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Kathleen Emperatriz "Kat" DeLuna (born November 17,[1] 1987[2] in The Bronx, New York) is an American R&B singer, of Dominican descent, who is signed to Epic Records/GMB
Biography
At the age of 12, she was invited by the 'Queen of Merengue', Milly Quezada, to sing with her on stage in front of a big crowd of over thousands of people. In April 2004, she opened for J Records musician Cassidy as part of the all Latino girl group CoqueThe Bronx, US to the Dominican Republic, where she spent her time listening to Aretha Franklin and realized her potential as a singer. Kat was accepted to the Arts High School in Newark, New Jersey under the vocal instruction of Dr. Jerry Forderhase. Kat is said to have a 5 octave vocal range. In her freshman year, she responded to an audition in The Village Voice and was accepted into an all-Latina, Hip Hop/R&B group called Coquette.[citation needed] Kat continued to pursue her dream of becoming a solo artist and at age of 15, she entered a Coca-Cola sponsored karaoke competition. Her version of "I Will Always Love You" won the competition.[citation needed] After the competition, Cuban salsa singer Rey Ruiz advised Kat to start writing her own music.[citation needed]
Kat signed a contract with the production label, Get Money Brothers (GMB) Music Group owned by Haitian male supermodel Tyrone Edmond. According to a brief interview she granted on HaitiXchange.com, she stated that she first met Tyrone when she was only 14 years old, who was then scouting for talent. Kat and Tyrone have become good friends ever since. Kat was finally picked up by Epic Records and is currently under both labels. She is managed by Cape Town Management. Her debut album, 9 Lives, produced by hitmaker RedOne, and written by grammy nominated songwriter Jane't Sewell-Ulepic, was released on August 7, 2007, as confirmed by Billboard and will be re-released this Spring.[3]
As of March 17, 2008, Kat was seen holding hands with actor Saville at a local coffee house. Saville appeared in the Walt Disney movie “College Road Trip” (2008) along side Raven-Symone and Martin Lawrence. He also can be seen in the new comedy, “Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay” (2008). Kat and Saville are scheduled to present the “Best Male Artist” award at the 2008 MTV Music Awards this fall. He can also be seen in her upcoming music video “In The End”.
