I was born on a sun-streaked June 17th, 1985, in a tiny Canarie Island village: Punta Gorda. Unfortunately, the music and dancing that once fueled the flames of my parents' love affair soon after burned out. I was about two years old when they divorced and my mother held my hand back to Sweden from Spain to live with my grandmother. But it was in Sweden where fate would bring me to my true calling.
I was very petite and shy in a new country without my father and hearing a language other than Spanish. I kept to myself, and though I could speak English, Spanish and Swedish with my mother, I didn’t speak much to other people because I developed a stutter. But when I was about five years old, my mother overheard me singing to myself in my room, and my stutter and my fears faded away. Music had pulled me out of my shell.
As a teenager, you could find me blasting Mariah Carey and other divas in my headphones, singing passionately along with them into my hairbrush. After high school, I was accepted to Angeredsgymnasiet, a well-known music school in Sweden. I had started teaching myself the piano when I was about 15 years old, and since my mother's waitressing could not afford to buy me a piano, I seized the chance to practice using what my college offered. I would be at the piano for hours before and after school, practicing and singing. I started putting my feelings into melodies and lyrics. It was miraculous and liberating to have a safe place with the piano and my own songs.
The past year or so while in school, I've been working in a restaurant as a waitress. Spring 2006, I answered a random phone call from MachoPsycho, (Niklas Olovson and Robin Lynch) who were searching for co-writes and singers for song demos. They heard about me through friends of mine. They had just had worked on Pink's "Stupid Girls" and produced the Dirtie Blonde album (Jive) in America. We were destined for each other, but none of us knew it yet. I walked into their recording studio for the first time, stood in front of that microphone and the next day we started recording. In no time, I was on a plane to New York meeting my other partner, chart-topping songwriter/producer Billy Mann. I had seen him on television once at the Swedish Grammies years ago--it was so strange and exciting. New York City felt like walking onto an enormous movie set--so unlike the little town I live in--and yet there I was, living a dream, singing in English and Spanish, playing a gorgeous Steinway piano. It was surreal! And now, I get to reach out to you reading this and say, thank you. Thank you for closing your eyes and listening and for pinching me and letting me know that this IS real.
I've been working with MachoPsycho on the album and recording all of the songs in English and Spanish. Check out the amazing star songwriters that contributed to this album with me: Billy Mann, Joss Stone, Nate Campany, Ali Thomson, Pär Wiksten from the Wannadies, Natalie Imbruglia, MachoPsycho and, of course, there's Latin Grammy winner, Jodi Marr, who helped me craft all of these lyrics from English to Spanish. The music is high energy strobe lights and bathtub candles, vulnerability and shock, morning to midnight. One of the first songs we recorded goes, "love lifts you up to bring you down to lift you up again" and it remains my most personal song on the album.
I am Minnie. A nickname that stuck because I'm just a little over 5 feet. Born on a tiny Spanish island and moved to a tiny town in Sweden. Daughter of Julio and Kimi. No longer a 20 year old waitress, but a singer/songwriter. Spanish. Swedish. I am a gypsy. I am the not so innocent little blonde girl with a red rose in her teeth. I won't be shy. Talk to me!
Myspace Layouts by Pimp-My-Profile.com