Vanessa Formell Medina

Vanessa Formell was born in Havana, Cuba surrounded by great musical influence instilled by her mother Mirtha Medina, a famous Cuban singer, and her father the legendary Juan Formell, director and founder of the Cuban orchestra "Los Van Van".

She began developing her artistic career at age 6 with a musical duet with her mother, which was a success throughout the island. From then on, this charismatic artist's career began to grow. As a teenager, she was invited to be part of the group "Monte y Espuma", whose work fused rock with tropical music. At the same time she worked as an actress in telenovelas and theater.

Later she went to Mexico as a featured performer in the show "Fiesta Cubana" with Mirtha Medina, with which she toured stages throughout almost the entire country. After a year of work in Mexico, she moved to the United States. Once again Vanessa's talent was recognized. This time in the city of Miami by the important businessman Ralph Mercado, President of the RMM record label, which at that time had the broadest catalog of tropical genre artists. She produced her first album titled "Una Nueva Ilusión", produced by the legendary arranger Isidro Infante. With this she became known in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, and the Dominican Republic.

The voice and stage mastery of this sensational singer soon captured the attention of both the public and other artists. She shared stages with great musicians such as Huey Dunbar, Charlie Cruz, Rey Ruiz, Son By Four, Tony Vega, and Víctor Manuel. With the latter she performed at the "Copacabana", the most important tropical music club in New York City. She continues her career and participates in the productions "Congreso Bacardí de la Salsa" and the Christmas creation "Celebrando Aquí y Celebrando Allá". Both featured established artists of popular music such as Celia Cruz, Oscar D'León, Tito Nieves, Marc Anthony, Domingo Quiñones, among others.

In 2001, Vanessa was nominated in the "New Artist of the Year" category for "Premio Lo Nuestro" and was awarded by the Writers Association "ASCAP". In 2002, just when this artist was beginning to prepare her second album, the RMM company was transferred to Universal Music Latino. With this record label Vanessa never managed to produce an album and when her contract expired they ended on good terms.

Then a period of great changes began. Vanessa Formell moved to Puerto Rico, a place that has given her a warm welcome. Her career is marked by a period of searching, renaissance, and overcoming. Finally, together with music producer Guianko Gómez, she managed to find the sound she had always desired. Her most recent musical production "Yo Soy" carries this rich sonority in Caribbean rhythms with some pop influence. Once again the versatility of this artist comes to light in the composition of "Sin Ti Me Muero", one of the 8 songs on the album. The rest of the songs are authored by great composers such as Amaury Gutiérrez and Las Diego, among others.

"Yo Soy" expresses through its very title the presence of an authentic artist who harmoniously combines musical qualities with stage knowledge. In this album full of vitality, Vanessa Formell captivates the audience and injects the necessary energy into this musical genre, filling the feminine void in contemporary tropical music.

Currently, as of 2017, she is the female singer of the orchestra Los Van Van directed by her brother Samuel Formell Alfonso.

She debuted as the female voice of the Los Van Van orchestra on April 22, 2017 at a concert at the Habana Café of the Meliá Cohiba Hotel replacing singer Jenny Valdés who had been the female voice of the orchestra for 13 years. Thus a dream of her father was fulfilled: "I am Van Van from the cradle, I carry it in my blood. This was also my father's greatest dream and I do not intend to disappoint him. Who better than his children to maintain this legacy he left us."

During her performance at the Habana Café, Vanessa Formell performed with Los Van Van the hit "Después de todo", which according to the artist is a song written by her father and dedicated to her mother, the popular singer Mirtha Medina.

Vanessa has one son and has lived almost her entire life in the United States, as she established herself in that country in 1993, when she was still a teenager.