Miami, FL. (Top40 Charts/ UNO MUSIC) - Alluring, spontaneous, and talented, 17-year-old MADAI (pronounced mah-DYE) is an artist who's grown up in the digital era, and she represents a new way of listening to and making great music.
Her debut single is titled "Shake It." A seductive, rhythmic anthem with hip-hop, Latin and pop appeal, "Shake It" is receiving adds at Top 40 and urban radio.
"Shake It" also features the hot hip-hop group SoFla Kingz. It is now being commercially released to major digital outlets and on internet sites.
Apropos of the digital era, UNO MUSIC is aggressively working "Shake It" at radio and on the Internet, even before the album's finished.
And what an album it's shaping up to be - it's being produced by none other than Dave Siegel, the multi-platinum studio wizard who's worked with Beyonce, Pink, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears. He and his team, including engineer Shane Stoner, musician Omar Tavarez and vocal producer Carrie Furman, are giving MADAI's project the top-notch treatment from front to back.
MADAI notes that digital downloading is the only way that she and her friends get music. "I don't think people buy CDs," she says of her generation.
What does this mean? Now that it's easier than ever to preview songs and post ratings and reviews to the Internet, you just can't slip second-rate material through the cracks anymore.
MADAI gets it, too: "I'm making every song individual and very special. They talk about stuff I went through, and it's an international type of thing; most teenagers are going through it. You want a song to relate to what you're doing."
A new kind of artist, MADAI is signed to a forward-thinking label, UNO MUSIC. The company was founded in 2007 by two entertainment-industry veterans who understand and embrace change. CEO Gustavo Mena is a former executive for Telemundo, CBS, and Universal Studios. Company President Magda Mena is a former marketing executive for EMI, Warner Music and Universal, where she developed, launched and promoted many of today's top Latin stars like Alejandro Sanz and Mana.
Gustavo Mena notes that UNO MUSIC isn't beholden to traditional business models and can do things right the first time: "I come from television. Like television, digital distribution has multiplied the distribution potential for music. In addition to the Internet, we can now distribute our music to satellite radio, cell phones and mobile devices anywhere on the planet."
UNO MUSIC also gets involved in all aspects of the artist's career - from management, to merchandising, to publishing. This is one label that won't be passing the buck.
Other upcoming songs from MADAI include the party-ready "Come On" and "Girls' Night Out."
MADAI is Latina and bilingual, just like many of the tens of thousands of people who've visited her MySpace page and listened to her music. Gustavo Mena notes that music made by young Latin artists is becoming more integrated into the mainstream music scene every day, as seen by the popularity of MTV Tres.
In fact, MADAI herself is a first-generation immigrant - she spent the first half of her life in Guantanamo, Cuba, where her parents worked as doctors. An aunt in California helped the family immigrate to the U.S., and MADAI quickly learned English - her accent is now pure South Florida. For MADAI, the hardest part of immigrating was being separated from her grandmother, whom she adores.
When MADAI walked into the UNO MUSIC offices, she didn't come with a long resume of shows, contests or trophies. What she did have, though, was a brilliant personality, a great voice and lots of song ideas. Magda Mena was impressed: "Immediately when I met and heard her, I said, 'Definitely.' I saw the spark. I saw her personality, her joking, and the attitude. She reminded me of some of the best female artists I've worked with."
MADAI writes her own songs and has no trouble coming up with ideas for jams that are fun, commercial, and relatable. "Writing has been the easiest part. I write about stuff that's happened to me and things that come within me. It's not stuff I make up. It's a fun experience."
