Belinda

Belinda shot by Alex Córdova, 2020

Belinda Peregrín Schull, mostly known as just ***Belinda***, is a Spanish/Mexican singer, songwriter, and actress. Her career started in the early 2000s, where she got the protagonistic roles on the highly known telenovelas such as "Complices al Rescate", "Amigos x Siempre" and "Aventuras en el Tiempo".

Her music career began in 2003, with the release of her debut album "**Belinda**" that later on became a huge success for the star becoming her best selling album with 2.5M records sold worldwide and made her earn the record for "***The Best Selling Album by a Young Latin Artist***" on the Guinness Records. The star, later on, released her next album "**Utopía**" that made her earn her second and third Latin GRAMMYs® Nominations on "Song of the Year" for "**Bella Traición"** and "Best Pop Vocal Album". Belinda would follow up with two more albums, "**Carpe Diem**" (2009) & "**Catarsis**" (2013).

## **Career Beginnings:** "Kingdom", 2015 GRAMMYs® & "If We Were (Remix)" controversy.

As 2015 came, Belinda decided to take her career to the next level and put all bets on the newly created record label, Republic Records. She would be signed alongside ZAYN and Disclosure but she was the main artist the label was pushing at the time as her popularity grew bigger.

Belinda would start the recording sessions for what would be her debut album under Republic Records and her first full-English one, "**Kingdom**", an album that she would co-produce next to Disclosure and Cashmere Cat. In November 2015, she would release the lead single off the project called "**Right Now**" that featured Disclosure and it had a rapid rise on the charts with it debuting at #46 and then bursting to its #9 peak on the Hot 100. The song was later on certified Gold for selling over 700K copies around the world.

The single promotion was cut short due to unforeseen circumstances and the official music video directed by Director X was also canceled after being teased through Twitter and Good Morning America with a 1-minute teaser. Republic Records released the second single off the album two weeks after "Right Now" peaked, this one being "**If We Were**". The song peaked at #11 on the Hot 100 and sold over 500K copies around the world. To ensure the success of the song on the charts, Republic Records would meet with rapper Nicki Minaj and Harry Styles to release a remix. The remix was released and was met with controversy, thanks to the highly publicized feud between Nicki Minaj and Lorde. Both would get heated on live TV after the rapper released "Money", a song where she would call the singer "Lorde of the Rings, yeah, she lookin' like Gollum". The "If We Were" remix continued with the feud as Nicki Minaj would add another jab at Lorde on her verse and fans were not happy with it. The song had to be removed from digital platforms due to the hate that the three artists were receiving for it.

It was time to release the album, so "Kingdom" was released and it was a commercial failure. It debuted at #6 with a little over 65K units sold around the world after a massive campaign with Belinda covering 8 re-known magazines, a complete takeover, and party on Times Square, and many more. Billboard, in an early review of the album, named it "One of the worst debut albums in history". Even after almost going bankrupt because of the album's commercial failure, Republic Records decided to push the new single "**Pearls**" that featured no other than Ariana Grande and it was an instant success. The Cashmere Cat produced song debuted at #18 on the Hot 100 with over 76K units but then rapidly became both singers' biggest song at the time, with it then peaking at #3 and selling over 2 million copies.

Even, after all, the album ended up having six GRAMMY® nominations, including "**Best Dance/Electronic Album**" which ended up winning against Lily Allen and Kelly Clarkson who were the top contenders of the category, making it the biggest upset of the night. This didn't sit well with Allen, as she would go in a Twitter rant about the singer winning the GRAMMY undeservingly and dragging her artistry with hurtful tweets. Belinda would be asked about the Twitter rant on her GRAMMY press conference a few moments after her win where she would say "I don't know her, I didn't even remember she was on the category. But who cares? Who's holding the award right now? Not her!". This would be the beginning of the never-ending feud between them. Belinda would release a collaborative Christmas EP called "Christmas, in our Hearts" with ZAYN who ended up being a commercial failure to both.

## "Kingdom: The Gold Edition", Academy Awards

The album was finally certified Gold by RIAA, so Republic Records decided to release a special edition of it called "**Kingdom: The Gold Edition**" in early 2016. It performed a lot better than its predecessor, debuting at #1 with over 400K copies and stayed at the top of the charts for two consecutive weeks making it her longest stay at the top at the time. The album had only one single, "**After**", a song produced by Max Martin and Shellback which peaked at #6 on the Hot 100 and sold a little over 1,8 million copies. "Gold" also included her hit single, "**My Type**", the ZAYN collaboration which at the time of release peaked at #3 and sold over 2,5 million copies as well.

As the album campaign was coming to an end, Republic Records and Belinda were approached by Lenny Abrahamson, director of the movie "ROOM" starring Bree Larson and Jacob Tremblay for them to re-imagine her album track "**Take My Heart**", which fit the thematic of the movie, so Belinda would meet with M83 and produce and write the song to fit the movie. The song was met with critical acclaim, making it a first for Belinda's career and it was an instant success on the charts as well. After winning the Oscar for "Best Original Song" at the 2016 Academy Awards, the song reached the #1 position on the Hot 100 making it Belinda and Republic Records' first of many #1 singles. The song is to this day, Belinda's biggest solo song with it selling over 4 million copies around the world. "Take My Heart" is also the most-streamed song from 2015 on Encore, having over 46 million streams on the site. This would also give Kingdom and it's re-release the record of the most streamed album from 2015 consequently.

