November 5, 2024 • 29 mins
In the final episode of our Thalía journey, we explore her fairy tale ending—and everything that came after. Now celebrating 24 years of marriage with Tommy Mottola, her life seems like the perfect conclusion to a telenovela-worthy story. But even legends face hardships: tragedy struck her family, and illness tried to slow down our queen. Through it all, Thalía has remained forever young—not just in her looks or talent, but in her fearless authenticity. She reminds us that we can always be unapologetically ourselves.
Lilliana Vazquez and Joseph Carrillo are the hosts of Becoming An Icon with production support by Nick Milanes, Santiago Sierra, Rodrigo Crespo, Evelyn Uribe and Edgar Esteban of Sonoro Media in partnership with iHeart Radio's My Cultura Podcast network.
If you want to support the podcast, please rate and review our show.
Follow Lilliana Vazquez on Instagram and Twitter @lillianavazquez
Follow Joseph Carrillo on Instagram @josephcarrillo
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
On a scale of one to ten, where would you
place your personal Dalia fandom?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Oh gosh five?
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
On a scale of one to ten, where would you
place Mexicans level of fandom with Dalia.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Ten being the most Yeah? Ten, She's everything.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
She's now.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Has anything surprised you thus far in our research and
writing for this episode, because I think a lot has
actually taken me a little by surprise. I mean, her
story is very well curated. Let's just say that the
things that need to be there are there. The things
that are not there, I need to do more digging.
I can need more Reddit threads on.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Her, like the Rib.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I think we're not going to talk about the Rib yet.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Okay, I mean, since you came in with these hard
balling questions, I'm gonna ask you what is your favorite
thing about Tellia?
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Ooh?
Speaker 1 (01:11):
I mean for me, it's the nostalgia of her, and
I think the relevancy.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
It's really hard to be relevant.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
And I remember her launching her collection in Macy's like
five years ago or six years ago whenever that was,
and I was like.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Still, still, like what are we doing? She's young, she's yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I really think her ability to just transcend from you know,
a super cheesy yes I said it, a super cheesy
len novela star and not be kept in that box
as somebody who's always like, oh, you can only do this.
She's like, no, bitch, I'm gonna do everything. I'm gonna
be world famous. So I think the tenacity and her
ability to break out of that deelenovela box is not easy.
(01:57):
Like the world wants to hold you down, They want
to keep you in a place where they know you.
They rarely want you to expand. And she expanded, what
about you?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, that is my favorite thing about her. Well, I
was going to say, it's more of her just being
a bad bitch, Like she just kind of is like,
you know, I think you do know stuff about yourself,
and she's just kind of like, I want to be
world famous. She said it, and I think that she
manages that she's a bad bitch. And she did it. However,
like so many things happened to her, you know, and
(02:25):
then boom, world famous.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Well the show must go on.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
And when we last left Tellia Emilio Stefan had a
song with her name on it, well figuratively speaking, but
the song would become synonymous with the Queen of Latin.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Talk, written by Kika Santandre and produced by Emlio Stefan,
piel Morena would have reintroduced the world to Talia. After
a two year hiatus from recording studio albums. Sin's Girl
was working around the clock on telenovelas, and.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Turns out Emilio and Gloria were actually religious fans of
talias telenovelas, and those telenovelas were.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Quickly turning her into a household name around the world.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
In her native Mexico, Tealia was basically already the top dog.
Case in point. During Michael Jackson's Dangerous World tour in
nineteen ninety three, Our Girl was the opening act for
all five of the King of Pop States in Mexico.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
City, but outside of Mexico, Dalia's global telenovela audience laid
the groundwork for piel Morena to spread like wildfire. All
those telenovela fans were willing and ready to eat up
Talia's new sound and looks, and with the backing of
the Mi Telia finally had the resources to give the
people what they wanted.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
And Lo and behold, the song was a kumbya classic
RIAA certified Capital B bop and a half with an
iconic video to match.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Piel Morena was the lead single off of nineteen ninety
five's and Expasies, an album that Talia described as an.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Intimate moment in which I captured feelings on the sheet.
It expresses emotions and situations that are experienced in moments
of love.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Basically, Talia is in her feelings on this album, but
not just the sorrow of songs like Sangre and Encilenzio,
all her joyful, heartbroken, horny, rebellious, capital F feelings.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Our girl had traveled the world in seven seas and
her sweet dreams and beautiful nightmares made us last cry
and pop it till we dropped.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
But real talk, do you think she did ecstasy?
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yes with her mom Andy Pisa.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
But was it ecstasy or mbma? Probably the cleaner one.
And by the way, no wonder they were hungover when
the Pele novela Yin called their hotel room. Anyway and
Expasies propelled Talia to pop stardom between nineteen ninety five
and nineteen ninety seven. The album sold two million copies,
(04:56):
all despite never cracking the Billboard two hundred in US.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
And that's despite Gloria and Emilio Stefan's breakthrough in the
US years prior. But it goes to show you what
K pop bands know today. It ain't all about making
it big in the States. Any K pop band can
tell you that.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Oh and speaking of East Asia, right after the release
of an Expasies, Felia would show some love to her
Filipino fan base with an exclusive Philippines only album, Nandito Achi,
the first album by a Latino artist to be sung
predominantly in Tagalog.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Our girl just loves who loves.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Her, and we love her for them.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
And she loves us for loving her, and we love
each other. And that's because none of us got enough
love in our child. And that's show best kid.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Okay, roxy heart, But love that can't eat, can't sleep,
Reach are the stars over the fence? World series Kind
of Love would soon find Talia at the height of
her fame.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
You think our tele novela icon turned pop star isn't
getting a novela wedding finale? Pink A camp yats.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Today on becoming an icon.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Dalia's fairy tale ended and everything that came after.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I'm your host, Liliana Rosquez.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
And I'm Joseph Carrio, and this is Becoming an.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Icon a weekly podcast where we give you the rundown
on how today's most famous latinv stars have shaped pop culture.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
And given the world some extra.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Level Sit back and get comfortable.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Because we are going in the only way we know how,
with buenas bias.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
I'm buenasriesas and a lot of opinions as we relive
their greatest achievements on our journey to find out what
makes them so iconic.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Hey, Joseph, do you know what else ends.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
With the wedding?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Mmmm?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Hallmark movies.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Uh, yes, some of those do, but also the nineteen
ninety seven animated film Anastasia.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Uh where are you going with this?
