Thalia's Sixth SenseAfter two years devoted body and soul to her music, the actress, singer and businesswoman, Thalía, appears not only revived, but renewed, with El Sexto Sentido, her eleventh record. It undoubtedly is the most complete, professional and entertaining record -- musically and emotionally speaking -- of her long career.
After having sold more than 12 million copies of her records around the world, Thalía puts forth her full energy in her third collaboration with the respected musical producer Estéfano in order to launch a product that is impossible to define in one style alone.
"It is a very special record," says the music magnate Tommy Mottola. "It has its own direction, its own sound, and does not fall into any category, which delights me. It is extremely new and unique. It is the album of her career. It is the album that many would like to make."
In the genre of her success "Amor a la Mexicana" -- one of her many number-one hits -- Thalía launches her new single "Amar Sin Ser Amada," in which the Argentine spirit is combined with rock and passion, and her voice prevails over an impressive orchestra in which the strings stand out (30 top-quality string performers were recorded in Buenos Aires).
"It is the most professional of all my records," affirms Thalía. "I took my time to do it seriously. I am at a stage of my life where I can allow myself the pleasure of making a record for enjoyment and not to exploit it. I do it for the passion for singing, for the love of music. It is the most professional work that I have done."
Between pop, ballad, pop rock and acoustic effect, El Sexto Sentido moves in a striking musical eclecticism. Mega-accordions recorded in Argentina and percussionists recorded in Brazil produce a sonority which, together with the ripe and playful voice of Thalía, lend a stamp of distinction to this production by the Mexican star.
"In this work I am living my present," continues Thalía. "I am extrasensory, very receptive, and I feel that I am imparting a great deal of energy. With lyrics much more direct, profound, serious, and a music that touches you, I realize that in some way these two years of waiting served for finding this musical style in my career."
Concerning the collaboration with Estéfano: "Working with Estéfano is a gift," recounts Thalía. "It is the third work that we produced together. The incredible thing about Estéfano is that he can go from the ballad that breaks your heart in two, to the most entertaining song that you can imagine, and go on to a stabbing rock, as I call it. Working together always has been a magical coupling. It is like the construction of a building. We sit down, we look at the plans, we change a few lines, we begin to build it and then comes the embellishment, we put in the final details. Such has been the process with this record. It is a kind of musical architecture."
And as in all Thalía's records, a song turns into a celebration or rather a mere joy of the artist. Just as she previously included in her musical projects songs such as "Cien años," "A la Orilla del Mar," "La Vie en Rose," or her latest hit "A Quién le Importa," in El Sexto Sentido there appears, as a true diversion, the exquisite Italian composition "24,000 Besos." Thalía performed that title for the first time in 1990 when she went to Spain to present the popular television program VIP de Noche. Every night there she sang an international hit or movie theme, until she came upon "24,000 Besos."
"I fell in love with the song from the first moment that I heard it," recalls Thalía. "When I sang it on the program, the people immediately responded to the theme. Then it stayed with me. I always have had that song within me and now I set it free. Just as every time I release a record I put in a song that satisfies me personally, this now is my whim. This song is for Thalía. The rest of the record is for my public, but this is for me."
Although the eclectic genre marks the musical whole of the record, each song blends harmoniously with the other. "Each song is a different space, universe, but it goes hand in hand with the one that follows," continues Thalía. "As a performer, I greatly enjoyed doing it. It has been one of the easiest and most versatile works that I have come across. I believe that I am at a moment of seizing, of surrendering, in a moment of balance in my life. It is an intimate and deep moment, all that is reflected in my voice. I can allow myself the luxury of flirting in a song like 'Sabe Bien,' feeling the song whispered in full in my ear in a moment of total eroticism, pour out my heart in a song like 'Olvídame,' or I can play with my voice, childlike, playful, sexy in songs like 'No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti.' I have that range of colors in my voice that enables me to perform the most entertaining to the most serious and sorrowful like 'Alma Sentenciada,' a song that tears at your heart."
For Thalía, the album must keep on being discovered little by little. "It is a record that touches people who listen to it at different moments in their lives," adds the singer. "You can hear it in full and you may like one more than the other, but suddenly you are going along the road listening to one of the songs that you had not discovered before, and at that moment it grabs you. It will bring tears to your eyes and you are going to have to stop the car and take a breath. You are going to say, this happened to me, I don't know when or where, but it happened to me! Because it is an essentially existential record."
With a career that exceeds two decades, Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda began performing as a child in the musical group Din Din. Since then she has illuminated, marked milestones, and left memories in the Spanish entertainment world with her records, her soap operas, her shows. Her life and her career are distinguished in three interrelated levels.
The first is the Mexican star, the queen of soap operas, where she filled the television realm, first in her country and then in some 180 countries, with classics such as the now legendary trilogy of the Marías (María Mercedes, Marimar and María la del barrio), breaking audience records and taking each of these three stories to top spot in viewership, even in the second and third repetitions.
The second is the singer who goes beyond the borders of her country to establish herself as an artist in Spanish and in English. Her two latest productions position her as one of the most important Latin American performers in the music world, with her new music and her new direction. Her nominations for the Grammy awards, including one taken home for Best Album Engineering, and her songs that have reached number one in popularity, speak for themselves. Her record Thalía headed the Top Latin Albums and Latin Pop Albums lists in Billboard for six weeks. The album went Platinum and Multiplatinum in the United States and several countries in Europe and Asia. This includes the great success she had in Japan with her first record in English and the theme "I Want You," which was in top place in sales for weeks. This same production remained in the Top 10 of the USA, with 2 singles appearing on the lists of the magazine Billboard: Top 200 Hot Tracks, Dance Tracks and Hot Tracks. Thalía won two of the Billboard Latino awards in 2004, as Best Pop Singer of the Year, and received the People's Choice Award.
The third level is the businesswoman. Thalía has become a registered trademark. She has channeled her creative spirit through her designs, introduced a line of clothing for women and girls, eyewear, and accessories that bear her name and that were sold in about 100 stores of the Kmart chain until ultimately being distributed in the 1,400 stores nationwide. It is expected that sales will show a gain of approximately US$100 million this year. Her name also is associated with the famous Hershey's chocolates, for which Thalía created her own La Dulceria Thalía (Thalía's Candy Store) line of products. Since the name of the superstar has been linked with Hershey's, sales have increased considerably from 3% to 11% in its first week of sales in the Latin American market.
Her name as a businesswoman has made headlines in newspapers such as The New York Times and USA Today and in magazines such as Time, Business Week, and Newsweek. Even the prestigious magazine Fortune included her in its list of business divas, placing her alongside Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart and Jane Seymour.
But her name will continue to be associated with acting and mainly with music. The artist who attained top places with songs such as "Amor a la Mexicana," "Piel Morena," "Entre el Mar y una Estrella" and "Arrasando," among others, has material ready to continue winning the hearts of her loyal public and reaching out to a new generation of followers.
To keep on triumphing, Thalía needs only a new record -- she already has it -- and a sixth sense, an extrasensory aura that will enthrall us anew, in that unique magic called. . . Thalía.
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