On a Friday evening at the East Village’s Il Cantinori restaurant in New York City, several guests stare at a petite woman with luminous olive skin and honey brown hair speaking with a childlike voice. The 32-year-old is Lily Vasquez, the first Latina to raise $50,000 for a record contract through SellaBand.com. The Jersey native, who recently played sold out concerts in Amsterdam and released her album Pasion de Mujer in 2008, has done what few struggling musicians in the city could only dream of.
Vasquez, born in Shakira’s native Barranquilla in Colombia, moved with her family at age 14 for a new life in the United States. One thing that the Vasquez clan never left behind was their passion for music. “I‘ve been surrounded by music all my life,” says Vasquez. “My mother, who was a vocal teacher for more than 30 years, taught me how to sing.” Vasquez, who’s also a professional dancer, settled with a marketing management position at A&P Supermarket for a steady income. Although she recorded an independent bachata album in late 2005, it didn’t get enough recognition by her peers. After eight years of trying to break into the music industry, a website changed her fate.
“A friend of mine told me about SellaBand,” she explains on her 2006 discovery. “I joined and then started seeing money coming in!” In 2001 Pim Betist came up with the concept behind the Amsterdam-based SellaBand.com. “If people can make 5,000 friends on Myspace, imagine if those friends could each chip in 10 bucks, which would help the artist achieve their dream,” he says. After Betist united with Johan Vosmeijer, who ran Epic and Columbia, as well as Dagmar Heijmans, an industry expert from Sony, the trio launched SellaBand in August 2006. “As an artist, you make a free profile and upload your three best songs,” Betist explains. “There’s 5,000 parts available, each costing $10.” Like a musical stock market, fans, known as “believers,” can purchase parts of the artist’s work to help fund their success. Once the musician raises $50,000, SellaBand matches them with one of many top producers, some of whom have worked with Christina Aguilera and Santana. Believers get a free copy of the album and earn money from CD sales. Currently, SellaBand has more than 8,000 artists signed up, along with almost 30,000 believers worldwide investing over two million dollars.
Thanks to 543 believers, Vasquez hit the $50,000 mark in nine months. “I’m still shocked that a Latin artist like myself could get people’s attention so quickly,” she says. Vasquez chose PowerhouseNY Studios in The Bronx where producer Charlie Contreras worked with Grammy Award-winning singer Alicia Keys. Pasion De Mujer includes pop and rock tracks where Vasquez’s silky-smooth vocals are unmistakable. “I wrote all my songs and I had the liberty to make this album represent who I really am” she says.
Pasion De Mujer may be a major accomplishment for Vasquez, but her musical route doesn’t end there. “Going back to Colombia is very important to me,” she notes. “I want the experience of making it in the place where I’m from.”
To learn more about Lily Vasquez, click here.
