VALENTINA CRUZ
"People ask where I'm from. I say: my father's cumbia, my mother's merengue, Paris in the rain, and the 101 at sunset."
Biography
Valentina Isabel Cruz Medina was born in Los Angeles to a Colombian father from Cartagena—a session guitarist who brought coastal cumbia rhythms to California—and a Dominican mother from Santo Domingo, a former backup singer who carried merengue in her blood. Her childhood was a musical laboratory where cumbia argued with merengue, and both won.
At ten, she moved to Paris with her mother and French stepfather Philippe, a sound engineer who taught her to listen with technical precision. For four years, she trained at the Conservatoire de Paris, one of the world's most prestigious music institutions, absorbing European classical technique, French chanson sophistication, and formal musical discipline—all while desperately missing the Caribbean warmth of her childhood.
Returning to LA at fourteen, she studied at the Colburn School, then earned her degree at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Now 26, based in New York City, Valentina commands stages worldwide with a voice that spans three-and-a-half octaves and music that speaks four languages: Spanish, English, French, and Portuguese.
But credentials don't capture what makes Valentina extraordinary. It's the way she carries multiple worlds inside her—the champeta rhythms her grandmother Lucía taught her in Cartagena, the palos ceremonies her grandmother Altagracia preserved in Santo Domingo, the Piaf records that shaped her Paris adolescence, and the multicultural chaos of LA that taught her to belong everywhere by never belonging to just one place.
"I used to feel like I was from nowhere. Then I realized: I'm from everywhere. That's not a weakness. That's a superpower."
Dual Heritage - Cosmopolitan Essence
Cartagena, Colombia
Her father Andres brought coastal Colombian rhythms - cumbia, champeta, vallenato. Grandmother Lucia still teaches her champeta dancing and the African roots of Caribbean music.
Santo Domingo, DR
Her mother Isabel carried merengue swing and Dominican soul. Grandmother Altagracia keeps the palos traditions and decima poetry alive in the family.
Paris, France
The Conservatoire years gave her classical technique and French chanson sensibility. She discovered Piaf, Brel, and learned that pop music could be poetry.
Los Angeles, USA
Born and raised, then returned at fourteen. LA's multicultural melting pot taught her that belonging everywhere means never having to choose.
The Family
Andres Cruz
Session guitarist from Cartagena. Still plays in LA, now remarried with two younger children. Valentina calls him before every show.
Isabel Medina-Deschamps
Voice teacher in Paris, formerly a backup singer for Dominican merengue stars. They speak daily, argue weekly, love each other fiercely.
Philippe Deschamps
French sound engineer who taught Valentina to listen technically. She credits him in every album's liner notes.
Lucia Cruz & Altagracia Medina
The keepers of tradition. Lucia in Cartagena, Altagracia in Santo Domingo. Both appeared with Valentina on her world tour.
Languages
Valentina writes and performs in all four languages, often switching within a single song:
Musical Influences
Photo Gallery
ALTAR
Debut Album - 10 Tracks - 4 Languages
ALTAR is Valentina's debut album—a 42-minute journey across three continents, four languages, and an entire lifetime of becoming. The title carries five meanings:
- Religious altar: A place of sacrifice, devotion, and transformation—reflecting her Catholic Caribbean upbringing and the sacred nature of her musical mission.
- Altar as stage: Performance as ritual, the act of offering herself to audiences as both vulnerable confession and triumphant celebration.
- Marriage altar: The album deals with love in all its forms—romantic, familial, self-directed, divine.
- Self-altar: The revolutionary act of treating oneself as sacred, especially for women of her background who were taught to sacrifice themselves for others.
- A-L-T-A-R: An acronym for "A Los Tres Ancestros Rezo" (To the three ancestors I pray)—Colombia, Dominican Republic, and France.
Orchestral Latin pop origin story. Valentina's voice enters a cappella, declaring her dual heritage as destiny. The climax layers both grandmothers' voices before the final triumphant belt.
Defiant empowerment anthem. Cumbia accordion meets dembow percussion. Written after being told she was "too much"—the song refuses to choose between her Colombian and Dominican sides.
Love letter to Cartagena and Santo Domingo. Mid-tempo hybrid rhythm—neither pure cumbia nor merengue but a new fusion. Features field recordings from both cities.
Classic power ballad in the Whitney/Celine tradition. Piano and voice build to full orchestral climax. The key change in the final chorus is a masterclass in controlled vocal escalation.
French chanson in waltz time. Accordion and strings evoke Piaf. The most restrained vocal on the album—about her Paris years and the cost of excellence at the Conservatoire.
Uptempo Caribbean party anthem. Colombian champeta meets Dominican dembow. A tribute to grandmothers who chose joy as resistance—celebration as defiance.
Emotional centerpiece—five minutes across three continents. Opens with palos ceremony, shifts to cumbia. A spoken bridge names ancestors. The finale layers her voice with actual recordings of her grandmothers.
Sparse emotional ballad—breakup and climate elegy intertwined. Both coasts she loves are vulnerable to hurricanes intensified by climate change. "We rebuild, we always rebuild."
Solo piano ballad—the most stripped-down production. Over six minutes, just voice and piano prove the thesis: it was always about the voice. A bridge in Portuguese honors her fourth language.