Born on September 30th, 1964 in Monclova, Coahuila, Mexican singer and actress Susana Zabaleta began her career as an international scholar of opera. The soprano siren quickly put her learnings into practice in the 1980s with performances in El Teléfono, La Traviata, Elixir de Amor and Dido y Aeneas, while also starring in interpretations of various popular musicals including The Fiddler on the Roof and Cats. Demonstrating a pop sensibility on her 1994 debut album, the BMG-signed ¿O ... fue un sueño ?, she was soon invited to contribute Spanish-language versions of “Colors of the Wind” (“Colores en el Viento”) and “Just Around the Riverbend” (“¿Qué será? ¡Quiero saber!”) to the soundtrack for the 1995 Disney film Pocahontas. With her music career aided by increasingly high-profile acting roles and vice versa, Zabaleta consistently released new albums every few years; her 2006 live album with the nationally renowned Armando Manzanero, De La A a La Z, achieved platinum certification, while her solo effort the same year, Para Darle Cuerda al Mundo, went gold in Mexico. 2007’s Te Busqué was again gold-certified and reached number 19 on her home country’s albums chart, while 2009’s Amarrados (with Manzanero) and the 2011 solo album Kinky, Retorcido both surpassed this effort, peaking at #16 and #5 respectively. Zabaleta signed a new five-year deal with Universal and Consecuencias in 2013. She released four albums in the ensuing four years, which were unable to replicate the success of their predecessors, before returning in 2020 with two new singles: the COVID-19 lockdown all-star track “Aunque Cueste” and the solo number “Aves Enjauladas”.