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Well, okay, stay with me.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
I know we just said Talia hadn't broken through in
the US, but there was one way she reached the
States other than Latin radio, and that was her Spanish
language version of Journey Back in Time, a song from
the movie originally sung by Aliyah.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Well, it would it be a finale without a fun fact?
So what did Dalia have an off brand Disney wedding?
Speaker 1 (07:39):
First of all, shots fired at Anastasia. Second of all, No,
we already tease a little something something about her wedding
two episodes ago, we did, Yes we did, and now
you gotta wait and see what it is Ohka. After
the runaway success of NX Thusies, Dalia teamed up with
a medio Stephan again, this time for a full album.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
One of the sacred texts of Latin pop, y'all, Noana,
no Ricky, no Shots.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
The lead single slash title track, with its three separate
music videos and multiple remixes, Shots number two and number
six on two of Billboard's Latin music playlists. It also
became a club classic in Europe and set the album
off to the races.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Dalia's sixth studio album exceeded her previous release with over
two million records sold worldwide. To date, it is Dalia's
all time best selling album.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
All to say, Dalia was on top of the world,
but romantically she was still nursing her wound. She wasn't
exactly eager to put herself out there, so.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Emlia Stefan decided to go from hit maker to matchmaker.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
As we know, Dalia can get personal with her producers,
and she and Emilia had formed a strong friendship.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
He told that he had the perfect man for her,
that they were identical in the way they thought, the
way they saw life, the way they enjoyed life, and
according to him, they were peas in a pot.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
But there was a catch. Emilio told her he did
just get divorced, and.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
She said, well, hey, no, shade here, get yourself back
out there, daddy.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
And Emilio said, oh wait, that reminds me he's also
a dad.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Dahlia was like, all good, how old the little blado?
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Uh? Two? I mean two kids? He has two kids.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
I love kids. Kids. How old are they?
Speaker 3 (09:32):
I don't know how old the kids are, but he's
twenty years.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Older than you. I no, no, no, we're not doing
that again.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Listeners, we kid, we kid we jess. But Talia, well
you can probably imagine that after her Silver Fox late
fiance tragically left her a widower.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
She wasn't looking for another daddy, so she swiped left
on theme on the sky.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
And before you think this is one sided, he swiped
left too. This bachelor's ex wife was also in the
music industry, and he I wasn't looking to make that mistake.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Again because listeners. In case you didn't.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Know, Emelio's guy was Tommy Motola, president of Sony Music
and ex husband of Mariah As in.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Carrie, I'm actually angry that you gave her a last
name because we don't need to.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I know that was it, but like I just want.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
What are you doing?
Speaker 1 (10:23):
What are you?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
What are you doing anyway? Y'all? When he left, she
lost a piece of her but I digress.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Amelia went back to hit making, and in nineteen ninety eight,
Talia moved on to her first English language film role,
playing the female lead in Mambo Cafe.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
But one day she was born on set and she
gave a.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Milia call, Oh for funzies, can we say, Okay, we
got to make this real quick, Joe, because we've got
a wedding to get to.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Okay. Emilia picks up the phone in the middle of
listening to a demo from Pitbull actually gets a mixtape.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Why is Piple always popping up? Like he just pops
like here I am entering.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Before he was big And he picks up the phone.
He sees it, Dalia. He stops the tape and answers.
Dlia says, one drink, drink that's it.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Bitch was bored.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
You know when you're bored, you a lot, or you're
like I'm bored or I'm hungry.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I need attention.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
She needed attention anyway.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Listener's quick disclaimer that this fan fiction portion is FFO
for funsies only, and we do not claim to know
that Emilio Estefan ever listened to Pitbull's mixtapes anyway back
to the show, and we also don't know that Dalia
was just looking for a drink or attention, but it tracks,
so we'll keep going.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So Da'lia hemmed and hot her way to the bar,
waited for Tommy with her legs and arms crossed like
whatever I do want to be here really, and.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
In walks Tommy and the two hit it off.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
One day became two, Two became three, and cut.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
To nineteen ninety nine. Dahlia's busy shooting her first delenovela
Sincmaria's trilogy, Rosaline. When Tommy surprises.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Her, he produces a little box with a pink bough.
Talia thinks she's about to faint. She tells herself, quote,
get a hold of yourself. It's probably just dependent or
earrings and you're here thinking it's an engagement ring.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
And this will fake Stelia out, taking her ears in
between his fingers and says they're gonna look great, before
revealing that, yes, the box did contain a ring.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Fast forward to December second, two thousand. A crowd gathers
in front of a church, but not just any church,
Saint Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Yes, and there it is.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
A limousine pulls in front of the cathedral and outsteps
Telia in a dress by Samed Mexican designer Mitzi, a
darn with Sarowski crystals, pearls and silver threads. And now
she approaches the great doors of the cathedral. The train
of the dress goes on and on and on and on.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
It's said that it's still there, okay, but for real,
the thing was fifty five feet long. Seeing the train
her sister, they made him honor realize coote, my god,
the car was full of the tail of the dress.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
The train ends up getting caught on the steps of
the church a couple of times, but other than that,
the wedding goes off without a hitch with its twelve
hundred guests, including Jlo and Marc Anthony and Julu Les. Yes,
the wedding ends up being one of the biggest ever
events in Mexican media, despite taking place in New York City. Oh.
(13:36):
Also in attendance Robert De Niro and Danny DeVito Black.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Imagine, like you just were not randomly invited, but like
you're no.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Randomly invited, randomly invited. You were randomly invited.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Call it out.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
You don't have twelve hundred friends. Just be clear, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Not you.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I mean you, like in the general, like in the world.
Nobody you nobody. You don't have twelve hundred friends. And
if you say you have two fund friends, I don't
believe you or trust you. I have like six friends.
How many friends do you have?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Like that?
