Raquel Calderón Argandoña

Kel
Birth name	Raquel Calderón Argandoña
Born	February 14, 1991 Santiago, Chile
Genres	Pop, pop rock
Occupation(s)	Singer, actress
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	2006 – present
Labels	Feria Music Records
Associated acts	Six Pack

Raquel Calderón Argandoña (born February 14, 1991) is a Chilean actress and singer.^[1] She became known at a very early age for being a daughter of the television star Raquel Argandoña de la Fuente and the attorney Hernán Calderón Salinas.^[2] Raquel began her acting career in 2006, in the television series Karkú. The band Six Pack, created by the series, gave start to her musical career. She went solo in 2008, releasing 3 singles and an album under the stage name Kel. Also, in February 2008, Raquel Calderón was crowned Miss Teen Chile 2008.

Professional career

Television

Calderón, the year 2006 began her career as actress in the infantile miniseries of TVN called Karkú. The series was released on February 5, 2007, and lasted some months.

As almost all the infantile and pre-teen series on the Chilean television, Karkú also created a musical group, with the series' actors as members. The group was called Six Pack.^[1] Finally, they recorded a disc, that was released in 2007. In spite of the fact that the group did not have a main vocalist, Calderón made herself the main member attracting most attention, probably because she was relatively better known than the others. Six Pack, that debuted on stage on July 21, 2007, received mixed reviews.

Due to the group's success, Kel's recording company started preparing a solo career for her. She began taking singing and guitar classes with the Uruguayan singer and musician Gonzalo Yáñez.^[3]

At the end of the year, her producing company My Friend obtained a contract with the television channel Canal 13 for a new juvenile teleseries called Antonia. The contract with a rival network displeased TVN.

On January 2, 2008, conflicts between Raquel, her father Hernán Calderón, and the My Friend Entertainment producing company resulted in an abrupt termination of her contract. Her participation in Karkú, Six Pack and Antonia was cancelled.

Music

But a little later, Calderón announced that she would begin a solo career as a singer under the stage name Kel, with Gonzalo Yáñez as her producer. On January 14, Kel filmed her first solo music video for her first solo single, "Tenerte Cerca", in a Santiago mall.^[4] The video was directed by Esteban Vidal. Radio stations started to rotate the song a few days prior.

In February 2008, Raquel was crowned Miss Teen Chile 2008.

On March 16, 2008, Kel was an opening act for Belinda at her Movistar Arena (then Arena Santiago) concert. She sang 6 tracks from her album.^[1]

On July 3, 2008 Kel released her first solo album, No Molestar!.^[2][5] The album was produced by Gonzalo Yáñez and released via Feria Music Records.^[2][6][7] No Molestar! was announced during the Viña del Mar International Song Festival but was delayed due to some setbacks.^[8]

Punks incident

At the release of her first disc No Molestar!, Chilean punks gathered outside the record shop in Santiago where Kel was going to release the album. The punks gathered to protest and express their disapproval of Kel's song "Me Creo Punky" ("I believe I'm a punk"), a pop song whose music video features Kel and other people dressed and behaving like punk stereotypes. The punks threw objects from the street into the music store and police had to be called to the place. Despite the police action, the release event had to be cancelled. Kel later declared she was not scared by the punks.^[9]

University

Currently, Kel is a law student.^[10] She entered the Faculty of Law of the University of Chile in 2010.

Controversy

Raquel Calderón (Kel) does not compose her own songs, they are composed by the singer-songwriter Gonzalo Yáñez. The autograph session dedicated to the releases of her first album and the single "Me Creo Punky" on July 3, 2008, was cancelled due to the large gathering of punks who came to protest against the song "Me Creo Punky".

Discography

Singles

• "Tenerte Cerca"
• "Me Creo Punky"
• "Simplemente"
• "Walk Away"

Studio albums

• 2008: No Molestar!

Awards

Year	Nominee/work	Award	Result
2007	Raquel Calderón	BKN Awards 2007, Actriz joven más BKN	Nominated
	Six Pack (group)	Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica, Mejor artista nuevo centro	Won

References

1. "Raquelita Calderón lanzará disco solista teloneando show de Belinda en Chile". La Tercera (in Spanish). La Tercera. 2008-01-26. Archived from the original on 2008-02-13. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
2. "Kel lanza su primer disco como solista". La Tercera (in Spanish). La Tercera. 2008-06-20. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
3. "Quieren lanzar a Raquelita como solista". Terra.cl (in Spanish). TKG.cl. 2007-09-29. Archived from the original on November 21, 2007. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
4. "RAQUELITA GRABA VIDEO CLIP EN MALL" (in Spanish). Terra.cl. 2011-01-14. Archived from the original on January 25, 2008. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
5. "Kel: "El disco se llama No molestar, porque viene con hartos prejuicios"". La Tercera (in Spanish). La Tercera. 2008-07-03. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
6. "El íntimo encuentro de Raquel Calderón y Paolo Meneguzzi" (in Spanish). 2009-02-23. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
7. "Feria del Disco - Kel - No Molestar album details" (in Spanish). Feria del Disco. Archived from the original on July 9, 2008. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
8. "Por fin Kel lanza su anunciado primer disco: "No molestar!"" (in Spanish). Empresa El Mercurio S.A.P. 2008-06-19. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
9. "KEL Y LA ENEMISTAD DE LOS PUNKIES: "HAY COSAS MÁS IMPORTANTES POR LAS QUE SALIR A MANIFESTARSE"" (in Spanish). Terra.cl. 2008-07-04. Retrieved 2009-08-06.
10. "Raquel Argandoña se quiebra en pantalla al hablar de duro incidente protagonizado por su hija". Empresa El Mercurio S.A.P. 2011-03-14. Retrieved 2011-08-06.

External links

• Kel's official (?) MySpace (Spanish)
• Raquel Calderón Argandoña on Twitter
• Kel at last.fm
• Backstage Kel Calderón (CARAS.cl)