Ruth Lorenzo

Early life

Ruth Lorenzo was born on 10 November 1982 in the Region of Murcia, in south-eastern Spain. At a very young age she became a fan of the musical Annie and although she had no idea of what the words meant she would sing along to the songs in English. When she was six years old she discovered music by Catalan opera singer Montserrat Caballé, and after her mother bought her an album by Caballé, Lorenzo began to sing opera, imitating Caballé's vocals until she was pitch perfect. At the age of 12, Lorenzo's family moved to Utah in the United States and this was the first time she had the opportunity to be involved in music at school. After much encouragement from her teachers, Lorenzo was entered into competitions and played lead roles in musical productions such as The Phantom of the Opera and My Fair Lady. When Lorenzo turned 16 the family returned to Spain and although having had singing lessons by this time, she had to cancel these lessons due to family financial difficulty and as a result Lorenzo gave up on her dream of becoming a recording artist. When Lorenzo was 19 she joined a rock band, which was a challenge for her as she had only sung opera music. She also made a big decision to quit her job in her family's business in order to pursue her dreams once again, but after three years of touring around Spain the group decided to split up. Ruth landed a contract at Polaris World where as well as performing, she worked as a PR consultant . She moved to the UK in 2008.

2008: The X Factor

In 2008, Lorenzo auditioned for the fifth series of The X Factor in front of judges Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole and Louis Walsh. She sang "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman". She impressed the judges and made it through to the next stage of the show, "bootcamp". Lorenzo passed both stages of bootcamp and was sent to St. Tropez with the other successful contestants from the over-25s category. There she auditioned in front of Dannii Minogue who was her X Factor mentor. After an emotional performance of "True Colors", sung in Spanish, Minogue decided to pick Lorenzo for her final three who would proceed to the live shows. On the first live show she sang "Take My Breath Away" in English and Spanish. She had mainly good comments, especially from Cowell, who told her she should sing in Spanish more often. However, the next week Lorenzo sang "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" in English only, and ended up in the bottom two. She performed "Purple Rain" in the singoff, and it saved her into the next week. In Week 5, Lorenzo was in the bottom two again against one of the crowd favourites Laura White. This time she sang "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and was saved by judges Minogue, Walsh and Cowell. Her performance was overshadowed by the uproar over White's departure. During Take That week, Lorenzo sang "Love Ain't Here Anymore". She received high praise for her performance, with Cowell saying it was sensational. By Week 8 Lorenzo was Minogue's last remaining act and she was eliminated after receiving the fewest public votes. Lorenzo bowed out with another performance of "Always". Former friend Alexandra Burke went on to win the show.

2009–10: After The X Factor

Lorenzo performed at gigs across the UK and Ireland in December 2008 and January 2009. In February and March 2009, she joined the X Factor Live tour with fellow finalists. She also was nominated for three awards at the Digital Spy Reality TV Awards. Ruth officially confirmed her record deal with Virgin Records on May 6 with an interview with Xpose.

In 2010, Lorenzo was approached by Spanish TV Channel Cuatro and asked to write a song for their new fictional drama Valientes. She accepted and composed two songs for the show, one for the opening ("Quiero Ser Valiente") and one for the end credits ("Te Puedo Ver"). Ruth performed "Quiero Ser Valiente" on Friday 22 January on Spanish talent show Fama a bailar (which was also aired on Cuatro). In July 2010 it was revealed that Lorenzo had written songs for Dannii Minogue's comeback album revealed on Dannii's ITV2 show Style Queen. Lorenzo confirmed in a blog posting that she parted away from Virgin Records/EMI due to "creative differences" and that she would continue working on her album as an independent artist.

2011–13: The Raspberry Pattern

She signed up to website indiegogo.com where fans helped to fund her debut single. The funding was for airplay, the video shooting, marketing and PR services. The CD version included "Burn", an acoustic version of the song and "Eternity". 'The Raspberry Pattern became the name of her band. Lorenzo was booked for more dates around the United Kingdom for the summer and autumn of 2011. Ruth released a free track download titled "The Night" for her Facebook fans in August 2012 which was officially released in June 2013 with a videoclip. On 11 November a lyric video for her single "Love is Dead" was uploaded to Ruth's YouTube channel. The single was released under the independent H&I Music on digital platforms, including the song "Pain" as a B-side. At the end of 2013 Ruth signed with a new record company, Spanish company Roster Music and unveiled her new website.

2014: Planeta Azul and Eurovision Song Contest

Her website announced the upcoming release of her first studio album. She left to Los Angeles, California to record various tracks for her album, to be titled Planeta Azul.

On 20 January TVE selected Ruth Lorenzo as one of the five candidates to represent Spain at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest. Months earlier the eurovision-spain.com website made a survey known as "La Elección Interna" among eurofans and international juries from thirteen different countries to check who could be the ideal Spanish candidate to represent Spain. Ruth came second in the list among one hundred different Spanish candidates In February the song "Dancing In The Rain" was released as one of the Spanish pre-selection entries for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. The song was released on 18 February and it became number one on iTunes Spain. On 22 February she won the Spanish national final. Therefore, she represented Spain in the contest with the song "Dancing In The Rain" on 10 May 2014. The song finished 10th overall.

Her debut album Planeta Azul was released on 27 October 2014. The album contains thirteen new songs, and also "Dancing In The Rain". The release of the album was preceded by release of lead single, "Gigantes", on 7 October 2014, which debuted at number six on the Spanish Singles Chart. The official video for the single was released on 22 October.

2015–present: After Eurovision, Tu Cara Me Suena

In 2015, Lorenzo served as a judge in the Spanish talent show Levántate (Spanish version of Stand Up for Your Country), aired on Telecinco from 10 February 2015 to 17 March 2015. She also served as a member of the Spanish jury in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015.

On 16 October 2015, a special re-issue of her debut album Planeta Azul was released, which includes new tracks and songs she had recorded previously in English language. One of the new tracks, titled "99", was released as a single on 28 August 2015 and debuted at number 9 on the Spanish Singles Chart.

On 30 July 2015, Lorenzo was announced to join the cast of the fourth season of television show Tu Cara Me Suena (Your Face Sounds Familiar), in which celebrity contestants impersonate a different iconic music artist on stage each week. The season premiered on 18 September 2015 on Antena 3. In the season finale that took place on 29 January 2016, she was declared winner with 47% of the televote.

Discography

Guinness World Records 2016

On the 19th of October, International Breast Cancer Awareness Day, she performed in 12 hours in eight different Spanish cities, achieving the Guinness World Records for this special cause. The name of the event was "Un récord por ellas".