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Like six.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
The wedding was big, It was over the top.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
And as of today, Talia and Tommy are celebrating twenty
four years of marriage.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Y'all.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
That is some kind of Guinness World record because celebrity couples,
Hollywood couples, they do not.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Stay together for twenty four years.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
And to be honest, despite what you think of this
over the top wedding.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
It's the perfect fairytale ending. To Talia's charmed Deele novella.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Life, except this ain't the end and it ain't no
fairytale either.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Fresh off for wedding the early aunts, Talia riding high
with a string of chart smashing albums two thousand's Arassando,
two thousand and two, self titled Balia and two thousand
and five and Sexto Sentido. So was singer doing a
lapse around current trends in dance pop and Latin pop.
She also released an album of bunda versions of her
greatest hits Balia GONBANDA.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Oh my god, Arassando is like my coming out song,
not really my coming out song.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
But like, I what do you mean coming out?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Not coming down? I was out since I was like nine,
but I mean like when I would go to the
gay bars like that, because I would go to quaties.
Obviously I was like sixteen and that, and I remember
that song. I mean this, yeah, this is in two
thousand two, those one. I was like seventeen and that
song just reminds me of just my coming to bay.
(15:44):
Where were you when Arasando came out?
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I was college, definitely college.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Oh my god, you probably heard the shit out of
that song too.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I heard it and like all of our like so
reminder for those of you that have not been following
from the beginning. So I went to college in Washington,
d C. And what I loved most about DC was
that it's a super international city, very much unlike the
city where I grew up, Fort Worth, TeX's, and it
really reinvigorated a love for Latin culture and Latin music
(16:16):
that I didn't have growing up because all of my
friends in my very white, elite high school were very
white and when we would go out, listening to Spanish
music just wasn't something that we did. There was no like,
there was no connection to that for me in middle
school and in high school other than the connection I
felt to my family, I mean socially, there was no
(16:36):
connection to that music for me. But once I got
to d C, I had friends that were like Columbia
and Ecuadorian and Cuban, right, so like there was this
really beautiful mixing of Latino cultures all happening in DC,
and when we would go out, we would go out
to clubs that like.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Only played Spanish music.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
And so for me, it was a really defining moment
because it was the first time, I felt really connected
to not only Latin pop, but like she's Mexicana like.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
I am, and I'm like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
She brought me much deeper into the pride that I
started to finally feel about being Latina, not just Latina,
but being Mexicana. And that didn't happen for me until honestly,
like college, Like I talk about this all the time,
Like it did not become a source of pride for
me until I was like in my early twenties. Like
(17:27):
literally in college. You took me leaving Texas, which you
would think would be the source of like all Mexican
pride because it's basically North Mexico, but it wasn't. It
took me leaving to go to the East Coast to
like really find that cultural awareness and pridefulness in your Latina.
My inner Latina came out when I went to DC. Anyway,
enough about me. With this string of albums, Balia continued
(17:50):
to work with Emilio Estefan and finally broke into the
Billboard two hundred in the United States while topping the
Billboard Latin charts, racking up platinum certifications and raking in
awards and accolades and cash.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Simply put, she was royalty, but remember, fanking put a
target on your back and on the backs of people
close to you.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
In two thousand and two, while Talia was on tour
supporting her self titled album, her sister and maid of honor,
Laudas Abata, was performing in a play in Mexico and on.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
A crisp September night, Dalia's other sister, Ernestina, got dulled
up and went to see her sister on stage. Hours later,
the casts took their final bow and got their flowers.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Ernestina congratulated Lauda and the two sisters left the theater together,
but they didn't make it home. They were ambushed by
armed men, forced into a van, and driven to a
safe house.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
When Dalia heard about this from her nephew, she thought
it was a prank, but then a photo was released
showing Talia's sister blindfolded and held at gunpoint. The kidnappers
demanded millions from her husband, Tommy Motola's fortune.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Since this was an international incident, the US government froz
both Tommy and Talia's bank accounts, leaving them unable to
pay the ransom, making matters worse, rumors and misinformation put
a world of pressure on the negotiations.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Gossip began to spread that Taliah was going to roll
into Mexico with an American special ops team to free her.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Sister, which is totally a movie I would watch, but
I digress. But in reality, Dalia was learning about the
kidnappers demandster the TV right along with us.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Still, once the kidnappers learned that the famous couple's accounts
were frozen, they released Laura Sabatta as a bargaining chip
and made new demands five million pissels.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
A deal was strung.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Dalia paid the ransom and Ednestina was released after her sister.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
All together.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Lauda was held for eighteen days and Ernestina for thirty six.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
But things can get easier from there. This incident was
great for the tabloids, and they kept trying to keep
the gravy train rolling by accusing Lauda of masterminding the
entire kidnapping.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Talia and m Nestina decided not to engage with the speculation,
and Dalia stuck to the strategy of non engagement for years.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
But Lauda Sabatta took this as a betrayal. In two
thousand and five, Lauda began developing a stage play based
on her experience being kidnapped. However, she said, without naming names,
that someone in the family you threatened legal action. The
play never went up.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Then, in two thousand and six, Ernestina publishes a book
about her experience being kidnapped and states that Lauda had
known the kidnappers beforehand, all but corroborating what the tabloids
had been saying.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
On the one hand, this is cold pressed, vacuum filed
tell novela grade a juice.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
On the other hand, Lauda was the sister who inspired
Dalia to get on the stage in the first place.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Of this ordeal, Lauda would eventually tell the press.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
At the time, it hurt a lot, It was very painful,
But now that I look back on it, I was
a victim of the kidnappers.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
And a victim of Thalia.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Thinking about how the press treated Dalia at the start
of her solo career, you can maybe see why she
didn't want to get into it with them.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Still, this family rift continues today, and if there's anything
we've learned in our becoming an icon journey, when it
comes to trauma, it bonds people, but it can also
tear them apart. And by the way, I'm also going
to hold the media accountable here because that's kind of where.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
It all started, right.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
It started with the speculation over her having a role
in the kidnapping, and then it went on from there,
whether she did or didn't. When press gets involved and
they have an ulterior motive, it could become a pressure cooker.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
True, and the kidnapping isn't the only example. Remember Talia's
formative beef with Paulina Rubio that never went.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Away, right you are bou Dalia ruled the nineties, but
her bandmate from Timbriche, Paulina Rubio, also broke into the
international market in the early two thousands with a series
of hit singles, including the Anglo market with the song
border Girl Joseph's favorite.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I Really Do Love That, Okay. Dalia had gained a
rep as the Latina Madonna in the nineties, but in
the odds, the press was eager to make her and
Ballina the Latina Christina and Brittany.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
To hear Dalia's take on the feud, she told Reuters,
it is more what the media has done than what
is reality. I always try to reinvent myself and give
the best of me without thinking about any kind of
rivalry or competition.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
But that didn't stop Paulina from making shady comments about
Talia's clothing line and chocolate brand and her husband, who
she called an old man.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
I mean, where's the lie anyway? Well, nothing would ever
match that infamous on stage fight at the Pinbotichi show.
