Sony's Naranjo Speaks Up For 'bad Girls'

Don't be fooled by the voluptuous looks or the occasional feminine whimper in Monica Naranjo's powerful voice. That sexy sigh is more likely to be a hiss, because Spain's top-selling female artist is also viperine, and her snakebite stings. Naranjo is a bad girl, and she wants the whole world to know.

Naranjo's first big success was in Mexico, where her 1994 eponymous debut album sold some 900,000 units; Sony Spain simply did not promote the album. "Sony didn't understand either the record or me as a [then-18-year-old] artist," Naranjo spits. "My then-manager agreed to organize the music at a Sony convention in Mexico, and he asked that I perform. The Spain execs at the time recoiled. 'Her? She's too weird!' But I sang, and to Spain's horror, Sony Mexico wanted my record."

The diva has since conquered Spain, selling 1.3 million units there of her 1997 sophomore album, Palabra de Mujer (A Woman's Word). In the process, she became an icon among Spain's gay community and the queen of kitsch.

Now she's turning her attention to a wider public by launching an English-language version of her 2001 album, Chicas Malas. It will be called Bad Girls (Sony Europe) and have a different track listing. The release marks the culmination of a one-year project between Naranjo and Sony Spain, with whom peace has been declared.

The album will be launched Nov. 11 in France and Spain; earmarked for future treatment are the U.K. and other more traditionally "easy" territories in which to launch English-language product, such as Germany and Scandinavia. It will be released in Italy almost certainly before Christmas.

With regard to a U.S. and Latin American launch, Sony Continental European VP of artist marketing Mark Bond says, "It is premature to put flesh on the bones—let's see how it does in the U.K. first."

But why release Bad Girls in Spain only one year after the relative failure—selling fewer than 200,000 units—of the same album in Spanish? "Monica is the most important female Spanish artist that exists for the world outside Spain, and we are launching a major international campaign beginning in France," Sony Spain president José María Cámara says. "I decided to release Bad Girls in Spain because I think it will have a much bigger impact than Chicas Malas had. She has a very mixed fan base here, and they'll love her performing in English."

The first single, "I Ain't Gonna Cry" ("No Voy A Llorar" on Chicas Malas), went to French radio in September, but Cámara says that like all the English versions, the songs have been given completely different mixes. New videoclips have also been made for non-Spanish audiences.

The idea for Bad Girls began in Sony Spain and soon combined the efforts of Sony Epic A&R director Jennifer Ces and international A&R teams. The campaign outside Spain is led by Sony Europe marketing and A&R. Bond says, "It's going to France first simply because Sony France had the hottest reaction. But we intend to work Bad Girls in all territories, including the U.K., after it has been successful elsewhere."