Gisselle Ortiz Cáceres (born March 28, 1969 in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, U.S.), known mononymously as Gisselle, is an American merengue singer.

Biography

Musical career

Gisselle was born in

to Puerto Rican parents. She showed interest in the arts from an early age and started dancing at the Ita Medina Academy when she was 15 years old. She participated as a dancer in several shows in venues like the Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center. After that she became a regular dancer and performer in

variety shows Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a compè ...

like and . It was then that she started to incline towards a career in music. She joined Kaviar, a merengue group composed of females, with whom she performed for almost two years. From 1991 to 1993, she performed with the group Punto G. After that, she decided to pursue a solo career and was signed by the BMG label. In 1995, Bonny Cepeda produced her first

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

that produced several hit singles like "Perfume de mujer en tu camisa" and "Pesadilla". It was also awarded gold and platinum albums, and several awards. In 1996, her second album - - was released to much praise. The album reached 200,000 units sold. Her third album, , was equally successful reaching the top places on the

Billboard charts The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ' ...

. The album featured a version of

Juan Gabriel Alberto Aguilera Valadez (; 7 January 1950 – 28 August 2016), known professionally as Juan Gabriel (), was a Mexican singer-songwriter and actor. Colloquially Honorific nicknames in popular music, nicknamed Juanga () and El Divo de Juárez, ...

's song in a duet with Dominican Sergio Vargas which was very successful. After, they released an album together titled . In the late 90s, Gisselle released the album which garnered her a

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

nomination. Her follow-up, , released in 2000, featured Gisselle singing

ballads A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

and

bachata Bachata may refer to: * Bachata (music), a musical genre which originated in the Dominican Republic ** Traditional bachata, a subgenre of bachata music ** Bachata (dance), a dance form * Bachatón, a hybrid bachata/reggaeton music style * "Bach ...

s. In 2002, she received another

nomination for her album titled simply ''8''. Gisselle's next album, , featured the singer venturing into

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

. However, in 2004 she returned to merengue with her new album .

Acting career

Early in her career, Gisselle was featured in several

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

sketches in programs like , , and . In 2001, she starred in the play . Recently, she appeared in the play , with

Gilberto Santa Rosa Gilberto Santa Rosa Cortés (), nicknamed "El Caballero de la Salsa" (The Gentleman of Salsa) (born August 21, 1962), is a Puerto Rican bandleader and singer of salsa and bolero. He is a six-time Grammy Award winner and has sold over three mi ...

and Yolandita Monge.

Radio host

In 2007, Gisselle was invited to host the morning radio show at SalSoul. After a couple of months, she changed shifts hosting at the same station. Now she has a has radio show called: " El Show de Giselle y Jesse" with Jesse Calderon.

Personal life

Gisselle was married in the early 1990s and has a son, Viadel, from that relationship. Viadel was born in 1994. Gisselle also has a brother named Miguel A Ortiz Caceres and lives in Hartford, CT. After her divorce she has had relationships with

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...

and

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

Julian Gil, and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player

Roberto Alomar Roberto Alomar Velázquez (; ; born February 5, 1968) is a Puerto Ricans, Puerto Rican former second baseman who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for seventeen seasons. He is regarded as one of the greatest second basemen and all-around pla ...

. In 2009, she married minor league baseball player Miguel "Mickey" Negron. They divorced in 2021. No children were conceived from their union.

Discography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gisselle 1969 births Living people American musicians of Puerto Rican descent American women pop singers Merengue musicians Latin pop singers 20th-century Puerto Rican women singers 20th-century Puerto Rican singers 21st-century Puerto Rican women singers 21st-century Puerto Rican singers Women in Latin music