Sasha Sokol

Sasha Sökol Cuillery (Mexico City, June 17, 1970), known during her childhood and adolescence as Sasha and, from 1997 onwards, as Sasha Sökol, is a Mexican singer, actress, songwriter and television presenter.

She began her artistic career as a member of the musical band Timbiriche.

Sökol was born in Mexico City to a Polish father and a French mother.

When she was still a toddler, her parents (Michael "Happy" Sökol and Magdalena Cuillery) divorced and her mother married Fernando Diez Barroso, an executive at Televisa.

As a child, she was known as Sasha Diez Barroso, but now goes by her paternal name, Sökol.

She studied at the Colegio Peterson and later at the Centro de Educación Artística (CEA) of Televisa.

At that time, the music and television producer Luis de Llano Macedo was seeking to create a Mexican version of the band Parchís, and Sökol held castings at the CEA.

From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, Sökol was among the most popular singers in Mexico and Latin America.

Sökol was selected as one of the original seven members and that is how she started her singing career in 1982.

Sökol recorded seven albums with Timbiriche, which earned 25 gold albums and ten platinum albums.

Timbiriche earned her awards from El Heraldo and the TVyNovelas Awards.

In 1984, with Timbiriche, Sökol participated in Vaselina as Sandy, the Spanish-language version of Grease.

In 1986, she left Timbiriche and moved to Boston, Massachusetts, US to continue her acting studies.

In 1986, Sökol enrolled at the Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts.

The following year, she released her first solo album, Sasha, which sold over a million copies in Mexico, making it one of Mexico's best-selling albums in 1987.

Her first single was "No Me Extraña Nada", which was released with a music video.

She was nicknamed "La Dama de Negro" (The Lady in Black) for her habit of dressing in said color.

The biggest hit of the album was "Rueda Mi Mente", which peaked at number one on Mexican radio and remained there for several weeks.

Sökol made her television solo debut in Siempre En Domingo, the biggest variety show in Ibero-America at the time.

Her most successful album has been her first, Sasha (1987).

At that time, she was considered the top female pop icon in Mexico and her style was imitated by teenagers throughout Mexico, and led to the release of her own jewellery line and a perfume labelled "Fama".

In 1988, she released the maxi-single "Diamante", which was chosen as the theme song for the music magazine Eres.

In 1988, she also launched a television career with the series Tres Generaciones (TV Show) (Three Generations), starring Carmen Montejo and Angélica María.

In 1989, she recorded a song titled "Detrás del Amor" for the compilation album Nos vamos de vacaciones, which also featured Alejandra Guzmán and Alix Bauer (another ex-Timbiriche).

She released her second album, Trampas de luz, that year.

In 1990, she recorded the song "Amor amor" for the compilation album Juntos ayer y hoy, and the song "Noche de ronda" for the compilation album El estudio de Lara.

In 1991, Sökol released her third album, Siento, and appeared in the Mexican soap opera Alcanzar una estrella II.

It was a tremendous hit and the musical group from the telenovela, called Muñecos de papel (Paper Dolls) which included Sökol, Ricky Martin, Bibi Gaytan and Angélica Rivera among others, released two soundtrack albums with music from the series.

Muñecos de papel had such success that they went on a national tour throughout Mexico and were nominated as "Revelation of the Year" at the second annual awards show for Premios Eres, and won the coveted honor.

In 1992, Sökol released her fourth solo album, Amor sin tiempo.

In 1993, Sökol put her career on hold and put herself in rehabilitation for cocaine addiction.

Months later, she formally made statements to the Mexican media about her drug addiction and rehabilitation.

She publicly apologized to her fans for her disappearance and for all the rumors that were brought forth while out of the spotlight.

In 1997, she returned to the music scene with an album titled 11:11, released by Sony Mexico.

The first single, Seras el Aire, was a huge hit and is one of her signature songs.

Right before she started a 1998 tour titled 11:11 acústico (11:11 Acoustic), which was to take place throughout Mexico and certain countries in Central and South America, her international tour was cancelled because of her mother's hospitalization and eventual death.

In 1998, Sökol joined all original founding members of the Mexican pop group Timbiriche in an international tour, and they recorded a double album titled El concierto.

In 2004, she returned once again to the music scene, after a long absence, with the album Por un amor.

This album is distinct to her fans as it is not of the pop music genre, but one that belongs to the traditional Mexican music genre, rancheras.

In 2005, Sokol participated in the reality show Big Brother VIP and won the grand prize.