ANA MENA
Ana Mena Rojas (born 25 February 1997) is a Spanish singer and actress. She began her career in 2009 in the TV series Marisol, la película (2009). In 2010, she participated in Disney’s musical reality show My Camp Rock 2, ending up as the winner.Her musical career began in 2016, when she released her debut single “No Soy Como Tú Crees”. Mena has also collaborated with many international artists. In 2018, she gained popularity in Italy with the song D’estate non Vale with Fred De Palma. The unexpected Italian success was a game changer in her career. Since then, she managed to deliver several summer hit songs both in Italy and Spain, becoming one of the most listened Spanish artists of the streaming era.
According to her record label, as of 2023, she was credited for sales equivalent to 1 Diamond cetification in France, besides 45 Platinum and 4 Gold certifications in between Italy and Spain. Two of Ana Mena’s recent singles, “Música Ligera” and “Un Clásico”, are covers of Italian pop songs: “Musica leggerissima” by Colapesce and Dimartino and “Superclassico” by Ernia, respectively. Mena released her second studio album, Bellodrama, on the 24th of March, 2023.
Ana Mena’s passion for music comes from her childhood. From a very young age she began to stand out for her prodigious voice timbre and her career as an artist took off in the Canal Sur program “Menuda Noche”. At the age of eleven Ana Mena decided to go a step further and try her luck in the world of interpretation. She convinced her parents and auditioned to star in the TV movie Marisol for Antena3.
The artist was chosen among hundreds of aspirants and the film was a great success among critics and public, which made that after the premiere, Ana Mena made multiple visits to programs such as Qué tiempo tan feliz or Espejo Público to interpret the musical themes of the film. With so much talent, recognition did not take long to appear. At only twelve years old, she already had twelve national awards to her credit, including the First Prize of Andalusia in the program Veo Veo (2006). But undoubtedly one of her greatest gratifications came at the age of thirteen, when she was the winner of My Camp Rock 2, a Disney Channel musical contest.
Thanks to this Ana Mena recorded the videoclip Voy a brillar, the main theme of the movie Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure, which became a new triumph for her. As a result, she began to receive offers on the small screen. In 2010 Ana Mena played Vero in the series Supercharly (Telecinco), and in 2013 she gave life to Paula in Vive Cantando (Antena 3). The series was nominated for the Neox Fan Awards and the artist received great reviews for her performance.
Cinema has not resisted her either. Ana Mena debuted on the big screen under the direction of Pedro Almodóvar in La piel que habito, alongside Antonio Banderas and Elena Anaya. The artist shared the role of Norma with Blanca Suárez (Ana Mena played the character’s childhood), and the film allowed her to demonstrate her talent for singing in other languages such as Portuguese. She received numerous accolades for her performance as the youngest of the cast.
Ana Mena is focused on her career as a singer, expanding her training in voice and dance to face the most demanding challenge of her professional career: to succeed with her first own musical work. As a preview of what will be her first album, to be released by Sony Music, several songs have already been released in 2016 “No soy como tú crees” 2016, “Loco como yo” 2016, “Se fue” 2016.
Performed under the production of Dabruk and José Luis de la Peña the songs have a mix of styles ranging from doo wop to pop-soul, with influences from the 60’s and 70’s and singers like Megan Trainor or Beyoncé. With only 19 years old Ana Mena shows us an impressive vocal and artistic maturity and is beginning to receive recognition for her work with the success of her songs on digital platforms, where she is getting a lot of plays and the spectacular growth of her social media accounts. Radio is also betting heavily on her and she has been nominated as a New Artist for the “40 Music Awards 2016”.
As an additional face of her multifaceted artistic profile, Ana Mena is recording a VideoBlog in which she interviews, inside her car, artists she admires and with whom she has a special connection. So far she has invited Lali Esposito, Sergio de Critika & Saik, Gemeliers and CNCO and in all cases she has achieved a huge impact on RRSS with a multitude of reproductions and mentions of the programs. Ana Mena was awarded with the “Premio Málaga Joven 2016”, in the modality of Art, from the Instituto Andaluz de Juventud, from the Junta de Andalucía.
