Who can forget the mega-hit dance track Whine Up? Absolutely no one. Not only because it was in English and Spanish but because it was played over and over on any given night at the clubs and every drag queen around performed it. Well thanks in part to our community, who made this song such a big club hit, Ms Kat DeLuna is back with us in 09′ with a new single, Unstoppable, featuring Lil Wayne, and a spanking brand new CD. She’s also giving her gay fans first look at her new show with her new music and her new sophisticated look on her new Club Papi gay tour to hit a city near you in February. Ms DeLuna is no one hit wonder she is a young lady on her way to the top and plans on staying there with catchy dance tracks, a sexy voice, and a fierce attitude. You go mama! So dust off your wigs ladies, get those sexy outfits out of your closet and prepare for Kat DeLuna 2.0 because this sexy New Dominicana is back and fiercer than ever!
Samara: Did you like school when you were growing up?
Kat: Actually I loved school because I went to an arts performing high school. I was studying music there. I had music theory, I learned how to sing opera there so you know I was doing my thing. But I’m not gonna lie I wasn’t too much into math but I did love literature and I loved social studies cause you can learn what’s going on around the world.
Samara: How did you discover your talent for singing?
Kat: It was very early. It was very open in my house for my sister and I would always wanna sing. The first show I ever did was when I was three years old. And I sang an Amanda Miguel song, Él me mintió. And I won the contest. Tha’t when everything started evolving and stuff.
Samara: How old were you when you wrote your first song?
Kat: I was nine years old. Funny, I’m writing songs now. (laughs)
Samara: How was life for you before your mega-hit Whine Up?
Kat: Well, I call my self… I’ve always been a hustler you know. Like a fighter. Always trying to better myself. Like for example, I’m not gonna lie, my mother, my sisters, and I, we went through a lot. Economical crisis and stuff. Like sometimes we didn’t have enough money to buy all of us clothes to go to school or all of us notebooks, backpacks and stuff. But we would pull through it. And I would say it was very different.
Samara: And how was life for you after your mega-hit Whine Up?
Kat: Me as a person I haven’t changed a bit. Like I’m still that simple girl. I’m still that very nice person. I take life for what it is. I don’t believe in the hype. (laughs) And I’m not carried away by the hype. But definitely like I said it’s been a life changing experience. Cause I never would’ve thought that I would travel to so many different countries. To go on my tour. Like I just came back from my European tour this past summer. We actually went to Africa and then Russia, like last month. Funny I spent new year’s in Russia. So to me it’s just an amazing thing what you can do with your music and how you can get lucky to be able to travel to so many different countries. Not a lot of American artists get that opportunity in their music they don’t have that certain sound and that certain appeal you know. I hit all the dance clubs around the world.
Samara: What are your thoughts on fame?
Kat: Well you know, it comes with the territory. One part of you has to love the light, one part of you has to want to be seen. Don’t cross certain lines because when you over idolize something, like you know idolatria, that’s when it becomes bad. Like when you are obsessed with something extraordinarily, like over-obsessed with it that’s when it can become bad with you. You know you eventually just fall into wrong crowds or eventually start doing things that you probably never wanted to do and never pictured yourself doing. But to me fame comes with it and it’s fun I don’t see nothing wrong as long as you know how to handle it.
Samara: How has fame changed people around you?
Kat: Not at all, you see my, I call them triangle not a circle, my triangle is very small, you know manager, production, make-up artist, were all grinders. Everybody is always trying to better themselves so we don’t sit down and think about, oh my God, we just think about how can we get to the next step. That’s always what’s on our heads.
Samara: What advice do you want to give little girls that dream of one day making it big?
Kat: Oh my God, I would just say go for it. Don’t let anybody tell you you can’t do it. There’s nothing in the world that can’t be accomplished. If you put yourself to it, go ahead and just focus on what it is they wanna do and go to every audition go to every show you could where you could eventually showcase your talent and eventually you’re going to find the opportunity to be able to showcase it in big, big shows. But always have someone around you that’s real. Someone that is not gonna be a yes man because I think that’s the worst thing. Because usually you as an artist you’re exposed to so many things, so many people, so many opportunities that sometimes you lose your realness of who you are or what you were. And once you have someone that’s real to you, you know they always keep you grounded.
Samara: With all your success now do you keep family around or are you more independent when you travel?
