rbd

RBD is a Mexican music group that gained popularity from Televisa's prime-time telenovela. This exposure created an active fanbase of both teenagers and adults within some countries of Latin America, and the United States. Adhering to these new fan's requests, RBD began recording major-label albums in 2004. To date, RBD has achieved major commercial success with cross-over appeal in non-Spanish speaking countries, most notably in Brazil.

Biography

The group is comprised of six youths, three boys, and three girls — Alfonso Herrera, Christian Chávez, Dulce María Saviñon, Maite Perroni, Anahí Portilla,and Christopher Uckermann.

Three members of that group began their actor and singer career since less 16 years ago, while two of them were dedicated to the theater and one of them worked at Disney Channel. But, after winning prizes for best actor on telenovelas and on movies, their most famous project is a prime-time telenovela Rebelde. The show was a huge success throughout Latin America that the extension of the brand into pop music seemed natural (if not prearranged), for this is a common practice in Hispanic media, as numerous Latin pop stars — from Thalía and Shakira to Carlos Vives and Chayanne — got their starts in telenovelas. The group doesn't write their own songs; they sing, act, dance, and give the music a marketable face. Everywhere they go, they make legions of fans across the world and they can sell millions of cd's and dvd's in only some weeks.

It all began with a television show. The telenovela Rebelde debuted in October 2004 and concluded in June 2006, running for three seasons, 440 episodes in total. The show was produced by Pedro Damián for Televisa, the largest media company in the Hispanic world, headquartered in Mexico City. The main characters are upper-class adolescents, and the major plot point is that they decide to form a band. That band is RBD, which provides a reality show touch to the music. Likewise, real-life music stars frequently make guest cameos on the show, among them Hilary Duff, Luny Tunes, Gorillaz, and JD Natasha. Too, the show employs extensive product placement — for instance, lots of Cola-Cola is drunk by the characters. Overall, Rebelde isn't all that different from a typical telenovela, with the exception of its popularity, which was international. Not only did Rebelde earn top ratings in the Spanish-speaking world, but it also proved extremely popular in Brazil and the United States.

The group RBD debuted in January 2005 with the album Rebelde, released by EMI, and opened with the show's theme song of the same name. The primary writers for the project were DJ Kafka and Max di Carlo, and their songs proved nearly as popular as the show. The first three singles ("Rebelde", "Solo quédate en silencio" and "Sálvame") were all number one hits in Mexico, with the fourth single, "Un póco de tu amor" reaching number two. A Portuguese language edition of the album was released for the Brazilian market, also in 2005, being Rebelde (Edição Brasil). And though no English language edition was released, Rebelde sold well in the States, breaking into the Top 100 of the album chart (#95) and reaching number two on the Top Latin Albums chart. The releases continued with little pause. In July came a live CD/DVD, Tour Generación RBD en Vivo, including the group's sold-out tour of Mexico (35 sold-out concerts across the country, including six in Mexico City alone). And in October came their second studio album, Nuestro Amor, which set new sales records in Mexico, selling 160,000 copies in its first week alone. In the U.S., the album topped the Latin Albums chart and again broke into the overall Top 100 (#88). The first four singles were not number ones, but they went top 10: "Nuestro amor", "Aún hay algo", "Tras de mí" and "Este corazón". These singles were hits in the U.S., but didn't do any chart-topping.

The following year, 2006, brought no rest for RBD. Tragedy struck early, when a 38-year-old woman and her children, ages 11 and 13, were trampled during an autograph rush in the parking lot of a shopping mall in São Paulo on February 4. The three died and another 42 were injured in the incident, which involved the breach of a security fence holding back an estimated 15,000 rabid fans. For more information see Brazilian tragedy below. Early in 2006, they RBD released a Portuguese version of Nuestro Amor, entitled Nosso Amor Rebelde. Not long after, RBD toured the United States for the first time, in April issuing a sophomore CD/DVD, Live in Hollywood. Several months later, the telenovela (Rebelde) came to an end with the finale of its third season on June 2. With the finale came promising news for fans; this being the fact the group announced that they would begin filming a movie and recording an English language album comprised of songs from their first two albums. Plus, the group recently announced on their official English website that they would continue to tour and finish new material for the Celestial, their upcoming studio album.