The Press's eagerness to feed that fire and Ballina's tendency
to do just that led their estrangement to drag on
for decades.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
In twenty ten, Dalia would tell Ulibision the Paulina I
knew and the Talia that she knew. We're no longer
the same. If we were to, we would have some
tequilas at Takisa. We would talk about our things, and
it would be a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
To the public's knowledge.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
This still hasn't happened, but they may have reason to hope.
We all want the same thing, a dele novella happily
ever after for our queen.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
But as we've seen, life's just not that simple.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Near the end of the Odds, Dahlia's hot drig was
cut short when lyme disease kept her from promoting her
two thousand and eight album Lunada.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
I said the singer, I got very sick. I almost
lost my life. I lost my hair, my muscle mass
the will to get ahead. She spent two years on antibiotics,
focusing on healing with the support of her family.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
It was a brush of death that changed Dahlia. After
Lunada sank on the charts, she moved on from Ami
and joined Sony to release two thousand and nine s
Primera Phila, a stripped live album that cut out all
the glad.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Belia recorded the album in a small auditorium in Miami,
sporting a simple look jeans, a white top, and a vest.
The sound of the album is as stripped down as
her look. It's giving MTVM plug, it's giving cowboy junkies,
but we know our girl.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
That doesn't mean she's done with Glenny for good facts.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
In October of that year, Belia is invited to the
White House for an event celebrating the Latino community. She
attends along with Eva Longoria, Jlo and Mark and performs
a more La Mexicana on stage.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
And in the middle of her song she stops off
stage and walks straight to President Obama's table and asks
him to.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Dance and thanks Michelle for being cool with it.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
The dance last all of ten seconds, and it's not
all that clear Obama knows how.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
To dance salsa.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
But it's exactly the kind of bold, spirit animal behavior
we've come to love from Thalia ever since she told
it straight to the president of Televisa back in the eighties.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
It was her first Bible moment in the Internet age,
and guess what our girl thrives on? TikTok.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Then there was the Talia Challenge a few years ago,
where people imitated a video of her trying on a
bright pink dress and doing a goofy dance.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
And the time she went to the beach wearing one
of the original costumes of Marie mad and recreated the
opening credit sequence.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Like who's feeding her these ideas? Are they just like
thinking comes up with on her own? Oh, and the
time she poked fun at an old tabloid rumor that
she'd had one of her ribs removed to make her
waist smaller. She took a video of herself at a
taco stand picking up a rib and saying, oh my god,
I can't wait. She said this, I found it.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
She also went full drag king and dressed up as
Marvel's Doctor Strange for Halloween, with the caption one the
wait it is most strange characters strange.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
That picture will haunt me for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
So amazing. It's the visual to this. It's like Dalia
being so pretty and so glam and she has like
a go tea and short hair. You need to look it.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Up, but it's like Chris Jenner's hair. It's like Chris
Jenner with a go tee. Is what it looks like
in a Marvel costume. It's why you got it.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
This is the wild depths of the Internet.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
But that's not to say she just slept through the
twenty tens and resurfaced on TikTok. The twenty twelve album
A Beata missiepre returned Talia to dominance on the Latin
Fillboard charts, selling half a million copies worldwide and leading
her to embark on her first tour in nine years.
Essentially a comeback tour. The Viva World Tour was one
(26:39):
of the most anticipated concert events of the decade.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
And then she released a children's album to accompany her
children's book, Choopy the Binkie That.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Returned Home, even as a mother of two. Our girl
really just kind of does what she wants. And across
seven more albums, including another kid's album and an album
of covers of her favorite Latin rock song from her
eighties and nineties, Heyday, Dalia blessed the next generation of
Latin pop stars with her presence.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
She's thing with Maluma on the track, with Becky g
and Chiki thri Vera on by La Si and with
Unci Laguilar group of Fiedman and most recently our favorite
artists from Sinaloa, Kenya Os.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Talia is in a way that only the most legendary
icons managed to achieve. Forever young. And I'm not just
talking about her looks, but she does definitely have some
Benjamin buttonshit going on. I'm talking about her confidence, her
raw talent. It's her ability to be herself authentically without
a second thought.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
That bitchu blessing in the Tella Visa president's office and
wasn't afraid to ask for what she wanted. The hardworking
girl locked up in her bedroom with the shades down
because she needed a mend her heart. The meme queen
cracking jokes on social media.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
We all want to be as unapologetically ourselves as we
were when we were kids, and Dalia's proof that we
can be.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
And we also can get into fights when we're young,
but they might not be forever facts.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Since twenty seventeen, Ballina Rubio has been hinting at a
reunion tour with Dalia.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
The first hint was a hashtag throwback Thursday Instagram post
of the old band Femettice.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
More recently, she's directed statements straight to Talia. Quote, let's
plan the tour, as Shakira said, there's a special place
in hell for women who don't support other women.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Oh I don't know how I feel about that.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Go on tour with me, or you're a bad feminist.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Look, at the end of the day, Baulina is still
fucking Baulina, you know what I mean? Like Thalia is
still Dahlia, and you never know what might happen with Lauda.
