Luz Casal

María Luz Casal Paz (born 11 November 1958) is a Spanish rock singer.

She grew up in Boimorto, Galicia (Spain), took singing, piano and ballet classes, and moved to Madrid to pursue a career as a musician.

In 1977, to start her career on the music scene, and after convincing her parents, she went to Madrid, where she made her first recording called "La guapa" (The beautiful), and made contact with a lot of record labels until an independent production company gave her an audition as a backing singer, which is how she entered the world of professional music.

She was a backing singer for many artists' recordings and she accompanies Juan Pardo in his live performances.

From that moment on, she started composing her first songs, of which she recorded ten, but they were not released.

In these years, she made her only appearance in the theatre, taking the role of Raquel Meller in the musical "Las Divinas" (The Divines), performed in the Reina Victoria theatre in Madrid.

She became famous in the early 1980s, and remained an important figure in Spanish pop music all through said decade and beyond, with her sound gradually maturing towards soft adult pop.

She recorded a cover version of Étienne Daho's French language song "Duel au Soleil" in Spanish called "Un nuevo día brillará", which became a hit song.

Since the beginning of her career, she has sold over five million albums.

In 1980, she released her first single with a multinational company, "El ascensor" (The elevator), a song with a strong reggae flavour as a tribute to Bob Marley.

She presented this song in "Tocata", a very popular music show in RTVE.

After that she took part in many festivals held in a lot of countries and took dance classes with Karen Taft, Arnold Taraborelli, Lindsay Kemp, Merche Esmeralda, and Goyo Montero.

In 1981, seeking less control over her private life, she joined the company Zafiro and took part in the live album published by the group Leño.

The following year she started the recording of her first solo album, in Madrid, Brussels and Amsterdam, which was released in September 1982 and was named "Luz".

The album was produced by Carlos Narea, and included songs composed by herself and by Roque Navaja.

She appeared for the first time in a TV program, and participated in a book-album of the poet Xaime Noguerol.

In 1983 she recorded the video of the maxi single "No aguanto más" (I can't stand anymore), then she started making live performances and took part in the tour "El rock de una noche de verano" (The rock of a summer night), with Miguel Ríos and Leño, with whom she performed in 35 cities of Spain.

In 1984 she released her second album, "Los ojos del gato" (The eyes of the cat), recorded in Spain, Belgium and Germany.

Some of the songs, written by Ramoncín and Hilario Camacho, gained listeners throughout Europe.

Luz kept on studying: piano, chorus and performance.

Luz III, released in 1985, contains a very popular track called "Rufino", by Carmen Santonja (Member of the band Vainica Doble).

That year she performed in a festival held in Czechoslovakia, with artists from other countries; Luz still remembers the impact of hearing "No aguanto más" and "Ciudad sin ley" (Lawless city) being played by an orchestra with wind instruments.

In 1986 she gave more than 90 concerts and performed again for Czech Television.

In (Germany) she recorded the song "The water is life", for an environmental campaign, with stars such as Mark Knopfler.

In 1987 she recorded an a capella song with the group 'The Christians' for a television program and in May of that year, her next album "Quiéreme aunque te duela" (Love me even if it hurts you), was launched, in which she started to be less of a rocker and discovered herself as a performer of ballads, which were the greatest hits of that release.

The album included her hit "A Cada Paso", which became her breakout hit in Latin America.

It climbed to the number one position in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Mexico.

The Mexican female pop-band Flans made a cover of the song in 1990, which also became a big hit in that country.

She participated in the TV program "¡Qué noche la de aquel año!"

(¡How incredible was that year's night!), that was hosted by Miguel Ríos, then she travelled to Mexico, Venezuela and New York City.

In 1992, she enjoyed great success with her appearance in the soundtrack of Pedro Almodóvar's acclaimed film High Heels singing Agustín Lara's theme "Piensa en mí".

In January 2007, Luz Casal was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent an operation at the Ruber Clinic in Madrid, seven months later, she revealed to the Spanish media that she had overcome her disease.

More recently in May 2010, she announced that she had been diagnosed with cancer in her other breast and had to cancel her current tour to be operated on.

Her middle name, Luz, means "light" in Spanish.

Luz Casal is the daughter of José Casal and Matilde Paz.

When she went to live in Avilés she studied at Paula Frassinetti School, founded by the Dorotean Sisters of Charity.

Then the family went to live in Gijón where she performed for the first time in front of fifty people.

There she studied piano and ballet and formed part of a rock group called Los Fannys that made versions of other artist's songs.

Luz also formed part of another band that performed in Asturias, León and Galicia.

Nevertheless, she always wanted to be a solo singer.