During the signing session in Spain, Dulce Maria slated the release of "Ser o parecer", the first Spanish single from Celestial, for September 18, where it will premiere on their official site. Alfonso revealed that the upcoming English album Rebels will include 6 songs from their first two studio albums, sung now in English, 8 brand new songs, and a cover.

A rumor has spread that RBD has not recorded one, but two reggaeton tracks. One of them, "Lento" ("Slow"), will be featured on LunyTunes & Tainy: Los Benjamins, while the other will be featured on RBD's third Spanish studio album Celestial, said to be called "No quiero llorar" ("I Don't Want to Cry").

RBD has also recieved a nomination for the Latin Grammy Awards this year. The group is nominated in the category "Best Pop Album by a Group or Duo" for their second studio album Nuestro Amor.

Brazilian tragedy

On February 4, 2006 during an autograph session on the parking lot of a shopping mall in São Paulo, a 38 year-old woman and two children, ages 13 and 11, were killed supposedly due to suffocation while another 42 people, mostly teenagers, were injured. Authorities said some of the fans were trampled when a security fence keeping them from getting too close to the singers collapsed. Apparently fans rushed forward as the band began preparing for a brief impromptu performance after the autograph session. More than 15,000 people were present at the event, rather than the 5,000 that was expected. The members of the group RBD were dismayed and deeply saddened by the death of these three people. They cancelled their events in Brazil, appearing only in a condolence message to the families of the victims on Brazil's popular TV show Domingo Legal. ^[1]

This tragedy raised a controversy about the group management's role in these sessions, as similar situations happened just one month prior. On January 12th, events at Dallas, Texas went through similar circumstances being cancelled. On January 13th, 2006 police in El Paso, Texas called out a SWAT team to control over 10,000 fans, some of whom waited for six hours to see the group at a local Wal-Mart for the band to make an appearance. The size of the crowd forced organizers to cancel the event. In West Paterson, New Jersey several days later events were also cancelled.

Tours

Tour Generación

Main article: Tour Generación RBD

Tour Generación RBD (2005), RBD's first national tour, became one of the most successful tours in Mexican music history, with 35 sold out dates in Mexico, (3 visits to Monterrey and a total sold out at all 6 concerts at Palacio de los Deportes (capacity of 22,500) at Ciudad de México) gathering more than 700,000 fans in Mexico, overall.

A Tour Generación DVD and Tour Generación CD were released to promote the tour.

Tour Generación 2006

Tour Generación 2006 started in the United States in March 2006,at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with a crowd of more than 63,000 fans - a record breaking act for a Latin group and a sure sign of their widespread success. U.S. dates ended grossing over $18 millions. The tour is scheduled to continue in South America later in 2006.

Discography

Albums

All regularly released albums and their chart peak position: Mexican Top 100 (MEX), Billboard 200 (Hot 200), Top Heatseekers (Heat), Top Latin Albums (TLA), Latin Pop Albums (LPA) and in Spain (SP).

Total worldwide sales albums: 7.5 million.

Singles

All regularly released singles and their chart peak position: Hot Latin Tracks (HLT), Latin Pop Airplay (LPA), Latin Tropical Airplay (LTA), in Mexico (MX) and in United States (US).

• ¹: Only released in Mexico.
• ²: RBD was chosen to interpret the official theme song for the Mexico national football team titled México, México for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The song was not released on single, only for digital download on iTunes Music Store in the U.S.

DVD´s of the Group

Notes

1. ^ RBD - Tragedy in Brazil
2. ^ Album chart positions US
3. ^ Album chart positions in Spain
4. ^ Single chart positions US

External links

Official

• Official Website
• RBD - US Billboard Chart history

Unofficial

• (Spanish) RBD en Univision.com
• RBD Lyrics at LetsSingIt.com
• RBD Profile, Pictures and Videos
• RBD in the Top Latino Year end chart
• Rebels Fansite - English Site dedicated to RBD
• Historia do RBD