But I feel like that's kind of what we love
about this whole story, right, Like, just like a good
Beele novela we have to keep tuning in to see
(28:58):
if our faves can find and they're happily ever after,
no matter how bashit crazy it get. On the next
Becoming an Icon, we're taking a look at how Fun
and fessel Pluma are reinventing the corrido for a new generation.
(29:23):
Becoming an Icon is presented by Sonoo and Iheart's Michael
Durda podcast Network. Listen to Becoming an Icon on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
On a scale of one to ten, where would you
place your personal Dalia fandom?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Oh gosh five?
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
On a scale of one to ten, where would you
place Mexicans level of fandom with Dalia.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Ten being the most Yeah? Ten, She's everything.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
She's now.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Has anything surprised you thus far in our research and
writing for this episode, because I think a lot has
actually taken me a little by surprise. I mean, her
story is very well curated. Let's just say that the
things that need to be there are there. The things
that are not there, I need to do more digging.
I can need more Reddit threads on.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Her, like the Rib.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I think we're not going to talk about the Rib yet.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Okay, I mean, since you came in with these hard
balling questions, I'm gonna ask you what is your favorite
thing about Tellia?
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Ooh?
Speaker 1 (01:11):
I mean for me, it's the nostalgia of her, and
I think the relevancy.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
It's really hard to be relevant.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
And I remember her launching her collection in Macy's like
five years ago or six years ago whenever that was,
and I was like.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Still, still, like what are we doing? She's young, she's yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I really think her ability to just transcend from you know,
a super cheesy yes I said it, a super cheesy
len novela star and not be kept in that box
as somebody who's always like, oh, you can only do this.
She's like, no, bitch, I'm gonna do everything. I'm gonna
be world famous. So I think the tenacity and her
ability to break out of that deelenovela box is not easy.
(01:57):
Like the world wants to hold you down, They want
to keep you in a place where they know you.
They rarely want you to expand. And she expanded, what
about you?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, that is my favorite thing about her. Well, I
was going to say, it's more of her just being
a bad bitch, Like she just kind of is like,
you know, I think you do know stuff about yourself,
and she's just kind of like, I want to be
world famous. She said it, and I think that she
manages that she's a bad bitch. And she did it. However,
like so many things happened to her, you know, and
(02:25):
then boom, world famous.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Well the show must go on.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
And when we last left Tellia Emilio Stefan had a
song with her name on it, well figuratively speaking, but
the song would become synonymous with the Queen of Latin.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Talk, written by Kika Santandre and produced by Emlio Stefan,
piel Morena would have reintroduced the world to Talia. After
a two year hiatus from recording studio albums. Sin's Girl
was working around the clock on telenovelas, and.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Turns out Emilio and Gloria were actually religious fans of
talias telenovelas, and those telenovelas were.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Quickly turning her into a household name around the world.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
In her native Mexico, Tealia was basically already the top dog.
Case in point. During Michael Jackson's Dangerous World tour in
nineteen ninety three, Our Girl was the opening act for
all five of the King of Pop States in Mexico.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
City, but outside of Mexico, Dalia's global telenovela audience laid
the groundwork for piel Morena to spread like wildfire. All
those telenovela fans were willing and ready to eat up
Talia's new sound and looks, and with the backing of
the Mi Telia finally had the resources to give the
people what they wanted.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
And Lo and behold, the song was a kumbya classic
RIAA certified Capital B bop and a half with an
iconic video to match.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Piel Morena was the lead single off of nineteen ninety
five's and Expasies, an album that Talia described as an.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Intimate moment in which I captured feelings on the sheet.
It expresses emotions and situations that are experienced in moments
of love.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Basically, Talia is in her feelings on this album, but
not just the sorrow of songs like Sangre and Encilenzio,
all her joyful, heartbroken, horny, rebellious, capital F feelings.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Our girl had traveled the world in seven seas and
her sweet dreams and beautiful nightmares made us last cry
and pop it till we dropped.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
But real talk, do you think she did ecstasy?
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yes with her mom Andy Pisa.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
But was it ecstasy or mbma? Probably the cleaner one.
And by the way, no wonder they were hungover when
the Pele novela Yin called their hotel room. Anyway and
Expasies propelled Talia to pop stardom between nineteen ninety five
and nineteen ninety seven. The album sold two million copies,
(04:56):
all despite never cracking the Billboard two hundred in US.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
And that's despite Gloria and Emilio Stefan's breakthrough in the
US years prior. But it goes to show you what
K pop bands know today. It ain't all about making
it big in the States. Any K pop band can
tell you that.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Oh and speaking of East Asia, right after the release
of an Expasies, Felia would show some love to her
Filipino fan base with an exclusive Philippines only album, Nandito Achi,
the first album by a Latino artist to be sung
predominantly in Tagalog.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Our girl just loves who loves.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Her, and we love her for them.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
And she loves us for loving her, and we love
each other. And that's because none of us got enough
love in our child. And that's show best kid.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Okay, roxy heart, But love that can't eat, can't sleep,
Reach are the stars over the fence? World series Kind
of Love would soon find Talia at the height of
her fame.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
You think our tele novela icon turned pop star isn't
getting a novela wedding finale? Pink A camp yats.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Today on becoming an icon.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Dalia's fairy tale ended and everything that came after.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I'm your host, Liliana Rosquez.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
And I'm Joseph Carrio, and this is Becoming an.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Icon a weekly podcast where we give you the rundown
on how today's most famous latinv stars have shaped pop culture.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
And given the world some extra.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Level Sit back and get comfortable.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Because we are going in the only way we know how,
with buenas bias.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
I'm buenasriesas and a lot of opinions as we relive
their greatest achievements on our journey to find out what
makes them so iconic.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Hey, Joseph, do you know what else ends.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
With the wedding?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Mmmm?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Hallmark movies.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Uh, yes, some of those do, but also the nineteen
ninety seven animated film Anastasia.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Uh where are you going with this?
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Well, okay, stay with me.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
I know we just said Talia hadn't broken through in
the US, but there was one way she reached the
States other than Latin radio, and that was her Spanish
language version of Journey Back in Time, a song from
the movie originally sung by Aliyah.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Well, it would it be a finale without a fun fact?