## "REBIRTH", "Life in a Canvas", VMAs controversy.

As Belinda's popularity kept on growing thanks to the Oscar win, it was time to release a new body of work. Belinda would meet with Shura, MNEK, Savan Kotecha, Max Martin, Mariah Carey, and Ilya to produce what would be her third studio album, "**REBIRTH**". As expected, the album was a commercial success for the singer with it debuting at #1 with over 1,2 million copies making it the third biggest opening of the year after Harry Styles and Lorde. "REBIRTH" went on to have a massive promotional campaign around the world and had four singles, "**Buy a Heart**" peaking at #3, "**Borrowed Time**" peaking at #5 and "**I Don't Wanna (feat. Ariana Grande)**" &"**1998 (feat. Brandon Flowers)**" both peaking at #11. The album made Belinda earn a record that to this day, hasn't been beat; it went #1 again after four months of its first peak at the top but the album would be consequently #1 the same week that Belinda obtained her second #1 single, the lead single off her follow up album.

Due to the massiveness of the album, Belinda embarked on her first arena world tour, "**The REBIRTH World Tour**" with Brendon Urie as her opening act. It was a success, with it grossing over $70 million dollars in 30 dates. When the tour was over, Belinda announced she would have a little hiatus to work on what would be her next studio album but in the meantime, the singer decided to begin her perfume empire with the first one called "Belinda" being released through Macy's. She would release the song, "**Lavender Fields**", produced by Stargate and co-written with Chris Martin from Coldplay, as a promotional single for the campaign. The song reached success in the middle of a low sales climate, with it reaching the #1 position, and shortly after that, Belinda would be forced by Sony Music Group to get out of hiatus and to release her next album, "**Life in a Canvas**" which was the beginning of Belinda's troubled, but an iconic, career.

On December 9th, 2016, the album was released. It debuted at #1 with over 800K copies sold, a bast difference with "REBIRTH" but it scanned the third biggest opening of the year right behind Harry Styles' "lusT" and Beyoncé's "The Third Ward". The album was not met with critical acclaim and was deemed one of the worst albums of the year due to its sloppy lyrical content. Belinda then would release the next single, "**Desire**" which featured Harry Styles who produced the song on Apple's "Garage Band". The song went #1, blocking Styles' #1 single "Bloodstream" from spending more weeks at the top spot. It was received greatly on Caltube with it being Belinda's biggest music video on the site at the time with it getting over 500 million views in its first few months. Belinda was invited to perform at the 2016 GRAMMYs® where she would serve her most iconic performance to date for "Lavender Fields". In the performance, Belinda would have a live wedding, marrying her childhood sweetheart Diego Boneta. And who married them on live TV? Britney Spears. The performance naturally went viral and helped the song skyrocket on the charts once again. It was the most talked-about performance of the night and it broke the record of the fastest performance to reach 100 million views on Caltube with it doing so in two days.

The third single, "**The Sky Is Falling**" is her most controversial release as of now. Belinda would release the song in late 2016 with it being premiered with a performance at the 2017 VMAs, one that would also be considered as one of the most iconic performances on the show but for the wrong reasons. Belinda would take the stage to perform the fan-favorite album track "Midnight Kisses" and "The Sky is Falling". After finishing the first part of the performance, she would begin singing "Sky" but she would take the chance to expose her cheating husband as she showed pictures of him on a beach in Cancún, México with a mysterious woman and her burning her marriage certificate on the stage. As the performance ended, there was a sepulchral silence and the cameras would focus on Diego Boneta, who would be on the audience that night. The performance went viral on Caltube and the singer got a lot of hate. It would become the fastest most disliked performance on the platform. "Sky" would reach its peak of #5 on the Hot 100 because of this but then plummet thanks to the controversy it sparked. "Midnight Kisses" was released as the last single off the album, it peaked at #9 on the Hot 100. The music video of both songs was removed from Caltube due to the hate that the singer was getting on the daily.

## Sony Music Lawsuit & Mental Breakdown

After the chaos, Belinda would meet Harry Styles and a collaborative album was on the talks. Fans started to speculate the project being made as both would share on social media pictures in the studio or Styles sharing a "#TBT" of him being with Belinda on her "The REBIRTH World Tour". They would release the track, **"Lovefool"**, and revealed that it was the title track off their collaborative album through Twitter. Comparisons to now-forgotten Tumblr act Strawberry Blonde were made due to it being a collaborative project. The project came to cancellation due to the movement #StopSony being in full force. Belinda and Harry Styles were held against their will and shut up throughout the whole time making fans and the general public turn their backs on them. This would also lead to Belinda and Styles' fallout. Styles, in a Rolling Stone interview, blamed Belinda for the project's underperformance and cancellation calling her "lazy" and "uninterested" which made the star come clean on her Twitter account and exposed Styles' lies. The track was certified Platinum by RIAA after it selling over 1,6 million copies.

