music was in her blood and she knew it would be her life from a very young age
it wasn't easy but with the support of her family she made it however just
when her career was taking off it crashed without warning forcing her to forge ahead
all on her own let's find out whatever happened to mexican-american r b singer paula deanda
born to mexican parents in san angelo texas on november 3rd 1989 paula dacia deanda started her
musical journey at the age of six when she started taking piano lessons with musical influences like
mariah carey aaliyah leanne rimes and selena growing up she quickly realized that she likes
singing more than playing an instrument so she started performing at festivals and weddings
a couple of years later she would begin recording songs and demos
she was also a member of her church choir and that experience helped her learn how to harmonize
at 13 paula and her family decided to move to corpus christi since the city had a reputation
for being a music hub and they believe that being in that environment would help advance her career
and did it ever a producer she was working with named cruz martinez who was also at the time a
member of the mexican-american group cumbia kings had a girl group he was developing and thought
paula would fit right in it was in the group that paula was able to learn more harmonies and also
the importance of a strong work ethic since they rehearsed day and night later on a local radio
station put on a showcase where paula would perform and would also meet her future manager
ed ocanas the program director of kzfm he was so impressed by her that he sent her into the studio
with the man who would go on to produce her debut album multi-platinum grammy-winning
producer songwriter happy perez at the tender age of 16 she wrote and recorded a song that
would change her life called what would it take without a record label to back her up
paula took it upon herself to pound the pavement to as many radio stations as she could find
to get her song on the air eventually the song did get the airplay and started building some traction
one day she was asked to be the opening act for a concert featuring rappers baby bash and nelly and
latin r b singer frankie j paula and baby bash would end up collaborating for her next single
that would also get even more attention and airplay than what would it take
so much so that record labels were finally forced to take notice when all the stars were aligned
paula her mother and her manager took off to the big apple she ended up at an audition for steven
ferreira senior vice president of a r at arista records she did her thing and left he passed the
news on about how good she was to his boss none other than founder and president clive davis
he wanted her to come back to the office immediately and paula didn't hesitate
she blew him away too with a couple of acapella songs and the next thing she knew she was signing
on the dotted line the song that would become her official debut single called doing too much
featuring and co-written by baby bash was added to her self-titled debut album
released in the summer of 2006. it reached number 41 on the billboard hot 100 chart
the timing was perfect paula's introduction into the music scene helped to fill a void in the latin
r b market rolling stone magazine even considered her to be the perfect candidate to take over where
lisa lisa and the cult jam left off her second single dropped immediately in the same month
the track called walk away remember me featuring hip hop group the day would become her biggest
hit to date making its way into the top 20 on the hot 100. two more singles were also
released from the album including the song easy which initially stirred up some controversy
the album version of the song features rapper lil wayne
but for the single version played by radio stations as well as the music video his verse
is replaced by one from rapper chad moss or bow wow at the time and before that lil bow wow when
he was hanging with super producer jermaine dupri and alternating between cornrows and a silk press
it was also at this time that rumors of a relationship between
paula and not only bow wow but other artists as well namely timbaland started making the rounds
she eventually took to myspace to let everyone know that the rumors were indeed false
many times teenagers in the music business don't get to write or sing about what they
really want to because there's so many older and more powerful people in control telling them
what to do this wasn't the case for paula she wrote the majority of the tracks on her album
and since she was in a relationship at the time it came from the heart and personal experience
a couple of years later paula began work on her follow-up album with a planned release
date sometime in 2009 she did release the ballad roll the credits as the lead single
it didn't get anywhere near the charts and that album
as well as a tentative spanish language album would be shelved after clive davis left the label
paula would never put out another album with arista and ended up departing the label as well
in january 2021 paula spoke with euphoria magazine about what happened saying it was supposed to be
a five-album deal that obviously didn't happen politics got in the way clive was no longer the
ceo for my second album that i was working on it never got released unfortunately my anr passed too
so there were a lot of people switching here and there and coming and going from the label
you always hear these stories and think that it'll never happen to you but it happened over the next
few years paula took matters into her own hands and went the independent route even turning to
youtube to showcase her music to fans she also released a series of digital non-album singles
in 2014 she announced on twitter that she auditioned for the television singing competition
the voice coaches shakira and blake shelton both turned their chairs around and she decided to go
with blake however she was quickly eliminated in the first battle round in a 2020 interview
with gaio the guy you know she revealed that the experience was not one she would want to repeat i
would not do like a singing show like that again though because it's a lot mentally and i feel
like you know there was so much talent too it's hard to choose one person because even i was like
what why did they let go of that guy why did that girl go home like what are y'all doing like um
but again you don't know like who's really pulling the shots on those type of things so following her
appearance on the show paula released her first ep with electro house music group jump smokers
she really enjoyed the process of making the album since she was able to get out of her comfort zone
and hear her vocals over a completely different style of music in early 2015 she successfully
launched a kickstarter campaign to help fund a new album to be called pda later on in the year she
released a single called brand new in support of it shockingly four years later the ep titled pda
would be mia and one could assume the people who donated to help make it happen would be po'd
however not all hope would be lost when fans got to hear a new track
called itty bitty that paula released in an effort to jumpstart the project again
the track is in homage to slain tejano singers selena and r b singer aaliyah
after traveling back and forth between texas and los angeles for many years paula finally decided
to put down permanent roots in la where she's lived now for several years of course because
of what she does for a living the golden state is the place to be and since she's been living there
she's been able to tap into all her connections and get a lot of work done in the studio
at the end of 2020 paula announced on social media that she had opened an only fan's account
she enjoys using the platform to express herself without restrictions and have fans get a more
exclusive look into her music and personal life at the beginning of 2021 she released a new track
called freaky complete with a music video that so far is only available for viewing on her only fans
she's currently working on a new album and feels really good about where she is in her career
after working for so many years to build a strong fan base it's right in line with her life
philosophy which she has tattooed on her chest in spanish si se puede or in english yes you can
every time she looks at it she's encouraged to not be afraid of anything and go for what she wants
in the summer of 2021 paula will also celebrate the 15th anniversary of her self-titled debut
album thanks for watching please like share and comment also don't forget to subscribe
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