Paulina Susana Rubio Dosamantes (; born 17 June 1971) is a Mexican singer, songwriter and television personality. Referred to as "The Golden Girl", she first achieved recognition as a member of the successful pop group Timbiriche from 1982 through 1991. After leaving Timbiriche, she embarked on a solo career. Rubio has sold over 15 million records, making her one of the best-selling Latin music artists of all time.
Rubio's first two studio albums, La Chica Dorada (1992) and 24 Kilates (1993), were commercial successes and made her EMI Latin's best-selling Mexican female artist. In the mid-1990s, she adopted a more dance and electronic style for her next two albums, El Tiempo Es Oro (1995) and Planeta Paulina (1996), and made her feature film debut with a starring role in Bésame en la Boca (1995).
Following a series of concerts with Timbiriche and ending her contract with EMI Latin, Rubio's career was interrupted before the release of her fifth studio album—and her first with Universal Latino—the homonym Paulina (2000), which is critically referred to as one of her best albums to date. Paulina was an international success and Rubio became the best-selling Latin music artist of the Billboard Year-End in 2001. She returned to the top of the charts again with her sixth and seventh albums, the crossover Border Girl (2002), and the acclaimed Pau-Latina (2004), both of which received positive reviews. Rubio garnered critical praise, including nominations for the Grammy Award and Latin Grammy Award. Her next albums, Ananda (2006) and Gran City Pop (2009), were also critically and commercially successful. She followed it with Brava! (2011), which delved into EDM.
Early in the 2010s, Rubio stood out for participating as a coach in the most important talent shows in America and Spain. In 2012, she served as a coach on the second season of La Voz... Mexico. In 2013; Rubio became a coach on La Voz Kids, and also became a judge on The X Factor USA. In 2019, during the promotion of her eleventh studio album, Deseo (2018), she returned on La Voz... España and La Voz Senior.
Rubio has scored three number one albums on the Billboard Top Latin Albums. Five of Rubio's singles have reached number one on the US Billboard Hot Latin Songs: "Te Quise Tanto", "Dame Otro Tequila", "Ni Una Sola Palabra", "Causa Y Efecto", and "Me Gustas Tanto", making her the fifth best performing female artist on the chart. Other singles, "Mío", "Y Yo Sigo Aquí" and "Don't Say Goodbye", topped the charts in most Hispanic countries. Rubio has earned numerous awards and accolades, including seven Billboard Latin Music Awards; five Lo Nuestro Awards; three MTV Latinoamerica Awards; and two Telehit Awards, including the Trajectory Award; and a special accolade as "Mexican artist with the greatest international projection".
Rubio is regarded as a pop icon and is credited Latin pop era-defining during the 2000s. As one of the most influential female Mexican artists, she was included twice in 2012 and 2013 among the "50 Most Powerful Women in Mexico" by Forbes Mexico. Additionally, she was included in their "Celebrity 100: Twitter's most-followed superstars" list in 2015. In 2008, Univision ranked her among the most powerful Latin celebrities in the United States and as one of the Greatest Latin Artists of All Time by Billboard in 2020. According to a 2021 ranking by YouGov, Rubio is the 26th most popular Latin music artist and the 17th most famous.
Life and career 1971–1981: Early life and career beginnings Paulina Susana Rubio Dosamantes was born on 17 June 1971 in Mexico City. Her father, Enrique Rubio González (1932–2011), was a Spanish-born lawyer; her mother was Susana Dosamantes (1948–2022), a Mexican actress. Dosamantes had lived in Guadalajara, Jalisco until adolescence when she decided to become a film actress, and just before Rubio's birth, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1970s in Mexico. Rubio's younger brother, Enrique Rubio Jr., is an important lawyer and socialite; her half-sister Ana Paola Rubio stays out of the spotlight. Her musical legacy comes from her grandmother and great-grandmother, who were a mezzo-soprano singer and pianist, respectively. Her great-grandparents were originally from Spain and Portugal, and from a very young age she used to spend two or three months a year in Europe, visiting relatives. The rest of the year she resided between Mexico and Los Angeles. As a little girl "grew up in the middle of an artistic world surrounded by cameras, lights and sets".
As Rubio has stated of herself: "I've been famous since I was born", due to the commotion that her birth caused, as she was the daughter of one of the most consecrated actresses in Mexico. According to her mother, Rubio grew up among arts media and the filming locations, while she worked. First Rubio's appearance in a film was the early 1980s, when accompanied by younger brother, she got a minor role in film El Día del Compadre. She also took singing, acting, jazz, painting, and dance lessons while enrolled at what is now the Centro de Educación Artística (CEA) in Mexico in 1980. After two years there, Rubio's parents were contacted by producers Julisa and Guillermo del Bosque to they approval of Rubio's joining on a musical band formed by children from the CEA. They were puzzled by Julissa and Guillermo del Bosque's request. Later, Rubio told them "I did the casting without notifying you." Despite Susana and Enrique's dissatisfaction, they reached an agreement with their daughter to be part of the children's musical band, with the condition that she got "a grade of nine in the school".
