Alaska biography

María Olvido Gara Jova (Mexico City, Mexico, June 13, 1963).

Best known by her stage name Alaska, she is a singer, songwriter, musician, actress, animator and tv presenter, of Mexican origin, but raised in Madrid, Spain, who is recognized as one of the most emblematic figures of the cultural movement of the 1970s, called Movida Madrileña.

During his career she has participated in several musical groups, including Kaka de Luxe, Alaska and the Pegamoides, Alaska and Dinarama and Fangoria, a group of which he currently sits with his brother Nacho Canut. She has also appeared as a television presenter, in addition to her work on Radio.

Kaka de Luxe and Alaska and the Pegamoids

María Olvido Gara Jova was born on June 13, 1963, in Mexico City,Mexico, to the marriage of Manuel Gara López and his wife América Jova Godoy. Oblivion lived the first ten years of his life in his native country, before leaving for Madrid.

At that time he developed a taste for reading and is influenced by the aesthetics of the Glam. In her teens, Forgotten began working in the magazine Bazofia, when she began to use the name Alaska.

In 1977, she decided to form, together with her brother Nacho Canut, Carlos Berlanga, El Zurdo, Pablo Martínez, Enrique Sierra and Manolo Campoamor, the musical group Kaka de Luxe, a punk rock trend, where she played the role of guitarist. However, the group did not survive beyond the year of its formation.

After taking second place in the Rock Villa Competition in Madrid and recording, in 1978, the album Kaka de Luxe, the members took different paths. In 1979, Alaska, Carlos Berlanga, Manolo Campoamor and Nacho Canut created Alaska and the Pegamoides, a group that was rapidly transformed, both in members and in sounds, to the ultimate personality with Alaska as a voice.

In 1982, they managed to record their only album: Greatest Hits. Later that year, they dissolved.

Alaska and Dinarama’s top hits

Carlos Berlanga and Nacho Canut decide to create the group Dinarama, which eventually joins Alaska, giving rise to the new band Alaska and Dinarama, which would go on to position itself as one of the most famous groupings of the eighties. In 1983, they released their album Songs Profane, which resulted in the first tour of Alaska and Dinarama. In 1984, they recorded another album, Carnal Wish. 

That same year, Alaska began as a television host, on the show The Crystal Ball. The album Carnal Wishl becomes number one in sales and a total success by the end of 1985. A few months later, Alaska earned a Gold Record; the band had sold a million five hundred thousand albums worldwide.

After a steady flow of members, the band achieves its final consolidation: Juan Carlos Aured, Carlos Berlanga, Luis Miguélez, Nacho Canut and Alaska.

In 1986, they released their third album No es Pecado, which included Who cares? song that became a true anthem for gay groups, a success it retains today,being even surprisingly used also by movement for the visibility of people with special conditions, as is the case of the Venezuelan organization Pride Down Venezuela, which in 2014, premiered a play, called Who Cares? who uses that theme as inspiration.

In 1987, the group released their fourth album, called Diez, which did not become the sales success of the previous two. Two years later, Fan fatal comes out, who despite his success fails to avoid dissolving the band.

Creation of Fangoria

On October 31, 1989, the world was surprised by the first appearance of Fangoria, a group that released their first album Salto mortal in January 1991, entirely made up of electronic music.

In June 1992, Fangoria recorded the album Un día es en Vulcano S.E.P.1.0, which however has to wait three years, to finally reach the stores in 1995. However, differences with the labels and the breakup with their managers, the band opts more for the live touches, thus touring various stages and night clubs in Spain.

Likewise, from this stage, some of her musical songs will be used in the cinema by directors such as Alberto Scianma, in her film The Murderous Language, as well as in the films Horns de espuma and 101 Dalmatians of Disney, where Fangoria performs in Spanish the song Cruella de Vil. As for her personal life, on December 29, 1999, he married her representative Mario Vaquerizo, in a particular ceremony in Las Vegas, California.

Fangoria’s top albums

Since then, Fangoria has recorded a number of successful record productions, including: Interferences (1998); Sounds for an exhibition; Vital; A Season in Hell (1990); Dead Nature (2001); Ephemeral Architecture (2004); The Strange Journey (2006) winner of the Gold Record; Viven (2007), Entre Punta Cana and MonteCarlo (2008); Absolutely (2008); The momentous move from Vodevil to Astracanada. Anthology of songs of yesterday and today (2009), Vodevil (2011); Cuatricomía (2013). Similarly, Alaska recorded two seasons of a reality show for MTV, called Alaska and Mario, in 2011.

In 2012, she was the voice of the character Eunyce in Hotel Transylvania, as well as other musical appearances in some Films. So far, Alaska stands out as one of the most recorded voices in Spain, ranking fifteen million copies. She has also worked at Radio with Jiménez Losanto, as well as her husband.

Image source: zappingtv.net