So what did Dalia have an off brand Disney wedding?
Speaker 1 (07:39):
First of all, shots fired at Anastasia. Second of all, No,
we already tease a little something something about her wedding
two episodes ago, we did, Yes we did, and now
you gotta wait and see what it is Ohka. After
the runaway success of NX Thusies, Dalia teamed up with
a medio Stephan again, this time for a full album.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
One of the sacred texts of Latin pop, y'all, Noana,
no Ricky, no Shots.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
The lead single slash title track, with its three separate
music videos and multiple remixes, Shots number two and number
six on two of Billboard's Latin music playlists. It also
became a club classic in Europe and set the album
off to the races.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Dalia's sixth studio album exceeded her previous release with over
two million records sold worldwide. To date, it is Dalia's
all time best selling album.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
All to say, Dalia was on top of the world,
but romantically she was still nursing her wound. She wasn't
exactly eager to put herself out there, so.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Emlia Stefan decided to go from hit maker to matchmaker.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
As we know, Dalia can get personal with her producers,
and she and Emilia had formed a strong friendship.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
He told that he had the perfect man for her,
that they were identical in the way they thought, the
way they saw life, the way they enjoyed life, and
according to him, they were peas in a pot.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
But there was a catch. Emilio told her he did
just get divorced, and.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
She said, well, hey, no, shade here, get yourself back
out there, daddy.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
And Emilio said, oh wait, that reminds me he's also
a dad.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Dahlia was like, all good, how old the little blado?
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Uh? Two? I mean two kids? He has two kids.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
I love kids. Kids. How old are they?
Speaker 3 (09:32):
I don't know how old the kids are, but he's
twenty years.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Older than you. I no, no, no, we're not doing
that again.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Listeners, we kid, we kid we jess. But Talia, well
you can probably imagine that after her Silver Fox late
fiance tragically left her a widower.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
She wasn't looking for another daddy, so she swiped left
on theme on the sky.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
And before you think this is one sided, he swiped
left too. This bachelor's ex wife was also in the
music industry, and he I wasn't looking to make that mistake.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Again because listeners. In case you didn't.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Know, Emelio's guy was Tommy Motola, president of Sony Music
and ex husband of Mariah As in.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Carrie, I'm actually angry that you gave her a last
name because we don't need to.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I know that was it, but like I just want.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
What are you doing?
Speaker 1 (10:23):
What are you?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
What are you doing anyway? Y'all? When he left, she
lost a piece of her but I digress.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Amelia went back to hit making, and in nineteen ninety eight,
Talia moved on to her first English language film role,
playing the female lead in Mambo Cafe.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
But one day she was born on set and she
gave a.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Milia call, Oh for funzies, can we say, Okay, we
got to make this real quick, Joe, because we've got
a wedding to get to.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Okay. Emilia picks up the phone in the middle of
listening to a demo from Pitbull actually gets a mixtape.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Why is Piple always popping up? Like he just pops
like here I am entering.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Before he was big And he picks up the phone.
He sees it, Dalia. He stops the tape and answers.
Dlia says, one drink, drink that's it.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Bitch was bored.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
You know when you're bored, you a lot, or you're
like I'm bored or I'm hungry.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I need attention.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
She needed attention anyway.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Listener's quick disclaimer that this fan fiction portion is FFO
for funsies only, and we do not claim to know
that Emilio Estefan ever listened to Pitbull's mixtapes anyway back
to the show, and we also don't know that Dalia
was just looking for a drink or attention, but it tracks,
so we'll keep going.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So Da'lia hemmed and hot her way to the bar,
waited for Tommy with her legs and arms crossed like
whatever I do want to be here really, and.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
In walks Tommy and the two hit it off.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
One day became two, Two became three, and cut.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
To nineteen ninety nine. Dahlia's busy shooting her first delenovela
Sincmaria's trilogy, Rosaline. When Tommy surprises.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Her, he produces a little box with a pink bough.
Talia thinks she's about to faint. She tells herself, quote,
get a hold of yourself. It's probably just dependent or
earrings and you're here thinking it's an engagement ring.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
And this will fake Stelia out, taking her ears in
between his fingers and says they're gonna look great, before
revealing that, yes, the box did contain a ring.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Fast forward to December second, two thousand. A crowd gathers
in front of a church, but not just any church,
Saint Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Yes, and there it is.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
A limousine pulls in front of the cathedral and outsteps
Telia in a dress by Samed Mexican designer Mitzi, a
darn with Sarowski crystals, pearls and silver threads. And now
she approaches the great doors of the cathedral. The train
of the dress goes on and on and on and on.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
It's said that it's still there, okay, but for real,
the thing was fifty five feet long. Seeing the train
her sister, they made him honor realize coote, my god,
the car was full of the tail of the dress.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
The train ends up getting caught on the steps of
the church a couple of times, but other than that,
the wedding goes off without a hitch with its twelve
hundred guests, including Jlo and Marc Anthony and Julu Les. Yes,
the wedding ends up being one of the biggest ever
events in Mexican media, despite taking place in New York City. Oh.
(13:36):
Also in attendance Robert De Niro and Danny DeVito Black.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Imagine, like you just were not randomly invited, but like
you're no.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Randomly invited, randomly invited. You were randomly invited.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Call it out.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
You don't have twelve hundred friends. Just be clear, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Not you.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I mean you, like in the general, like in the world.
Nobody you nobody. You don't have twelve hundred friends. And
if you say you have two fund friends, I don't
believe you or trust you. I have like six friends.
How many friends do you have?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Like that?
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Like six.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
The wedding was big, It was over the top.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
And as of today, Talia and Tommy are celebrating twenty
four years of marriage.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Y'all.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
That is some kind of Guinness World record because celebrity couples,
Hollywood couples, they do not.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Stay together for twenty four years.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
And to be honest, despite what you think of this
over the top wedding.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
It's the perfect fairytale ending. To Talia's charmed Deele novella.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Life, except this ain't the end and it ain't no
fairytale either.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Fresh off for wedding the early aunts, Talia riding high
with a string of chart smashing albums two thousand's Arassando,
two thousand and two, self titled Balia and two thousand
and five and Sexto Sentido. So was singer doing a
lapse around current trends in dance pop and Latin pop.