1982–1990: Timbiriche
Rubio began her singing career as a 9-year-old, when the children's band Timbiriche made its official debut on 30 April 1982 on the Mexican television show Siempre en Domingo, featuring Spanish singer Miguel Bosé as its "artistic godfather". The first song they performed was "Don Diablo" with Bosé. The band's name refers to the a paper-and-pencil game of mathematical structure (known in the United States as dots and boxes), and the idea of naming the musical group was a response to the Spanish children's musical group Parchís, whose name is also inspired by a table game. Timbiriche was initially made up of Mariana Garza, Alix Bauer, Diego Schoening and Rubio, and they were eventually joined by Benny Ibarra and Sasha Sokol. Mexican actress and producer Martha Zavaleta was in charge to recruiting the group of children, who were part of the children's area of the Centro de Educación Artística (CEA). The six children were formed by the major Latin American mass media corporation Televisa with Televisa's producers Victor Hugo O'Farril, Luis de Llano Macedo and María Eugenia "La Gorda" Galindo as part of Timbiriche's team creative.
Timbiriche's first homonym albums (Timbiriche and La Banda Timbiriche) released through Fonovisa Records in 1982 was a success in Mexico. They were known as a children's band and songs like "Somos Amigos", "Hoy Tengo Que Decirte Papá", "Mamá" and "México" was successful on the radio. In 1983 Timbiriche went on their first international tour and released the first live album En Concierto. One of the selected songs was a cover version of the song "Mickey" by Tony Basil. The track was chosen because it was one of the most popular in the tour's performances. En Concierto was gold-certified and marked the debut of Timbiriche's seventh member Erik Rubin. The third studio album, Disco Ruido, released in December 1983, continued with the same concept line of children's songs, but rock-style influences.
In 1984, Timbiriche participated in the musical Vaselina, a Spanish-language adaptation of the American musical Grease; The band record a studio album inspired from the musical, and is known to be the last "child type" record of the group. It was the first act of Rubio on a professional musical theatre, she performed the role of Licha and sang solo a Spanish version of "Freddy, My Love". The band members became teenage idols in Mexico, but for Rubio it implied pressure to look much older than she was. Rubio has stated that at age 13 "I wanted to grow up and look tall, and have big eyelashes" because unlike her groupmates she looked much thinner and shorter. She confessed to having suffered bullying in Timbiriche and felt like "the ugly duckling" of the band.
Timbiriche Rock Show, released on 1 July 1985, marked the "teenage transition" of the band, with lyrics more aimed at teenagers and sounds more pop-rock mainstream. The album contains Spanish-language covers of notable pop hits during the 1980s. It was certified gold and spawned several hit singles, including "Soy un Desastre", "Corro, Vuelo, Me Acelero", "Teléfono" and "Me Plantó", which established the group as a viable act in the music industry. Rubio totally changed her image during that time, leaving her innocent and childish style to a more "rocker" style, and sporting voluminous and large hairdos. When the promotion of Timbiriche Rock Show ended in the summer of 1986, two founding members of Timbiriche left and two new ones entered, which marked a change in the line-up. It was reflected in the album Timbiriche VII, released on 29 June 1987. The pop-rock style record was a massive success in Latin America, selling 1 million copies and becoming one of the best-selling Mexican albums of all time. The record features some of the group's most widely known songs such as "Mírame (Cuestión de Tiempo)" and "Con Todos Menos Conmigo".
When the double-album Timbiriche VIII & IX was released in May 1988, Rubio become as one of the most notorious members and her voice exced in songs such as "Rompecabezas", "Soy Como Soy", "Me Estoy Volviendo Loca" and "Acelerar", which was number one in Mexico charts. The album sold 500,000 copies, and the number-one hit, "Tú Y Yo Somos Uno Mismo", appears in the number two position on the list of the "100 Greatest Songs of the 80's in Spanish", count realized by VH1.VH1: The 100 Greatests 80's Songs in Spanish Lamejormusicaochentera.wordpress.com. Retrieved 12 June 2017. In summer 1988, while Timbiriche promotion the albums, Rubio landed a major role in the Televisa telenovela, Pasión y Poder, marks her debut on a TV production. Timbiriche X, the final album of Rubio recorded as a member of Timbiriche was released in early 1990 and despite the fact that she was already the leader of the group, she left the group to focus on a solo career.
1991–1994: Solo career, La Chica Dorada and 24 Kilates During an interview to Mexican TV show Galardon a los Grandes in summer 1991, Rubio said that she would travel to Spain to record her first solo album. She anticipated want to show "fresh music for a very broad market"., and also announced she would film her second telenovela at the end of that year.Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: During that time, Rubio began a relationship with her ex-fellow from Timbiriche, Erik Rubin. The romance received intense attention from the media, since Rubin had recently broken up with Mexican singer Alejandra Guzman, who said in different media "he broke-up with me for she [Rubio]." Guzman released the song "Hey Güera", and the media speculated that the song was about Rubio. Eventually, she confirmed it.