Francisca Valenzuela

Francisca Valenzuela (born March 17, 1987, in San Francisco, California) is an American-born Chilean singer, poet, and multi-instrumentalist.

Valenzuela was born and raised in San Francisco, California, where she resided until the age of 12, before moving to Santiago, Chile.

In 2000, she published her first book,Defenseless Waters, featuring a collection of her poems and illustrations.

The book featured a foreword by famed Chilean author Isabel Allende.

She released her second book, Abejorros/Madurar, which was distributed in Spain and Latin America in 2001.

As part a promotional tour for Defenseless Waters, she brought her guitar and keyboard to venues in northern California, where she gave poetry readings and performed songs of her own composition.

Valenzuela is fluent in English and Spanish and often composes in both languages.

Shortly after the release of her first book, Francisca and her family moved to Santiago, Chile when she was 13.

While residing in Chile, Francisca took part as singer in school festivals, where she performed her original songs.

In 2004, she attended an intensive jazz program at the Berklee College School of Music in Boston.

She first began looking for a record deal by sending her demos to major record label offices throughout Chile with no success.

She performed English-language songs at bars and clubs in Santiago, but eventually began writing and performing in Spanish.

After many unsuccessful attempts at signing with a major label, Valenzuela decided to release her music independently in Chile.

In 2006, Valenzuela unofficially released her first solo single, "Peces", which she wrote at age 13 about a boy she liked who did not reciprocate her feelings.

Within a few months after its release, "Peces" gained popularity on Chilean radio.

"Peces" was recognized by Rolling Stone magazine in Chile, as one of the best 100 songs of the year 2006.

Due to the success of her first unofficial single, Valenzuela began recording her debut album in Santiago.

Brothers Mauricio and Francisco Durán of Los Bunkers produced the album.

In December 2006, she released her second single, "Dulce", which reached number two on Chile's national charts.

She gained popularity in Chile and Latin America following the release of her debut album, Muérdete La Lengua, in June 2007.

To add more achievements to her short musical career, on May 19, 2007, she was invited by Julieta Venegas to open her concert at Teatro Caupolicán.

On June 30, 2007, her debut album, Muérdete La Lengua was released in Chile.

The Chilean press quickly dubbed her as The Princess of Rock, calling her,"[a] new musical revelation".

Soon after its release, the album was certified as Gold in Chile.

Valenzuela performed in New York City at the annual LAMC conference in July 2008.

This was Valenzuela's first musical exposure in the US and gave her an opportunity to showcase her music outside of Latin America.

To promote her debut album, Valenzuela performed at various venues across Chile, as well as Mexico, Argentina, and other countries throughout Latin America.

In early 2009, Valenzuela began the pre-production stages for her second album in Santiago and Berlin.

Her second album, Buen Soldado, followed in March 2011.

Valenzuela has earned both gold and platinum album certification in Chile.

Francisca Valenzuela was born in San Francisco, California to Chilean-born scientists, Pablo Valenzuela Valdés and Bernardita Méndez Velasco.

She is the fourth oldest and only daughter of five children.

Valenzuela attended Park Day School in nearby Oakland, California.

At a very early age, Valenzuela demonstrated an interest in music and began taking music lessons at the age of 7.

By age ten, she was playing acoustic guitar and continued studying classical piano.

During summer vacations and Christmases, she and her brothers would travel to Santiago, where they would visit relatives.

Eventually, the family would make the permanent move to Santiago, when she was 12.

Valenzuela attended Saint George's College, an elite private school in the Vitacura neighborhood of Santiago.

After submitting poetry of her own composition to various literary magazines and taking summer poetry courses, Valenzuela's parents helped her submit more material to a friend, who was also a literary critic at Stanford University.

Many of her poems were published in the Latin American literary magazine, El Andar.