Aneeka (born Andrea Martínez; August 18, 1985) is a

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

n singer born in San Cristóbal. Her name means ''believe'' in

Wayuu The Wayuu (also Wayu, Wayú, Guajiro, Wahiro) are an Indigenous ethnic group of the Guajira Peninsula in northernmost Colombia and northwest Venezuela. The Wayuu language is part of the Arawakan language family. Throughout their history, they ...

Career

Aneeka sought opportunities to record an album in

but was unsuccessful. She found willing investors in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and after working in different music clubs for seven years, she recorded an album that was never released. She released her first album ''Ni Antes, Ni Después'' (''Not Before, Nor After''), produced by Ettore Grenci, in 2013. It consists of a mix of Pop, R&B and

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

music. ''Ni Antes, Ni Después'' included ten songs written by Mexican

Latin Grammy Award The Latin Grammy Awards (stylized as Latin GRAMMYs) are awards presented by the Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from any ...

winner Mónica Vélez, whose lyrics deal with topics such as jealousy, infidelity, revenge, sex, and solidarity. The album was pre-produced in Mexico, with

melodies A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of pitch and rhythm, while more figuratively, the term ca ...

by Anneka and her producer Grenci. It was recorded at the Sonic Ranch studio in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

. Reflecting on the album, Aneeka declared: "Today I see my dream crystallized and it was worth the sacrifice of being away from my family and having lived through my teens quickly. This is what I was born to do". Anneka has stated that her musical influences include the American singers

Mariah Carey Mariah Carey ( ; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Songbird Supreme" by ''Guinness World Records'', Carey is known for her five-octave voc ...

Whitney Houston Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer, actress, film producer, model, and philanthropist. Commonly referred to as "Honorific nicknames in popular music, the Voice", she is List of awards and no ...

and

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Honored as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Soul", she was twice named by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine as the Roll ...

. She remarked that she attempted to include their musical styles on the album, blending them with pop music. Three singles were released from ''Ni Antes, Ni Después'': "Ojo por Ojo"; "Sin Combustible"; and "Demasiado Tarde". The music video for "Ojo Por Ojo" was directed by the photographer and fashion designer Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri. "Sin Combustible" was successful in Mexico as the fourteenth best performing single of 2013, reaching number two in the

airplay Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...

charts. In the United States, the track peaked at number 24 in the ''Billboard'' Tropical Songs chart. Aneeka was nominated for

Best New Artist The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since the 2nd Annual Grammy Awards in 1960 (except in 1967) "for a new artist who releases, during the Eligibility Year, the first recording which establishes the public identity of that ar ...

and performed at the Latin Grammy Awards of 2014. She lost to fellow Venezuelan singer Mariana Vega. Aneeka received a nomination for the

Lo Nuestro Awards The Lo Nuestro Awards or Premios Lo Nuestro (Spanish language, Spanish for "Ours") is a Spanish-language awards show honoring the best of Latin music (genre), Latin music, presented by TelevisaUnivision, and is carried by its Univision network in ...

for New Artist of the Year. In December 2014, it was announced that Aneeka would join the vocal coach Gary Catona's team in the reality show ''The Ultimate Diva'', a singing competition to be broadcast on the video-sharing website

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

in 2015.

Discography

*'' Ni Antes... Ni Después'' (2013) *'' Ni Antes... Ni Después "en vivo"'' (2015)

References

{{authority control 1985 births Living people Venezuelan emigrants to Mexico 21st-century Venezuelan women singers Venezuelan pop singers Rhythm and blues singers Women in Latin music