Soraya Arnelas

Soraya Arnelas (September 13, 1982) was born in Valencia de Alcántara, Cáceres, Spain and raised in Madrid. Known mononymously as Soraya, the 1980s-loving Spanish singer cut her teeth on Spanish reality TV talent show Operación Triunfo in 2005, coming second place. She launched her platinum-selling debut album, Corazón De Fuego, the same year, which spawned the radio-friendly hit "Mi Mundo Sin Ti". Digging into the goldmine of 1980s pop for her second album, Ochenta's arrived in 2006, and marked Arnelas' first English-language LP. For the album's first single, she recorded a revamped version of Italian singer RAF's 1984 Italo disco classic "Self Control" and struck gold, with the rest of the album offering an assortment of 1980s covers and original songs. Riding high on the success of Ochenta's, Arnelas released another album of 1980s covers in 2007, Dolce Vita, which went platinum and featured a host of well-known hits including Kylie Minogue's "I Should Be So Lucky", Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)". DJ Sammy was ushered in to produce Arnelas' fourth album in 2008, Sin Miedo, and she performed one of its tracks – "La Noche Es Para Mí" – at the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, Russia the following year. Arnelas signed a deal with Sony Music and released her fifth album, Dreamer, in 2010. In 2013, she christened the arrival of her own label, Valentia Records, with the album Universe in Me and in subsequent years dropped a number of singles, including "Qué Bonito" in 2018.