page_title: Lizé Santana
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Lizé Santana / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Lizette Santana performing at Singer songwriters round for Chrystal Hartigan showcase at the Broward Performance Center for the Arts.
context_page_description: Lizette Santana, better known by her stage name Lizé, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and actress.
context_section_description: Lizé Santana was born in Boston, Massachusetts to parents, natives of the Dominican Republic, who relocated and met in United States during the mid- 1960s.  She began classical music piano training at the age of 9.  At 16 won her third state award in the National Guild Piano Playing Recitals, a division of the American College of Musicians. A year later she received Honorable Mention in the preliminaries for Star Search and attended Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music, majoring in Music Business, before moving to New York City, where she performed actively in the rock music scene of Lower East Side, continued writing songs and gained a following. During this time, she also worked at Atlantic Records and attended The School for Film and Television, before finally making her home in Miami, Florida.  Once in Miami, Lizé was invited to perform at the 1st Annual Urban Music Festival at the Bayfront Park Amphitheater in front of more than 10,000 music fans.  Joined by R.J. Ronquillo on electric guitar, Andres Dalmastro on acoustic guitar, drummer Jody Hill and violinist Hugo Martinez. During her early years in Miami, she also continued working in the business side of the music industry at Sony/ATV Music Publishing and later at an independent record label which was distributed through Universal Music Group. Experiences which awakened her entrepreneurial curiosity and equipped her on creating her own record label later on.
  In 2005, Lizé started her own entertainment management company, Rocstar, Inc., along with her sisters.  At that time they managed the careers of celebrity make-up artists, video directors, stylists and up and coming artists.  In 2008, the company became a record label, releasing Lizette Santana's "Aún Sueño en Ti | I Still Dream of You" album in the summer of 2009 and making her the first woman artist in the latin music market to be released under her own independent label.  The album debuted under iTunes, Rock Latino "New and Noteworthy".  She collaborated with multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer Fernando Perdomo (MIKA, Juanes, Jennifer Lopez, Soraya, Jorge Moreno, Paulina Rubio, Andy Pratt). Other musicians who contributed to the album were Derek Cintron (of DC3), RJ Ronquillo (Ricky Martin – MTV Unplugged), and Mexican composer Miguel Luna, who has also written for artists such as Luis Miguel and Ricardo Arjona.
  In September 2009, Lizé Santana was invited to perform at the Latin Pride National Awards, which recognizes the most successful representatives of the Latino community in sports, film, music, education and fashion.  Past honorees have included Miss Universe Amelia Vega, baseball player Sammy Sosa, Pulitzer Prize winner Author Junot Diaz, to name a few.
  The same year Lizé was also invited as a featured singer-songwriter by Chrystal Hartigan to perform at her Singer-songwriter showcase at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, which Hartigan produces under the new name "Chrystal Hartigan Presents Songwriters Showcase".  Previously named, "Songwriters in the Round", which she co-founded with songwriter-producer Desmond Child.   Lizé also performed at the "Get back to 1969" benefit concert for the homeless of Miami, alongside artists such as Tommy Torres, Javier Garcia, Elsten Torres, Alih Jey, among others.
  In January 2011, the single "Besos" and its music video was released, under her stage name Lizé, which is a shorter version of her real name. Lizé decided to reclaim the name, as it appears in past film credits  and unreleased recordings dated back to 2005, for branding reasons as she herself clarified on her official site. "I feel Santana is a name which is already branded in the music world and i like creating my own name and pulling my own weight", she states.
caption: Lizé Santana and Fernando Perdomo at the Chrystal Hartigan presents Songwriters showcase in November 2009.
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