Lilián Annette Garcia (born August 19, 1966) is an American ring announcer, singer and podcaster. She is signed to WWE as a ring announcer for Saturday Night’s Main Event and other company projects.
Early life and career Garcia was born on August 19, 1966, in the Panama Canal Zone. At three months old, she moved to Spain. She then spent eight years of her life in Spain due to her Puerto Rican father's employment as a Lt. Colonel with the American Embassy, and was educated on an American military base, leading her to describe herself as a "military brat". She is fluent in English and Spanish.
Upon returning to the United States, Garcia graduated from Irmo High School in Columbia, South Carolina. She went on to attend the University of South Carolina, graduating cum laude.
Garcia was a top-ten finalist in the Miss South Carolina beauty pageant. Garcia was also one-half of a popular morning show on radio station WYYS, YES 97 in Columbia, South Carolina, with Chuck Finley in the early '90s and later had her own drive time show. She was a VJ in Atlanta, Georgia for WTLK-TV. She also served as karaoke host at the Nitelites nightclub in the Embassy Suites Hotel in Columbia, South Carolina.
Singing career Garcia began singing when she was a child in Madrid, Spain. She participated in singing contests with her sister starting when she was five years old. In her early teens, she sang with a band at clubs around Columbia, South Carolina. Garcia's mother chaperoned so she could sing. She appeared in the 1990 film Modern Love as a singer.
In addition to her announcing duties with WWE, Garcia sang the national anthem of the United States before most Monday Night Raw shows from February 14, 2000, until her departure on August 1, 2016. She sang "America the Beautiful" at WrestleMania 2000, WrestleMania 21 and WrestleMania XXVIII, joining a list of recording artists that includes Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Reba McEntire, Gladys Knight and Willie Nelson. With her performance at WrestleMania XXVIII, she surpassed Franklin for most musical performances at WrestleMania. Garcia now holds the record for most musical performances at WrestleMania with three.
After joining WWE, Garcia became a fixture in professional sports with performances for the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball. She also performed at the 1996 Summer Olympics, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, Dancing with the Stars and as an opening act for James Brown."Lilian Garcia at MySpace Music" .
García's first single, "Shout", debuted at No. 69 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 2002. On her reaction to the news, Garcia said in 2007, "When my single came out years ago, and it was just a single, I remember the very first week it charted No. 69, and I was screaming as I grabbed Billboard, running down the streets of New York City, holding it up and screaming, 'I made Billboard! I made Billboard!' I'm dreaming for that moment again."
Garcia recorded Torrie Wilson's entrance theme, "Need A Little Time", for WWE Anthology, a compilation album WWE released in November 2002. She co-wrote "You Just Don't Know Me At All" with producers Doug Kistner and Anthony Krizan, which WWE released in January 2004 on the WWE Originals album and became her entrance theme.
Garcia began work on a solo album in 2005 with Grammy award-winning record producers George Noriega and Tim Mitchell, who worked with multi-platinum artists such as Shakira, Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez. Her album ¡Quiero Vivir! (Spanish for "I Want to Live!") got released on October 9, 2007, via Universal Music Latino. Garcia co-wrote 11 songs on the album, including three with Jon Secada, who she duets ,with on "Adonde". The album features 10 Spanish language tracks, and two English translations; "Under in Love" ("Desenamorada") and "Where Did Love Go?" ("Adonde"). The title track, "¡Quiero Vivir!", became her entrance theme.
After leaving WWE in August 2016, Garcia began work on a follow-up album. She reunited with Noriega and Mitchell to record the first song in Miami, Florida in February 2011. Garcia also recorded tracks with Grammy-nominated producer Oh, Hush!. On August 17, 2012, Garcia released an EP titled My Time. The EP features six English tracks: "U Drive Me Loca", "Ur Girl (til the end of the world)", "Fix You", "Over & Over", "Tell Me", and "My Time." To promote the release of My Time, Garcia made her music video debut in December 2011 with "U Drive Me Loca." The second song off the album, "Ur Girl ('Til the End of the World)", was her entrance theme during her return to WWE. She released a music video for the track in March 2012. In January 2013, Garcia released a music video for "Over & Over".
Garcia appeared at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards on February 13, 2011, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Her appearance on the red carpet got shown the following night on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
On May 27, 2014, Garcia announced that she and her band, The Fuse, would be performing at Club Madrid in the Sunset Station Casino in Henderson, Nevada, near Las Vegas. She performed her first show on June 14, 2014.
Announcing career World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (1999–2010)
In 1999, Garcia was hired by World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as a ring announcer. She made her debut on the August 23, 1999, episode of Raw is War in Ames, Iowa. She was involved in her first angle on the September 13 episode of Raw is War, when Jeff Jarrett applied a figure four leglock to her after she angered him by announcing his loss by disqualification to Luna Vachon.
