals of Juguemos a cantar. In 1984, she placed second there with her interpretation of "Moderna niña del rock" ("Modern rock girl"); this brought her the opportunity to participate in the chorus of the popular musical Vaselina, a child version of the successful musical Grease, in which the band Timbiriche was acting and singing. The line-up of the band consisted of Sasha Sökol, Benny Ibarra, Erik Rubín, Diego Schoening, Mariana Garza and Paulina Rubio. Timbiriche was highly promoted at the time by Televisa, one of the most massive media enterprises globally and the most important in the Spanish-speaking world. Some time later, Thalía obtained the protagonist role of Sandy Dee in the musical, and she performed in 500 theater presentations of Vaselina along with Timbiriche.
In 1986, after the departure of Sasha Sökol from Timbiriche, Thalía became a member of the band. By that time, Timbiriche had already recorded five albums. In 1987, she made her TV acting debut in an episode of the telenovela Pobre señorita Limantour. In the same year, she recorded with Timbiriche the principal theme of the juvenile telenovela Quinceañera ("Fifteen-year-old"), in which Thalía was the co-protagonist with the role of Beatriz. The TV series was awarded as the "Best telenovela" by "Premios TVyNovelas" in 1988 and Thalía was awarded as "the best new actress of 1988".
With Timbiriche, Thalía recorded four studio albums: Timbiriche VII (1987), the double album Timbiriche VIII & IX (1988) and Los clásicos de Timbiriche (1989). The last one is a compilation of the band's greatest hits, recorded originally in 1987, with new symphonic arrangements as it included the participation of Mexico's philharmonic orchestra. In 1989, Thalía departed from Timbiriche. In that year, she also starred in another TV series, Luz y sombra ("Light and shadow"), which was her first protagonist role. Some time later she visited Los Angeles to take English courses in the University of California. She also attended music, singing, acting and dancing classes before beginning her career as a solo artist.
1990–1993: First albums as a solo artist
In 1990, Thalía returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalía, which was produced by Alfredo Díaz Ordaz, and published by Fonovisa, Televisa's record label. From that album, she released a total of four singles that became radio hits: "Amarillo Azul", "Pienso en Ti", "Un Pacto Entre los Dos" and "Saliva". The last two tracks were co-written by her and Díaz Ordaz and they were considered as provocative at the time ("Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" was even labeled as a song with occult Satan-worship lyrics by various far-right parties).
In September 1991, Thalía released her second studio album, Mundo de cristal, which marks Thalía's last project in collaboration with Alfredo Díaz Ordaz. Four songs became radio singles from the album, and all of them had big radio impact in Mexico. Due to the success of the singles, the album was certified as double gold in Thalía's native country, Mexico. In the same year, Thalía was co-presenter of the late Spanish show VIP Noche, along with Spanish presenter Emilio Aragón, produced by Telecinco.
In October 1992, she released her third studio album and her last under the same label, entitled Love, which was recorded in Spain and was produced…