Birth name: Kathleen Emperatriz de Luna
Birth date: November 17, 1987
Birth place: Bronx, New York (raised in the Dominican Republic)

At the age of 12, Kat DeLuna was invited by the ‘Queen of Merengue’, Milly Quezada, to sing with her on stage in front of a big crowd of over thousand people. In April 2004, she opened for J Records musician Cassidy as part of the all Latino girl group Coquette.

Kat and her family moved from The Bronx, US to the Dominican Republic early, where she was raised in poverty. Kat spent her time listening to Aretha Franklin and Billie Holiday records. At the age of 9, they moved back to the US, where Kat realized her potential as a singer. Kat was accepted to the Arts High School in Newark, New Jersey under the vocal instruction of Dr. Jerry Forderhase. Kat is said to have a 5 octave vocal range, comparable to Mariah Carey. In her freshman year, she responded to an audition in The Village Voice and was accepted into a Latina, Hip Hop/R&B group called Coquette. Kat continued to pursue her dream of becoming a solo artist and at age of 15, she entered a Coca-Cola sponsored karaoke competition. Her version of “I Will Always Love You” won the competition. After the competition, Cuban salsa singer Rey Ruiz advised Kat to start writing her own music.

Kat signed a contract with the production label, Get Money Brothers (GMB) Music Group owned by Tyrone Edmond and Mike Jean-Baptiste. According to a brief interview she granted on HaitiXchange.com, she stated that she first met Tyrone when she was only 14 years old, who was then scouting for talent. Kat was finally picked up by Epic Records and is currently under both labels. She is managed by Cape Town Management.

Currently, Epic Records is in the process of launching a promotional campaign for her worldwide first single “Whine Up”. The song features Elephant Man. On the official website, a video of DeLuna doing a choreography to the song is shown on the front page. The music video premiered on Myspace on June 20. The song was released to radios in the United States on May 15, 2007. The song has debuted at number 24 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles, equal to a #124 position on the Billboard Hot 100. It has since peaked at #29 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Her debut album, 9 Lives, produced by hitmaker RedOne, was released on August 7, 2007, as confirmed by Billboard. “Whine Up” is also now used as the theme song for WWE’s Saturday Night’s Main Event, this year’s SummerSlam, and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 soundtrack. “Am I Dreaming” has been confirmed to be her second single.

Source: Wikipedia