Verónica Castro

Verónica Castro (born 19 October 1952), is a Mexican actress, singer, producer, former model and presenter. She is the mother of singer Cristian Castro and filmmaker Michel Castro.

She started her career as a television actress, where she met comedian Manuel Valdés, father of her son Cristian Castro, and in fotonovelas and telenovelas while earning her degree in international relations.

Two years later she played the main role in the telenovela version of El derecho de nacer. Because of her expanding fame as a world artist, she started recording her music in different languages and began to tour the world and perform in diverse venues; she also started recording in Italian, English, Portuguese, and Japanese.

In 1986, she performed in the Latin version of "We Are The World." She also released one of her most ambitious albums to date, Simplemente Todo. The top-selling singles from Simplemente Todo were "Oye Tu," the title selection, "Nunca Lo Sabra," and "Macumba." Unlike other artists of the time, however, Castro accompanied her singles with videos, becoming one of the pioneers of the MTV age in Latin America. Even as she recorded the music video "Macumba," she worked in telenovelas in Argentina and Italy.

In 1987, her career was boosted internationally when she played the main character in Rosa salvaje, alongside Guillermo Capetillo and Laura Zapata. The theme song for that telenovela, also named "Rosa salvaje," became one of her biggest hits. As her CD, "Reina de la noche," topped the charts and her soap opera became one of the world's best selling stories to date, she released another #1 single, "Mala noche no."

In 1990 Castro participated in Mi pequeña Soledad alongside Omar Fierro and July Furlong, where she had to play both a 40-year-old victim of rape who became pregnant and later was paralyzed in a car crash, and her 20-year-old daughter, the "Soledad" of the title, who was the product of the rape. Castro recorded the hit song "Mi Pequeña Soledad". The ballad opened new markets and became her theme song. In the same year, she commenced to host the television series, La Movida, which was sung also in Italian and English. After the success of the single a maxi-single and 12" mix were leaked to radio and clubs. In 1993, she starred in the unsuccessful telenovela Valentina with Juan Ferrara and Celia Cruz.