Ximena Sariñana

Ximena Sariñana is a Mexican actress, but turned singer/songwriter with her very first studio album is called Mediocre, released last year. She started acting at the age of 9, when her director/producer father Fernando Sariñana cast her in a kidnapping/crime movie called Hasta morir.

Since then, she's been appearing regularly on Mexican television on María Isabel, and eventually starting appearing on movies. The most important movie in her imdb will probably be Amar te duele, where she also composed some songs for the soundtrack.

Obviously, music's been a huge influence on the very young Sariñana (she is, after all, only 23 as of this writing). After being part of a short-lived Mexican funk/jazz band Feliz No Cumpleaños, she signed with Warner Music.

Mediocre quickly reached #2 on the México Top 100 Album charts, quickly turning the record to certified gold. With the success of Mediocre in Mexico, it was quickly released to the rest of the world, including its neighboring country US on the Warner Latina Label.

All the songs on Mediocre are in Spanish, which makes it hard for me to review since I don't really speak the language, although that haven't stopped me from writing a bunch of articles on Spanish artists. What I can tell you is that the music style is in the pop/jazz genre. The song writing also sounds like it's influences are from the 50s, perhaps due to the cover art of showing Sariñana in a variety of vintage dressups. I was drawn to her hit single "Vidas Paralelas" (English: "Parallel Lives") and "Normal" for their saucy jazz vocals and a bit of scat.



My favorite song is her cover song "Gris" (English: "Gray"). I was so intrigued, I keyed in the lyrics into babelfish to get a better understanding of the song:

"Gris" Cuando el cielo se torna gris Las luces no entienden que hora es Sentir asi no es la cuestion No distingo el corazon de la razon Todo ilusion Quiero escapar Gris es todo lo que hay Quiero escapar Gris es todo Siempre hay cosas ara hacer Pero hoy todas me aburren No distingo el corazon de la razon Todo ilusion

translation courtesy of jaklumen: When the sky turns gray And the lights don't know what time it is It's not a question of feeling My heart doesn't know the difference It's all an illusion. I want to escape All is gray, it's all there is I want to escape All is gray. There's always something to do But today all of it bores me My heart doesn't know the difference It's all an illusion.

I did manage to download the original version by Loop Lascano on their official website, and I can tell you that Sariñana's version is decidedly less 'rock' and aggressive.

Maybe I shouldn't be that surprise, but Sariñana speaks fluent English, check out this interview with her on MTV Tr3s. She looks a bit like like Jessica Alba in the video, I love her big round glasses.

You can find Mediocre at most record stores, amazon and Deep Discount to name a few, and of course, there's always iTunes.