She also released at the end of 2016 her collaboration in the song of Bromas Aparte “Dama y vagabundo”, which entered directly to the list of “Los 40” and is reaping excellent reviews and excellent comments in RRSS. The first release of this 2017 has been his song “Ahora lloras tú” with the collaboration of CNCO, the revelation Latin artist of the year that is hitting very hard in Spain and the entire Latin region. “Ahora lloras tu” is addictive, fresh, fun and with lyrics that will definitely delight those who most deny the “latineo” when they are giving it all at the disco.
In two weeks it got more than 4 million views on Youtube and a million on Spotify. Ahora lloras tú is already a gold record. The digital single by Ana Mena feat. CNCO continues to sweep, as evidenced by this certification of a song recorded between Madrid and Miami and in which the explosive artist from Malaga has the collaboration of the Latin group of the year. The video clip has surpassed 20 million views since January 20, the date of its release. On Spotify it has more than 11 million streams. On the same platform it has been number 6 in Ecuador, 16 in Spain, 17 in Peru, 22 in Panama, 26 in Chile, 31 in Finland and 162 in Mexico.
Success in Italy: On June 12, 2018 she announced on her social networks that on the 15th of the same month she would release her collaboration “D’estate non vale” with Italian rapper and artist Fred De Palma. After a few weeks on the market, the track begins to climb positions in the charts until achieving the first position in the Spotify Italy diary and its highest position of 6 in the official song sales charts in Italy. The track ends up being certified three times platinum by FIMI. After the success of their first collaboration, the two artists decide to repeat and on June 4, 2019 they release their second collaboration “Una volta ancora”.
The new song becomes an instant hit achieving in just over a month the number one position on Spotify and on the official song sales chart in Italy. After the success in Italy, the duo releases their first track together in Spanish, titled “Se Iluminaba”. However, the success of this new version was delayed and it was not until 93 days after its release that the song managed to enter the top 10 most listened songs in Spain, thus being Ana Mena’s first top 10 in her native country, both on Spotify and on the official song sales chart. The success ends up being resounding, being certified five times platinum by Promusicae and being the second best-selling song of the year and the first performed by a Spanish artist in Spain in 2020. That same year, she debuts on February 6, 2020 at the 70th San Remo Song Festival accompanying the also Italian singer Riki in the song “L’Edera”.
On July 3, 2020 she releases “A un passo dalla luna”, her third single in Italy, accompanied by rapper and urban singer Rocco Hunt. The song debuts in the top 10 of the most listened songs on Spotify Italy on its first day. However, it was not until three weeks later that it would reach the top spot on the official song sales charts in Italy, a position it held for 9 consecutive weeks. The single was certified six platinum records. After the success for the third consecutive summer in Italy, the duet, formed by Ana Mena and Rocco Hunt, versioned their song in Spanish and on August 14, 2020 they released “A un paso de la luna”. In Spain, the song manages to sneak into the top five songs in the country at number 4 and is certified five platinum albums to date.
On May 31, 2021, Ana Mena, announces her new single in Italian “Un bacio all’improvviso”, again together with rapper Rocco Hunt, to be released on June 4, 2021. Its Spanish version, “Un beso de improvviso”, will be released on June 18, 2021, along with the song’s official music video. The Italian version manages to sneak back into the top 10 of the Italian sales chart and is certified 3 platinum albums to date, while the Spanish version is certified platinum. On October 18, 2021, a new collaboration with Italian singer Federico Rossi is announced, premiering on the 22nd of the same month. During the promotion of the song in different Italian media, Ana Mena reveals that apart from working on her second album in Spanish, she will also release an unreleased album in Italian in 2022. December 4, 2021, Ana Mena is confirmed as one of the 25 participants in the 72nd edition of the San Remo Song Festival.