Lies and Fairy Tales: Alejandro Sanz

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Alejandro Sanz, born Alejandro Sánchez Pizarro on December 18, 1968 in Madrid, is an award winning, Spanish pop/ballad musician and singer-songwriter who has won 15 Latin Grammys, which at the time was more than any other Spanish musician in history, until being surpassed by Juanes with 17.

Biography

Alejandro Sanz is the second son of María Pizarro Medina from Alcalá de los Gazules, and Jesús Sánchez Madero from Algeciras. He began playing the guitar at the age of seven and composing his first songs three years later. The young musician started attending management classes after moving from the neighborhood of Pueblo Nuevo to Moratalaz.

At the age of 16, Alejandro Sánchez recorded Los Chulos Son Pa' Cuidarlos. However, his official debut, called Viviendo Deprisa, came in 1991 after signing up with Warner Music. Si Tú Me Miras followed in 1993, featuring contributions from Nacho Mañó, Chris Cameron and Paco de Lucía. His third album, aptly titled 3, was recorded in Venice, Italy, and produced by Miguel Angel Arenas and Emanuele Ruffinengo.

1997's Más and 2000's El Alma Al Aire, the Spanish singer/songwriter achieved international top-selling status.

He also appeared in the film clip for The Corrs' English translation of their duet, "Una Noche" ("One Night") as Andrea's love interest. The video is included in The Corrs' DVD version of Best of The Corrs. In return, The Corrs sang "The Hardest Day" with him and "Una Noche" for the Spanish and Latin American edition from the 2001 Corrs' greatest hits album.

In 2001, he became the first Spanish artist to record an Unplugged for MTV.

In 2003, he recorded the album No Es Lo Mismo, which won five 2004 Latin Grammy Awards. It won Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best Engineered Album with Mick Guzauski, Pepo Sherman, and Rafa Sardina as engineers.

In 2005, Sanz worked with Shakira on the hit single "La Tortura".

On September 25, 2006, Sanz released the song "A La Primera Persona". It was the first single from his new album El Tren de los Momentos which was ultimately released in November 7, 2006. The album also produced another hit duet with Shakira titled Te lo Agradezco, Pero No.

On October 2, 2007, Alejandro Sanz launched his own fragrance called "Siete" (Seven).

A Korean rendition of Sanz's "Y Si Fuera Ella" is featured on K-pop boyband SHINee's first album of 2008.

Sanz is a critic of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.^[1]

Personal life

In 1995 Alejandro Sanz met Mexican model Jaydy Mitchel, they married in a private ceremony in Bali in 1998. On July 2001 the couple welcomed their first daughter, Manuela, in Madrid. In 2005 Alejandro and Jaydy split up, and he moved to Miami. At the end of 2006, Alejandro Sanz went public with the news that he had a 3 year old son, Alexander, with designer Valeria Rivera. He currently resides in Miami and visits his daughter regularly.

Controversy

Alejandro has been associated with flamenco singer 'Farruquito' whom had been found guilty of killing a pedestrian with his car while driving without a driving license. He presented 'Farrquito' during one of his concerts in Madrid, surprisingly since his act wasn't planned for the concert beforehand.

On the 1st of December 2008 Interviu magazine published an article about Alejandro supposedly being involved with the Liechtenstein tax haven case. The article claims that Alejandro could have evaded up to 420000 euros only within the 2002 fiscal year. ^[2]