Problems with Sony Music Group would begin as Belinda would start to get more rebellious against them due to them forcing her to release music. As Belinda denied, they released against her will the single "**Raining Blossoms**" and haked her Twitter account, blocking her from Tweeting from any device to reveal the plan behind the single and the announced EP that would follow. Belinda would meet with Leona Fluella, who was at the time the CEO of the corporation and the meeting ended up in a very heated discussion. Belinda would claim on her Twitter account that she was pushed down the stairs by Fluella's secretary and was "chased by UFOs" after she fled the scene. This lead to Belinda being taken to rehab, one of the most publicized moments of the star. When the singer was released from rehab, it was a media frenzy outside Betty Ford with her and then-boyfriend Maluma being chased by paparazzi and escorted by Police. Belinda was seen leaving rehab in a custom-made Versace see-through gown which grabbed the attention of fans around the world.

Her problems with Sony Music Group were getting bigger and bigger, now thanks to the leaked interview with Barbra Walters, which was revealed to be canceled and halted by Leona Fluela herself. Belinda would expose Sony Music Group and Fluella in her Netflix documentary "Behind Smoke & Mirrors" and she would show the world the entire conversations she had with Fluella on it, conversations where Fluella would laugh at Belinda's mental health and call her "her slave". She would face a $100 million dollar lawsuit for it, where she would lose due to the jury who took the case being bought by Sony Music Group. Artists like Selena Gomez, Mariah Carey, Rihanna, Lorde, Maluma, Brendon Urie, and more would get together and raise money and talk about Sony's shab ways on Twitter making the whole situation trend on Twitter. Belinda would also suffer from her music being erased from every platform, including collaborations, one of them being the infamous "Dreaming of California", a song from Britney Spears' album "Hungry" that was halted by Sony and Fluella. Belinda was forced to have an interview with Malala through Caltube, where she would say that every claim she made on Twitter and interviews was false and that Sony Music Group was nothing but good to her which brought confusion and anger in the general public and amongst fans.

The reasoning behind the interview happening would also be revealed later on by Belinda herself, as Fluella threatened to not only end her career but Spears' and Charly XCX's if she didn't speak up about her situation with Sony being "false".

## Album cancellations, Connect controversy, and Maluma.

Belinda would then marry Maluma in an intimate ceremony. It was kept under wraps due to Belinda still facing hate on a daily basis thanks to the Malala interview. At the time, Belinda started recording new music still under Sony Music Group as her contract was not dissolved. She would team up with Rihanna to create the song, "**Fuego**", for what was going to be her EP "**Forbidden Fruit**". The song ended up being canceled due to Sony not giving Belinda permission to release any music and it was passed on to Maluma for his debut album "Maniac". The song was re-arranged as a collaboration between Maluma and J Balvin and since Belinda couldn't lend her vocals for the song they started to search for a female artist to be featured on it, going from Lindsay Lohan, KYLIE and Zendaya. Once Belinda was released from her contract, she would be featured on it with Lindsay Lohan. Lohan would cancel at the last minute and the song was released as a trio with Balvin and Maluma.

The "**Forbidden Fruit**" recording continued and Belinda released the single "**Esta Noche**" with Cardi B, it peaked at #40 on the Hot 100, sold over 1 million copies, and got over 100 million streams on Encore. Belinda would also release "**Temperatura**", a song that was premiered on the 2018 VMAs with a surprise performance. She would reveal on the stage after the song ends that she was pregnant with her first child, Ronaldo. Even after the success of "Fuego", the EP was canceled for reasons unknown. Belinda began the process of recording her next studio album, called "**Secrets Vol. 1**" a Nu-Disco inspired album that was produced by Stuart Price, William Orbit, and Belinda herself. The lead single was released, "**Rendezvous**" and it peaked at #8 on the Hot 100 and has over 130 million streams on Encore. The song was premiered with a highly controversial performance at the 2018 Eurovision song contest. Belinda would speak against the homophobic countries of Europe and even had two openly gay men kiss in the middle of the stage. She was granted a special GLAAD award for it.

Belinda would go through a divorce with Maluma behind the scenes, which led the singer to have another mental breakdown. She would upload a nude picture of him on Connect which went viral and caused a lot of online hate towards her. Belinda was banned then from Connec and Caltube, the album "Secrets Vol. 1" was canceled, and Warner Music Group dissolved her contract and removed her from their roster of artists. Belinda would, later on, announce her retirement through her website asking for forgiveness and understanding and that she was going to travel around the world to 'try and find herself'.

As of now, Belinda was signed to XO Records and is rumored to be releasing a new album and single very soon.

## Discography

* *"Kingdom" (2015)*
* *"Christmas, in our Hearts" (EP) (2015)*
* *"Kingdom: The Gold Edition" (2015)*
* *"REBIRTH" (2016)*
* *"Life in a Canvas" (2016)*

## Awards and Nominations

#### Academy Awards

Billboard Music Awards

MTV Video Music Awards