Angela Via

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Angela Via bigraphy, stories - American singer

Angela Via : biography

December 29, 1981 –

Angela Vía (born December 29, 1981 as Angela Jolena Trullinger Villarreal) is an American singer/songwriter from Texas. Initially marketed as a pop artist, Angela’s catalog contains music of a variety of genres in both English and Spanish. While she was scheduled to release an album in 2009, it is currently unknown when her next work will be released as she is shopping for a record label.

Discography

Singles

  • "Picture Perfect" (2000) (also released in Spanish as "Retrato Perfecto")
  • "I Don’t Care" (2000)
  • "Speakin’ Spanish" (2006)
  • "Baila Baila (Don’t Let This Party End)" (2006)

Albums

  • Angela Via (2004) (digital download only)

Compilation albums

  • Pokémon: The First Movie ("Catch Me If You Can") (1999)
  • Pokémon 2000 ("Wonderland") (2000)
  • The Little Vampire (soundtrack album) ("Best Friends") (2000)
  • MTV: TRL Christmas ("Christmas Wish") (2001)
  • Boat Trip ("Kissing You") (2003)

Personal life

Angela Via is married. It is revealed that she is also expecting a baby.

Biography

Childhood and beginnings

Vía was born in Raymondville, Texas, to Tom Trullinger, of European-American and Native American ancestry, and Annie Villarreal, of Mexican and Spanish ancestry. During her early childhood, she grew close to her Mexican/American heritage, and often listened to the local Tejano music. Every day, Vía would lock herself in her room or take her boom box to the porch and practice singing for hours. She wrote her first song at the age of three.

At the age of nine, Vía and her family moved to Gresham, Oregon, a suburb of the most populous city in the state, Portland, Oregon. It was here that she began singing in her school and church choirs, as well as discovering some of her favorite artists, BeBe & CeCe Winans and Kirk Franklin. This was when she began to gain a deeper connection to R&B and soul music. In 1996, Angela’s father took her to a studio to record some of her favorite songs at the time. Among these songs were Mariah Carey’s "Hero" and Selena Quintanilla’s "Amor Prohibido." In 1997 her version of Whitney Houston’s "You Were Loved" appeared on a regional fund raising album. This led to performances at cultural and charity events throughout the city. In 1998 she won a talent show sponsored by a Portland radio station and was flown to Los Angeles to perform at the Planet Hollywood party for the movie The Wedding Singer.

1999–2002: Lava/Atlantic Records

In 1999, Vía signed a seven-album deal with Lava/Atlantic Records thanks to her co-self-penned demo track, "Picture Perfect", which Angela wrote in part by gathering poems that she had written down previously. It also showcases her ability to utilize the whistle register. The first release on Lava was "Catch Me If You Can", on the Pokémon: The First Movie soundtrack.

A year later, Vía made the promotional rounds for the release of her debut single and album. Her first single, "Picture Perfect", hit airwaves in March and was the most-added single to Top 40 Mainstream radio in its first week. It went on to sell more than 110,000 copies in the U.S.. Smallville star Tom Welling played Angela’s love interest in the music video, which received heavy videoplay on both MTV and The Box. A Spanish version, "Retrato Perfecto", also hit Spanish airwaves in the U.S. and a commercial single for "Picture Perfect" was released in Australia in May.

Vía’s second single, "I Don’t Care", received moderate airplay and sold a respectable amount, but its success was not strong enough to launch her debut album, Angela Via. Originally scheduled for release on June 6, 2000, the album was shelved indefinitely. In 2004 the album was finally released as a digital download through RealPlayer’s music store. "I Don’t Care" was remade in 2001 by Australian pop singer Delta Goodrem and achieved moderate success in Australia.