Kat DeLuna Interview for Club Papi

“The only reason I can think of that people wouldn’t perform at gay events is because of ignorance,” said the 20-year old singer/songwriter who hit pop charts around the world last summer with her hit “Whine Up” featuring Elephant Man. “There are always going to be ignorant people, but that doesn’t matter to me.”

DeLuna, whose re-mastered 9 Lives album receives an official re-release with new visuals and an improved track-list, was excited to be approached by Club Papi to perform at a series of LGBT Latin Pride events. “Because of my music, my style, I have a lot of gay fans,” she muses. “Besides, I think I fit in, don’t you?”

Even as remixes of DeLuna’s latest single “Run the Show” are burning up Billboard’s Hot Dance/Club Play chart – the song appears ready to become the singer’s second #1 on the chart -- she has pride performances lined up throughout California. DeLuna heats up the Latin stage at Long Beach Pride the weekend of May 18-19. She returns to San Francisco for LGBT Pride on June 29.

In response, 9 Lives is being serviced to electronic retail outlets for a second time this spring. On the reworked disc are new edits of favorites like current hit “Run the Show,” now featuring rap favorite Busta Rhymes on an English version and Latin superstar Don Omar on a Spanish version. While her record label has been supportive, DeLuna says the decision was primarily her own.

“Sometimes you have to – how you say it? ‘Take charge.’ You have to take charge,” says DeLuna, who recently bested such superstars as Jennifer Lopez, Ivy Queen and Enrique Iglesias to take home a Billboard Award for Best Latin Dance Track. “When I wanted to add Don Omar to the Spanish version of ‘Run the Show,’ I paid for it out of my own pocket.”

Kat credits her determination to her mother, who moved to the Bronx from the Dominican Republic when the singer was just seven. Times were not easy for the single mother of three young girls who did not speak English. She struggled to overcome and provide a better life for her children, though.

“You overcome stuff and become bigger and more from those experiences,” says DeLuna. “It showed me she’s a strong woman. She didn’t let things keep her down or from crezando.  How do you say it in English? From… fighting. I know that’s why I’m a very strong girl!”

For the young woman who won her first singing competition in the Dominican Republic at the age of three, that translates to fighting for her own dream – performing. “For me, it’s going to be either the good way or the good way,” she says. “I don’t see a ‘no’! I don’t take no for an answer!”

For More Information, Visit:  http://www.KatDeLuna.com