Garcia's second angle occurred on the December 13, 1999, episode of Raw. She introduced Miss Kitty for a Women's Championship chocolate pudding pool match. After Garcia announced her, Miss Kitty grabbed the mic and informed Garcia that she was now to be known as "The Kat". Her opponent, Tori, came out for their match and right after the two women began, X-Pac came poolside in a skin diving suit complete with snorkel, flippers, and goggles. As he was adjusting his goggles Tori jumped on his back causing both of them to fall into the pool with X-Pac landing up on top of Tori, giving Miss Kitty an easy pinfall. Garcia announced the winner as "Miss Kitty", which infuriated The Kat, who threw Garcia into the pool of pudding.
Garcia sang the national anthem of the United States for the first time on February 11, 2000, at a house show in Denver, Colorado. After hearing that she did a great job, Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon had her sing the anthem before Raw went on the air on February 14, 2000, in San Jose, California. Impressed with her performance, McMahon then had Garcia sing the anthem every week before Raw. Her first televised performance aired on April 2, 2000, where she opened WrestleMania 2000 in Anaheim, California. Following the September 11 attacks, Garcia sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" on the September 13, 2001, episode of SmackDown!. In the course of the evening, Garcia commented on the attacks, saying "Well, to say the least, this has been a real roller coaster of a week. And especially because I live in New York City. I have loved ones there, and I'm just very fortunate and very glad that a specific one didn't get to go to his meeting at 8:30 in the morning that he was supposed to be at the Twin Towers, and so I thank God for that, and I still don't know about a lot of my friends. I have, we'll be finding out, I guess, little by little. I pray for everybody there..."
In August 2002, García briefly feuded with rival announcer Howard Finkel after Finkel left her to be decimated by 3-Minute Warning, culminating in an "evening gown versus tuxedo match" that Garcia won with the assistance of Stacy Keibler and Trish Stratus. During the Memorial Day episode of Raw on May 26, 2003, Garcia was singing "America the Beautiful" to the crowd when she was interrupted by La Résistance members Sylvain Grenier and René Duprée as they insulted America saying they should've been more like the French and they mocked the American people by calling them "fat and ugly". Just then, Garcia's friend, co-general manager Stone Cold Steve Austin came down to the ring and tossed Grenier out of the ring and delivered a Stunner to Duprée. After the two Frenchmen walked out of the ring, Austin sang "America the Beautiful" with Garcia and the two celebrated with a beer bash. During the November 24 episode of Raw, Garcia announced Trish Stratus as the winner of a bra and panties match over Jackie Gayda. Infuriated, Gayda stripped Garcia down to her black bra.
In June 2005, García began an on-screen romance with wrestler Viscera. The angle saw García propose to Viscera, stating that she wanted to marry him during the Vengeance pay-per-view on June 26. The angle ended at Vengeance, when Viscera rejected Garcia in favor of The Godfather's Hos. The angle was briefly resurrected eleven months later when Viscera proposed to Garcia on the May 22, 2006, episode of Raw, but was interrupted by Umaga and his manager Armando Estrada before receiving an answer. Garcia took part in her first major Diva publication in 2005 with the release of the Divas 2005 swimsuit magazine and related DVD Viva Las Divas of the WWE.
On the June 5, 2006, episode of Raw, Garcia (legitimately) suffered a sprained wrist when wrestler Charlie Haas inadvertently knocked her to the ground as she stood on the ring apron. One week later, the accident was metamorphosed into a storyline, with Haas incurring the wrath of Viscera. The storyline ended on the July 10, 2006, episode of Raw, when Viscera accidentally performed a Samoan drop on Garcia while confronting Haas. Garcia was removed from television for several weeks to sell the Samoan drop.
Garcia took part in her second major Diva publication in 2007 with the release of WWE Divas Do San Antonio, in honor of the WWE being in San Antonio for the Royal Rumble. On the April 2, 2007, episode of Raw, Garcia was humiliated in the ring when her blue satin frilled skirt was torn off by Bobby Lashley, revealing her black lycra bikini panties after Vince McMahon attempted to hide his newly shaven bald head under her skirt. The incident resulted in a large surge in searches for Garcia on the Internet, with searches for "Lilian Garcia" jumping 301% and becoming the fourth most searched-for term on the search engine Yahoo!. She returned to announcing on the July 2, 2007, episode of Raw after taking time off to recover from a skiing injury in which she tore the ACL in her right knee. She was not fully recovered as was evident from her only announcing the first two matches from the ring and the rest from the floor. On the August 6, 2007, episode of Raw, Garcia announced her new album entitled ¡Quiero Vivir!. Garcia then started a feud with Jillian Hall, who claimed to be a better singer than he. The next week, she competed in WWE Idol, a parody of American Idol, in which she sang "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra before being interrupted by Santino Marella. In addition to announcing on Raw and pay-per-view matches, Garcia also announced on Superstars, making her first appearance on April 23, 2009. During the last week of August 2009, Garcia celebrated ten years with WWE, becoming the organization's first and only "Decade Diva".