Calida Narvaez

Calida Narvaez (2012)

**Calida Narvaez** (born August 16, 1971 as **Calida Fontes**) is a Puerto Rican actress, singer and a businesswoman.

## Biography

### Early Life

Narvaez was born on August 16, 1971 in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. Both of her parents are of Brazilian descent, but they moved out to Puerto Rico after getting married. Her father, José Fontes, is a computer scientist, while her mother, Fernanda Fontes, is a nurse. Narvaez has an older sister Aline born in September 1968. Narvaez said she always was curious about acting, that's why she never went to college after graduating high school in 1990.  Her parents were convinced about Calida's acting talent, so they started visiting auditions with her since she was a child. She first played in a commercial while she was only 12.

### Career

Her first important movie appearance was as a supporting role in a 1992 critic acclaimed movie "The Rain". After the movie premiere she became a huge worldwide star. Her singing career launched 2 years later, when she was asked for a leading role in a musical movie "Applause". She recorded a soundtrack to the movie, it sold 10 million copies worldwide. The movie as well as the soundtrack won multiple awards, including an Oscar for Best Original Musical. Her first studio album called "Stars" was released in 1995. The following year she won a grammy for Best New Artist and Best Dance Recording for "Stars", the lead single of the album. In 1997 she started working with Niesha Dominguez's ex-husband, Horacio Saavedra. He convinced Narvaez to make a new record with him. She didn't knew that his idea were stolen from Dominguez. The lead single of the record, Exhale was released on November 17, 1998. It became a massive hit and Narvaez's biggest hit to date occupying number one spot for 11 weeks in the United States. The album titled Rebirth was released on January 8, 1999. The record debuted at number one on Billboard Hot 200, it spawned three number one singles and sold over 15 million copies worldwide. It was also nominated for eight Grammys and won two of them, for Album of the Year and Best Duo Group Performance. Because of the record she also had a long time conflict with Dominguez. Dominguez also said she had a nervous breakdown, because of her ideas being stolen. In 2012 Narvaez announced she became friends with Dominguez, she said that after talking to each other Dominguez realized that nothing Narvaez did was made on purpose and she didn't knew about the fact that an idea for her record was stolen from Dominguez. She also said they realized they have a lot in common and they don't see a reason why they should continue their conflict. Since 1999 Narvaez released 3 studio albums (1 in Spanish) and played in multiple successful movies. In 2006 she performed at Super Bowl Halftime Show alongside Lashay Knight. In 2015 she was announced a contestant in a reality show Dancing with the Stars where she ended up second. In 2019 she announced she is working on her cosmetic brand that will launch really soon.

### Personal Life

In 1992, when she was acting in The Rain, she met Dylan Narvaez. They started dating month after and they got married in late 1993. In 1996 she gave birth to their first and only daughter, Alanis. In early 1997 she announced they'll be getting divorced, although she decided to keep the last name. In late 1997 she started dating Horacio Saavedra, but they broke up two years after. In 2005 she started dating Joe Thompson. They got married 5 years after. They have 3 kids together, a daughter Emilia and two sons, Conan and Alexander.