She also released an album of bunda versions of her
greatest hits Balia GONBANDA.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Oh my god, Arassando is like my coming out song,
not really my coming out song.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
But like, I what do you mean coming out?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Not coming down? I was out since I was like nine,
but I mean like when I would go to the
gay bars like that, because I would go to quaties.
Obviously I was like sixteen and that, and I remember
that song. I mean this, yeah, this is in two
thousand two, those one. I was like seventeen and that
song just reminds me of just my coming to bay.
(15:44):
Where were you when Arasando came out?
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I was college, definitely college.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Oh my god, you probably heard the shit out of
that song too.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I heard it and like all of our like so
reminder for those of you that have not been following
from the beginning. So I went to college in Washington,
d C. And what I loved most about DC was
that it's a super international city, very much unlike the
city where I grew up, Fort Worth, TeX's, and it
really reinvigorated a love for Latin culture and Latin music
(16:16):
that I didn't have growing up because all of my
friends in my very white, elite high school were very
white and when we would go out, listening to Spanish
music just wasn't something that we did. There was no like,
there was no connection to that for me in middle
school and in high school other than the connection I
felt to my family, I mean socially, there was no
(16:36):
connection to that music for me. But once I got
to d C, I had friends that were like Columbia
and Ecuadorian and Cuban, right, so like there was this
really beautiful mixing of Latino cultures all happening in DC,
and when we would go out, we would go out
to clubs that like.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Only played Spanish music.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
And so for me, it was a really defining moment
because it was the first time, I felt really connected
to not only Latin pop, but like she's Mexicana like.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
I am, and I'm like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
She brought me much deeper into the pride that I
started to finally feel about being Latina, not just Latina,
but being Mexicana. And that didn't happen for me until honestly,
like college, Like I talk about this all the time,
Like it did not become a source of pride for
me until I was like in my early twenties. Like
(17:27):
literally in college. You took me leaving Texas, which you
would think would be the source of like all Mexican
pride because it's basically North Mexico, but it wasn't. It
took me leaving to go to the East Coast to
like really find that cultural awareness and pridefulness in your Latina.
My inner Latina came out when I went to DC. Anyway,
enough about me. With this string of albums, Balia continued
(17:50):
to work with Emilio Estefan and finally broke into the
Billboard two hundred in the United States while topping the
Billboard Latin charts, racking up platinum certifications and raking in
awards and accolades and cash.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Simply put, she was royalty, but remember, fanking put a
target on your back and on the backs of people
close to you.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
In two thousand and two, while Talia was on tour
supporting her self titled album, her sister and maid of honor,
Laudas Abata, was performing in a play in Mexico and on.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
A crisp September night, Dalia's other sister, Ernestina, got dulled
up and went to see her sister on stage. Hours later,
the casts took their final bow and got their flowers.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Ernestina congratulated Lauda and the two sisters left the theater together,
but they didn't make it home. They were ambushed by
armed men, forced into a van, and driven to a
safe house.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
When Dalia heard about this from her nephew, she thought
it was a prank, but then a photo was released
showing Talia's sister blindfolded and held at gunpoint. The kidnappers
demanded millions from her husband, Tommy Motola's fortune.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Since this was an international incident, the US government froz
both Tommy and Talia's bank accounts, leaving them unable to
pay the ransom, making matters worse, rumors and misinformation put
a world of pressure on the negotiations.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Gossip began to spread that Taliah was going to roll
into Mexico with an American special ops team to free her.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Sister, which is totally a movie I would watch, but
I digress. But in reality, Dalia was learning about the
kidnappers demandster the TV right along with us.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Still, once the kidnappers learned that the famous couple's accounts
were frozen, they released Laura Sabatta as a bargaining chip
and made new demands five million pissels.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
A deal was strung.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Dalia paid the ransom and Ednestina was released after her sister.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
All together.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Lauda was held for eighteen days and Ernestina for thirty six.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
But things can get easier from there. This incident was
great for the tabloids, and they kept trying to keep
the gravy train rolling by accusing Lauda of masterminding the
entire kidnapping.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Talia and m Nestina decided not to engage with the speculation,
and Dalia stuck to the strategy of non engagement for years.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
But Lauda Sabatta took this as a betrayal. In two
thousand and five, Lauda began developing a stage play based
on her experience being kidnapped. However, she said, without naming names,
that someone in the family you threatened legal action. The
play never went up.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Then, in two thousand and six, Ernestina publishes a book
about her experience being kidnapped and states that Lauda had
known the kidnappers beforehand, all but corroborating what the tabloids
had been saying.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
On the one hand, this is cold pressed, vacuum filed
tell novela grade a juice.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
On the other hand, Lauda was the sister who inspired
Dalia to get on the stage in the first place.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Of this ordeal, Lauda would eventually tell the press.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
At the time, it hurt a lot, It was very painful,
But now that I look back on it, I was
a victim of the kidnappers.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
And a victim of Thalia.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Thinking about how the press treated Dalia at the start
of her solo career, you can maybe see why she
didn't want to get into it with them.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Still, this family rift continues today, and if there's anything
we've learned in our becoming an icon journey, when it
comes to trauma, it bonds people, but it can also
tear them apart. And by the way, I'm also going
to hold the media accountable here because that's kind of where.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
It all started, right.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
It started with the speculation over her having a role
in the kidnapping, and then it went on from there,
whether she did or didn't. When press gets involved and
they have an ulterior motive, it could become a pressure cooker.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
True, and the kidnapping isn't the only example. Remember Talia's
formative beef with Paulina Rubio that never went.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Away, right you are bou Dalia ruled the nineties, but
her bandmate from Timbriche, Paulina Rubio, also broke into the
international market in the early two thousands with a series
of hit singles, including the Anglo market with the song
border Girl Joseph's favorite.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I Really Do Love That, Okay. Dalia had gained a
rep as the Latina Madonna in the nineties, but in
the odds, the press was eager to make her and
Ballina the Latina Christina and Brittany.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
To hear Dalia's take on the feud, she told Reuters,
it is more what the media has done than what
is reality. I always try to reinvent myself and give
the best of me without thinking about any kind of
rivalry or competition.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
But that didn't stop Paulina from making shady comments about
Talia's clothing line and chocolate brand and her husband, who
she called an old man.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
I mean, where's the lie anyway? Well, nothing would ever
match that infamous on stage fight at the Pinbotichi show.