Kat: I don’t have a big family. They are just my family like my mom, my sisters, my grandmother, you know, that type. Were very close and we live near each other. We spend all the holidays together.
Samara: So tell us about hooking up with Club Papi for your gay tour?
Kat: Oh my God I was so excited when I first heard the news. I went like over the top because you know last year I did a couple of events with the gay tour and Club Papi and that is so my scene you know my music, the type of person that I am, you know I love it and you guys love to have fun and dance. So for me to be able to have my own like literally my tour the Kat DeLuna gay tour it’s amazing. It’s gonna be very intimate because it’s gonna be in clubs and I actually get to see lets say five hundred people rather than twenty thousand people. And you know I can be more with my people and it’s gonna be fun because my second album is coming out already at the end of this first quarter so my first single and all these songs I’m going to be performing them as well and it is crazy. You guys are not gonna believe it. I’m gonna have fun. You know from Europe the gay fans accept me, here in the United States, all over the world. And I feel like me doing a tour is giving back.
Samara: What advice do you want to give your drag impersonators?
Kat: (laughs) Well, gurl put it on because the look that is coming up next is gonna be more sexy and amazing. Gurls get your wigs together, get the eyelashes, and the heels because Kat is more sexylicious now. I am fierce!
Samara: Tell us about your new single?
Kat: Well my next single is amazing. I just shot the video for it. The name is Unstoppable and it’s featuring Lil Wayne. And it’s an amazing song. The song is a little bit different than what my fans are probably used to with like Whine up, which is dance and very Latin influenced and this one is still very still dancy but very pop influenced. And what the song is saying is you can say all you want but my skin is very thick, I’m unstoppable, I’m still gonna make it to the top no matter what you do, no matter how you try to stop me. I’m so fierce that I’m gonna make it. You know but it’s an amazing song, Lil Wayne is on it which is even crazier. In the video you’ll get to see a new Kat DeLuna. No more blonde hair, darker. A little bit more sophisticated, more fashionable, more fierce. I’m bringing the girl that’s inside of me out. Wait till you guys hear the song. It’s poppy with a little bit of rock but it’s all amazing.
Samara: Can you tell us about your new CD?
Kat: Well that’s the first single from that CD. Well that comes out later on this first quarter. It’s my sophomore album. The whole sound is still very international but I turned it around and made it a little bit more American, a little bit more home cause I felt that 9 Lives was the best way for me to be introduced to the world but I feel it was a little bit too Latin here and there. Nothing wrong with it but I feel like I wanna give everybody a little bit of me. But it’s amazing. I wish I could tell you more. I don’t want to give away all the names and stuff. But put it this way, like the throne that people saw me having when I came out that’s what it’s gonna be the tour this time, with this album. Yeah this album is gonna make my career. It’s gonna be like yeah Kat DeLuna is hot and nice and she had Whine up but this the girl, she’s unstoppable.
Samara: What songs will you recommend the drag queens to perform from the new CD?
Kat: Definitely, definitely Unstoppable. I know Whine Up is a club favorite, of course. And I’m gonna have my dancers. Put it this way, I’m gonna turn it out with my confidence and stuff. But you know it could be anything. I just want people to come to my show, come and have fun. I’m definitely a very spontenous person and on the stage I don’t stop till everybody is jumping up and down and everybody’s shirt is off and everybody’s hairdo is destroyed by their sweat, you know. So were about to go crazy.
Samara: Any last words to your gay fans?
Kat: Oh my God, I wanna thank you guys so much. Thank you guys for embracing me as an artist as a person. And this year is gonna be amazing. And what could be better than to start my year off with a gay tour. And I know you’re from New York. I’m going to be on the 20th of February at Crash. For all New Yorkers. It’s gonna be fun because I didn’t get a chance to do a lot of New York, cause I’m from New York, and that sucks, you know. It’s funny because you guys are going to get the first tour at the top of the year. You guys are going to be the first to hear me perform my first single first. You guys are going to get all the goods first.
Samara: I just have to tell you that Whine Up was played so much at the gay clubs and all the drag queens performed it as well.
Kat: Also thank you because of you guys I won the Latin Billboard for Best Dance Song of the Year, Whine Up. So you guys made it number one. What can I say? Thank you guys so much.
Samara: Thank you so much for your tiime Kat.
Kat: Ok, ciao.