RBD

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RBD
The girls, left to right: Dulce María, Anahí and Maite. The boys, left to right: Christopher, Christian and Alfonso.
Background information
Origin	Mexico City, Mexico
Genre(s)	Latin pop
Years active	2004–present
Label(s)	EMI, Virgin, Capitol
Website	grupo-rbd.com
Members
Anahí Dulce María Maite Perroni Alfonso Herrera Christopher Uckermann Christian Chávez

RBD is a Latin Grammy Award-nominated Mexican musical Pop group that gained popularity from Televisa's teenage-oriented telenovela Rebelde. To date, RBD has achieved a great commercial success with cross-over appeal, and in non-spanish speaking countries, most notably in Brazil. RBD has sold over 10.4 million albums worldwide.^[1]

[edit] Biography

RBD debuted in December 2004 with the album Rebelde, released by EMI. The main writers for the project were DJ Kafka and Max di Carlo, and their songs proved nearly as popular as the show. The first three singles ("Rebelde", "Solo quédate en silencio" and "Sálvame") were all number one hits in Mexico, with the fourth single, "Un póco de tu amor" reaching number two.

In 2005 a Portuguese language edition of the album was released for the Brazilian market called Rebelde (Edição Brasil). And though no English language edition was released, Rebelde sold well in the States, breaking into the Top 100 of the album chart (#95) and reaching number two on the Top Latin Albums chart.

In July came a live CD/DVD, Tour Generación RBD en Vivo, including the group's sold-out tour of Mexico (35 sold-out concerts across the country, including six in Mexico City alone).

In October came their second studio album, Nuestro Amor, which set new sales records in Mexico, selling 160,000 copies in its first week alone. In the U.S., the album topped the Latin Albums chart and again broke into the overall Top 100 (#88). The first four singles hit number one in Mexico. In the United States, only "Aún hay algo" (peaked at 24)," Este corazón"(peaked at 10), and "Nuestro Amor" (peaked at 6) charted.

The following year, 2006, brought no rest for RBD. Tragedy struck early, when a 38-year-old woman and her children, ages 11 and 13, were trampled during an autograph rush in the parking lot of a shopping mall in São Paulo, Brazil on February 4. The three died and another 42 were injured in the incident, which involved the breach of a security fence holding back an estimated 15,000 rabid fans.

Performing at the 2006 Latin Grammys

Early in 2006, they RBD released a Portuguese version of Nuestro Amor, entitled Nosso Amor Rebelde. Not long after, RBD toured the United States for the first time, issuing in April a sophomore CD/DVD, Live in Hollywood, wich peaked at number 6 in Billboard's Top Latin Albums chart.

With the June 2 finale of (Rebelde) (after three seasons), came news that the group would begin filming a movie and recording an English language album comprised of songs from their first two albums.

RBD also received a nomination for the 2006 Latin Grammy Awards in the category "Best Pop Album by a Group or Duo" for their second studio album Nuestro Amor. However, they lost to La Oreja de Van Gogh, but made a performance, singing a new version of Tras de mí.

Several months after the release of Live in Hollywood, they released their third studio album Celestial which debuted at number 15 in the Billboard 200, marking sales over 137,000 copies in the U.S. The album however did not have a full week of album sales, due to its Friday release. However, it became their first album to peak or chart within the top 20 of the Billboard 200.^[2]

Two weeks later they released their first English album, Rebels which debuted at number 40 on the Billboard 200 album chart with first-week sales of 94,000 copies. On the day of release, the cover of the album was altered by the changing of the group's logo from white to pink. Ironically, the band's third Spanish album Celestial sold 43,000 copies more than Rebels in its first week.

Rebels, the 2006 first crossover album.

The group is a huge phenomenon all over Latin America. In Colombia, they sold more records than sucessful local act Juanes and in Chile they sold over 5,000 tickets in a few hours. In Brazil, after the tragedy, they came back in October to a 12-city stadium tour, including a concert on the world's biggest-stadium Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro, selling over 50,000 of the 78,000 seats in just 2 hours. The historical concert will come out on DVD, to be called RBD Live from Rio. They also received a certification for 2.5 million copies of their albums and DVDs sold in Brazil. In Spain, Rebelde spent 5 weeks on the top of the charts and has gone 2x platinum for sales over 160,000, while Nuestro Amor is still in the charts and has already sold 160,000 copies, enough to be certified 2x platinum as well.^[3]

On March 2, 2007, Christian Chavez revealed that he is gay after pictures of him getting married to another man in Canada surfaced on the Internet. In a letter on the group's website, he asked fans for understanding and acceptance. [1]

The group is also currently working on two other projects; Sálvame, an organization that helps homeless youth get an education and shelter, and RBD: La Familia, their new sitcom.

[edit] Tour Generación 2006

Mexican newspapers reported on November 13, 2005, that RBD's new tour, originally called Nuestro Amor Tour but later called Tour Generación 2006, would kick off the next year, around May 2006. It followed the release of RBD's second studio album, Nuestro Amor.

The tour began in the United States in March 2006, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with a crowd of more than 63,000 fans - a record-breaking act for a Latin group and a sure sign of their widespread success.

The tour visited several cities in the following states: California, Texas, Washington, Nevada, Illinois, Georgia, Florida, Utah, Colorado, New York, Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona, Oregon, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

374,000 tickets worth a total of $18,200,000 were sold for that tour, putting them in the 15th place among all the US tours in the first half of 2006 by total ticket sales.

RBD is scheduled to tour all over South America in late 2006. On October 2006, RBD is expected to return to Brazil to do a 13-cities stadium tour, including a stop at the world's biggest stadium, Estádio do Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro. They will be the first Spanish-speaking act to do a concert in the venue. International artists such as Madonna, Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones and native artist Xuxa have performed in the stadium.

[edit] Discography

Main article: RBD discography

[edit] Albums

Spanish Studio Albums

1. Rebelde (2004)
2. Nuestro Amor (2005)
3. Celestial (2006)

English Studio Albums

1. Rebels (2006)

Portuguese Studio Albums

1. Rebelde (Edição Brasil) – Portuguese version of Rebelde (2005)
2. Nosso Amor Rebelde – Portuguese version of Nuestro Amor (2006)
3. Celestial (Versão Brasil) – Portuguese version of Celestial (2006)

[edit] Awards

[edit] References

1. ^ Sales over 10.4 million
2. ^ http://billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003465594 Billboard.com
3. ^ Spanish Albums Chart with certification sales http://www.los40.com/actualidad/listas/afyve.html Spanish Albums Chart with certification sales Los.40.com

4. http://www.terra.com/ocio/articulo/html/oci96266.htm

[edit] External links

Official

• Official Mexican Website (Spanish)
• Official American website (English)
• Official Brazilian website (Portuguese)
• RBD's MySpace page (Spanish)
• Official soap opera website