The Press's eagerness to feed that fire and Ballina's tendency
to do just that led their estrangement to drag on
for decades.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
In twenty ten, Dalia would tell Ulibision the Paulina I
knew and the Talia that she knew. We're no longer
the same. If we were to, we would have some
tequilas at Takisa. We would talk about our things, and
it would be a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
To the public's knowledge.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
This still hasn't happened, but they may have reason to hope.
We all want the same thing, a dele novella happily
ever after for our queen.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
But as we've seen, life's just not that simple.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Near the end of the Odds, Dahlia's hot drig was
cut short when lyme disease kept her from promoting her
two thousand and eight album Lunada.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
I said the singer, I got very sick. I almost
lost my life. I lost my hair, my muscle mass
the will to get ahead. She spent two years on antibiotics,
focusing on healing with the support of her family.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
It was a brush of death that changed Dahlia. After
Lunada sank on the charts, she moved on from Ami
and joined Sony to release two thousand and nine s
Primera Phila, a stripped live album that cut out all
the glad.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Belia recorded the album in a small auditorium in Miami,
sporting a simple look jeans, a white top, and a vest.
The sound of the album is as stripped down as
her look. It's giving MTVM plug, it's giving cowboy junkies,
but we know our girl.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
That doesn't mean she's done with Glenny for good facts.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
In October of that year, Belia is invited to the
White House for an event celebrating the Latino community. She
attends along with Eva Longoria, Jlo and Mark and performs
a more La Mexicana on stage.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
And in the middle of her song she stops off
stage and walks straight to President Obama's table and asks
him to.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Dance and thanks Michelle for being cool with it.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
The dance last all of ten seconds, and it's not
all that clear Obama knows how.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
To dance salsa.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
But it's exactly the kind of bold, spirit animal behavior
we've come to love from Thalia ever since she told
it straight to the president of Televisa back in the eighties.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
It was her first Bible moment in the Internet age,
and guess what our girl thrives on? TikTok.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Then there was the Talia Challenge a few years ago,
where people imitated a video of her trying on a
bright pink dress and doing a goofy dance.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
And the time she went to the beach wearing one
of the original costumes of Marie mad and recreated the
opening credit sequence.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Like who's feeding her these ideas? Are they just like
thinking comes up with on her own? Oh, and the
time she poked fun at an old tabloid rumor that
she'd had one of her ribs removed to make her
waist smaller. She took a video of herself at a
taco stand picking up a rib and saying, oh my god,
I can't wait. She said this, I found it.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
She also went full drag king and dressed up as
Marvel's Doctor Strange for Halloween, with the caption one the
wait it is most strange characters strange.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
That picture will haunt me for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
So amazing. It's the visual to this. It's like Dalia
being so pretty and so glam and she has like
a go tea and short hair. You need to look it.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Up, but it's like Chris Jenner's hair. It's like Chris
Jenner with a go tee. Is what it looks like
in a Marvel costume. It's why you got it.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
This is the wild depths of the Internet.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
But that's not to say she just slept through the
twenty tens and resurfaced on TikTok. The twenty twelve album
A Beata missiepre returned Talia to dominance on the Latin
Fillboard charts, selling half a million copies worldwide and leading
her to embark on her first tour in nine years.
Essentially a comeback tour. The Viva World Tour was one
(26:39):
of the most anticipated concert events of the decade.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
And then she released a children's album to accompany her
children's book, Choopy the Binkie That.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Returned Home, even as a mother of two. Our girl
really just kind of does what she wants. And across
seven more albums, including another kid's album and an album
of covers of her favorite Latin rock song from her
eighties and nineties, Heyday, Dalia blessed the next generation of
Latin pop stars with her presence.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
She's thing with Maluma on the track, with Becky g
and Chiki thri Vera on by La Si and with
Unci Laguilar group of Fiedman and most recently our favorite
artists from Sinaloa, Kenya Os.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Talia is in a way that only the most legendary
icons managed to achieve. Forever young. And I'm not just
talking about her looks, but she does definitely have some
Benjamin buttonshit going on. I'm talking about her confidence, her
raw talent. It's her ability to be herself authentically without
a second thought.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
That bitchu blessing in the Tella Visa president's office and
wasn't afraid to ask for what she wanted. The hardworking
girl locked up in her bedroom with the shades down
because she needed a mend her heart. The meme queen
cracking jokes on social media.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
We all want to be as unapologetically ourselves as we
were when we were kids, and Dalia's proof that we
can be.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
And we also can get into fights when we're young,
but they might not be forever facts.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Since twenty seventeen, Ballina Rubio has been hinting at a
reunion tour with Dalia.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
The first hint was a hashtag throwback Thursday Instagram post
of the old band Femettice.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
More recently, she's directed statements straight to Talia. Quote, let's
plan the tour, as Shakira said, there's a special place
in hell for women who don't support other women.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Oh I don't know how I feel about that.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Go on tour with me, or you're a bad feminist.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Look, at the end of the day, Baulina is still
fucking Baulina, you know what I mean? Like Thalia is
still Dahlia, and you never know what might happen with Lauda.
But I feel like that's kind of what we love
about this whole story, right, Like, just like a good
Beele novela we have to keep tuning in to see
(28:58):
if our faves can find and they're happily ever after,
no matter how bashit crazy it get. On the next
Becoming an Icon, we're taking a look at how Fun
and fessel Pluma are reinventing the corrido for a new generation.
(29:23):
Becoming an Icon is presented by Sonoo and Iheart's Michael
Durda podcast Network. Listen to Becoming an Icon on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hosts And Creators
Lilliana Vazquez
Joseph Carrillo
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.