B I O G R A P H Y

Biography

Jon Secada was born on October 4, 1962 in Havana, Cuba.(He legally changed his first name from Juan in 1990.)

His family decided to leave Cuba legally when he was 9 years old (in 1971).

"Right now things are really bad there so it's a pretty nasty situation," Secada says of Cuba. "We have a lot of family and everything keeps getting worse and worse and worse, so I think everybody's hoping that things will change soon."

They opened a coffee shop in Miami Beach and Jon worked at it. He learned English in school .

He proved his talent at the 11^th grade of school when he sang a musical version of "A Christmas Carol". In that time his friend Miguel Morejon (song writer) was surprised at his talent.

Jon earned both B.A. and M.A. in Jazz Vocal Performance from the University of Miami after he took a teaching job at the Miami Community College.

“Well, I always wanted to be educated and be prepared. My intentions when I came into this industry were to be a musician, not necessarily a recording artist, just a musician in general. And that's the reason that I went to college, and got my degree, which has been great for me.” says Jon.

Finally Emilio Estefan Jr. (Gloria Estefan’ s husband) discovered Jon’s talent, then He co-wrote and performed as a backup singer six songs on her multi-platinum 1991 album "Into the light" among them the number one hit "Coming out of the Dark" and sang as a backup vocals on her subsequent tour. You can see him in the Background of her concerts "Into The Light World Tour".
	*Gloria Estefan*

In 1992 his successes began .He signed a contract with SBK Records and did his self-titled debut record in that year. With only one album, he became one of the biggest adult contemporary artists of the 90's, has been selling over six million albums worldwide.

"Just Another Day" was his first hit single of above album which stepped up to the top of the charts, and continued with these big hits: "Do You Believe in Us", "Angel" and "I’m free".

As well as becoming a huge English-language pop star, he became one of the hottest Latin artists recording in the 90's; "Orto Dia Mas Sin Verte" (a Spanish-language version of "Jon Secada") was Billboard's number one Latin album in 1992 and won a Grammy® for "Best Latin Pop Album".

In 1994 His second English album "Heart, Soul & a Voice" has some different R&B styles, but successful and sold over one million copies in that year.1^st single "If you Go" did perfect in charts. In that year he released his second Spanish album "Si Te Vas" (a Spanish-language version of "Heart, Soul & a Voice".)

In opening ceremony for the 1994 world cup, he performed "Do You Believe in Us" and "If you go". While he was singing the stage broke and fell through it ,but he kept on singing !!!

"Amor " was released on 10th October 1995 also won a Grammy® award for "Latin Pop Performance" on 28th February 1996.It was a smooth Latin/Jazz inspired outing that demonstrated his strong roots in the genre. This album includes a perfect orchestra with about 130 musicians.

His duet with Shanice Wilson, "If I Never Knew You", was featured in the hugely successful Disney film Pocahontas; the Spanish version "Si No Te Conociera" appeared on "Amor ".

Shanice Wilson

In 1995 he performed on Broadway as Danny Zuko in Tommy Tune's production of "Grease" for about 6 months.

" It was the first time I did live theatre like that, so it was really a challenge. You've really got to be in shape mentally, physically too”, says Jon.

Grease

He sang a duet in that year with Frank Sinatra on "The Best Is Yet To Come", from Sinatra's "Duets II " album, and in June 1996 he went to Italy to perform with Luciano Pavarotti at his War Child charity benefit concert. He sang "Granada" with Pavarotti and did a Spanish-English version of "Angel".

*Frank Sinatra*	*Luciano Pavarotti*

In 1996 he was National Spokesperson for Music Education, on behalf of The NARAS foundation, Inc., the non-profit arm of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS).

After 2 years in 1997 he recorded "Secada" and did Spanish version of it with the same title. Single "Too Late, Too Soon" (Dance version) was a hit in dance charts.

Actually "Secada" was a commercially disappointment, and he moved to Sony Music's Epic Records where his first duties included writing songs for label mates Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez.

*Ricky Martin*	*Jennifer Lopez*

In that year he got married with Maritere , and now they have a nice baby girl, Mikaela.

Maritere

Mikaela & Jon

He did his "Greatest hits" and its Spanish version "Grandes Exitos" in 1999.

In July of 2000, Epic released his label debut, "Better Part of me" with its super hit "Stop!". "’Stop!’ is just a bomb" says Secada.

This album includes lots of styles like : Pop, Dance ,Latin ,R&B, Adult Contemporary,…

He did concerts for AIDS related charities (Life BEAT and Am FAR) and also for children (UNICEF).

In his music career he co-worked as a producer, arranger, lyricist, vocals,... with lots of singers like : Matt Bianco, Carlos Ponce, Jose Luis Rodriguez, Emmanuel, Celia Cruz, Roberto Blades, Dave Grusin,...For more details check APPEARS ON part.