María Concepción Alonso Bustillo (born June 29, 1957[3]), better known as María Conchita Alonso, is a singer, actress and former beauty queen.
She has participated in film and television productions, and was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award as Best Leading Actress in 1996 for her role in Caught. As a singer, she has received several gold and platinum records, and has been nominated for three Grammy Awards.
Alonso was the first Latin American actress not born in the United States to star in a musical on Broadway. The musical was Kiss of the Spider Woman at the Broadhurst Theater in 1995.
María Conchita Alonso was born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, on June 29, 1957 to Ricardo Alonso and Conchita Bustillo. Her family moved to Venezuela when she was five years old, in 1962, after the Cuban Revolution. She had her first experience in show business when she was crowned Miss Teenager World in 1971. She was Miss World/Venezuela in 1975, and became sixth runner-up in the Miss World pageant won by Puerto Rico's Wilnelia Merced.[citation needed]
Career[edit source]
Alonso's first gold album and number one song on the charts was Love Maniac, released in 1979 under the name Ámbar. After that followed her second number-one "The Witch" and soon after "Dangerous Rhythm". For what is considered her best known song, she was asked by Giorgio Moroder to write the lyrics in Spanish and sing "Vamos a Bailar" which he had written for the soundtrack of the film Scarface. The song instantly became a classic among Spanish speakers despite failing to garner major attention outside of Cuba where it was recorded. Her two albums with Ámbar and her solo debut were recorded in English. Her second album, María Conchita, in 1984, made her an international singing star in the Spanish-speaking market, and garnered her first of three Grammy Award nominations (1985, 1988, 1994).[4]
Alonso made her Hollywood film debut in Moscow on the Hudson (1984) with Robin Williams, and also starred in Touch and Go (1986) Extreme Prejudice (1987), The Running Man (1987), Colors (1988), Vampire's Kiss (1989), Predator 2 (1990) and The House of the Spirits (1993).
In 1995, she became the first Latin-born actresses to star in a Broadway show, playing Aurora in Kiss of the Spider Woman. She later acted in the romantic comedies Chasing Papi (2003) and The Last Guy on Earth (2006).
Alonso was cast to play Lucía, the mother of Gabrielle Solis, on the ABC series Desperate Housewives. The episode aired on February 19, 2006. She was in the Latin version, Amas de Casa Desesperadas, for Univision Network. She was a guest star in the live-action film of the comic book El Muerto and appeared in the film Material Girls (2006).
Alonso hosted VH1's ¡Viva Hollywood! on April 13, 2008 with Carlos Ponce. She portrayed Sam in the werewolf horror film Wolf Moon, directed by Dana Mennie.[5]
Alonso appeared in Rob Zombie's The Lords of Salem, released in 2013. Her latest film, a fantasy short titled The Secret of Joy, features her alongside fellow Venezuelan actor Carlos Antonio León, Spanish actress Laura Bayonas, and Brazilian actress Ana Carolina Da Fonseca in a story that aims to bring awareness about pediatric cancer.
Political views[edit source]
Alonso has often spoken in support of LGBT rights and in appreciation of her LGBT fans, stating, "I was very much supported by the community when I first came out with my music". In a 2004 article, she compared herself to Cher in terms of her connection to LGBT culture.[6]
Alonso was an outspoken critic of Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, whom she described as a "dictator"-like "Hitler"[7] and whose voters and supporters she described as "terrorists."[8] She appeared on Sean Hannity's Hannity's America on May 6, 2007, Hannity & Colmes on June 1, 2007[7] and Bill O'Reilly's The O'Reilly Factor on August 13, 2007 and March 11, 2009.
Alonso issued an "Open Letter to Sean Penn" online on March 29, 2010 regarding his support of Hugo Chávez. She used a point-by-point refrain of "WHY" in her letter questioning various issues occurring in Venezuela.[9] In December 2011, she got into a heated exchange with Penn at a Los Angeles airport during which Penn called her a pig and she responded by calling Penn a communist (the two had played lovers in the 1988 movie Colors).[10]
In the fall of 2008, Alonso endorsed the presidential campaign of Republican nominee John McCain.