Biography

Jeanette is an English-born Spanish pop star who was popular throughout the 1970s and 1980s, scoring a long string of hit singles, most notably "Porque Te Vas." Born Janette Anne Dimech on October 10, 1951, in London, England, she grew up in the United States. At age 12 she moved to Barcelona with her mother, who was of Spanish heritage, and she learned to speak Spanish. During the 1960s she took an interest in American folk music (e.g., Bob Dylan, the Byrds) and began writing songs of her own. In 1967-1968 she recorded a series of mostly unsuccessful singles ("Cállate, Niña," "Amanecer," "Me Olvidarás") with the band Pic-Nic, plus a full-length album Pic-Nic (1968). During the early '70s, after the demise of Pic-Nic, she embarked on a solo career and scored her first hit single in 1971 with "Soy Rebelde," a song written by Manuel Alejandro, with whom she would collaborate in later years on subsequent hits, most notably the album Corazón de Poeta (1981). The label misspelled her name as Jeanette (rather than Janette) when it released "Soy Rebelde," but because the song became such a runaway hit, the misspelling became her official stage name. Successive singles were released over the course of the decade, including "Estoy Triste" (1972), "Palabras, Promesas" (1973), "Porque Te Vas" (1974), "Hoy Nos Hemos Dicho Adiós" (1975), "Todo Es Nuevo" (1977), "No Digas Buenas Noches" (1978), and "Voy a Tener un Niño" (1978). There were also a few albums: Palabras, Promesas (1973), Porque Te Vas (1976), and Todo Es Nuevo (1977). Her greatest success was "Porque Te Vas," which became an international hit after appearing in the award-winning film Cría Cuervos (1976). Numerous cover versions of "Porque Te Vas" would be recorded over the years. In 1981 Jeanette collaborated once again with Manuel Alejandro (the songwriter of "Soy Rebelde") for numerous songs on the album Corazón de Poeta, including the hit singles "Corazón de Poeta" and "Frente a Frente." She remained active throughout the remainder of the 1980s, releasing the albums Reluz (1983), Ojos en el Sol (1984), and Loca por la Musica (1989), along with a string of singles. However, the 1990s marked the end of her success, though she herself remained popular and her back catalog was repackaged into a continual stream of greatest-hits collections. ~ Jason Birchmeier, Rovi