Karen Rodriguez

Karen Rodriguez, a bilingual pop singer-songwriter whose credits include both American Idol and Puerto Rico's Objectivo Fama, was born in Miami and raised in New York City. She completed her studies at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts, taking part in the musical theater curriculum there. While still a teenager she tried out for the fifth season of the Puerto Rican talent show Objectivo Fama, earning a place among the 20 contestants selected for the February 2008 premiere and ultimately finishing seventh. In 2010 she became the first contestant to audition for American Idol's tenth season by submitting a 40-second clip online. Her agile performances of material by Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Jennifer Lopez, among others, carried her into the March 2011 finals, where she placed twelfth. The exposure led to an invitation to sing backup on Marc Anthony's "Vivir Mi Vida," a Latin number one in 2013. That connection resulted in an introduction to Romeo Santos and subsequent songwriting work on his 2014 album Formula, Vol. 2. Around the same period Rodriguez began posting covers of contemporary hits on YouTube, eventually collecting millions of plays for bilingual Spanish-English versions of megahits such as Adele's "Hello" and Drake's "Hotline Bling." She signed with Roc Nation's Latin division in 2016; the label issued English and Spanish editions of her debut single, "Happy April Fools" ("La Tonta de Abril"), timed for release on April Fool's Day 2017.