Frankie J
Template:Infobox musical artist 2 Frankie J (born Francisco Javier Bautista Jr. on December 14, 1980) is a Mexican R&B, Latin Pop, Contemporary R&B, and Adult Contemporary singer. He has had several hits in the US, including "Don't Wanna Try" in 2003 and "Obsession" in 2005. His album The One debuted at #3 on the Billboard album charts in April 2005 & later became platinum.
Early career
He was born Francisco Javier Bautista in Tijuana and raised in San Diego from the age of 2 (his uncle brought him and his siblings dressed up to trick or treat but instead of getting candy Frankie was driven across North of the border into California on the back of his uncle's pickup truck, they were never to return to Tijuana.) He comes from a musical background with his father being the lead singer of a traditional band. Frankie J grew up listening to both traditional Latin music as well as Hip hop and R&B(Stevie Wonder, Brian McKnight, Jo-Jo, K-Ci, etc.) He attended Southwest High School (San Diego, CA) for his high school years.
Spanish was Frankie J's first language and first music that he was exposed to. The rhythmic sounds of Tijuana reflected in bands such as Cumbias Rancheras and Bandas. But he did not limit himself to only Latin music, he also loved listening to the music of big name artists like Michael Jackson, Run DMC, Curtis Blow, and The Fat Boys.
Frankie J began to develop more of a interest in singing with the encouragement of his family. He began participating in talent shows when he was in high school and performing at school functions. The experience motivated him to do better and take music seriously.
As a teenager, he started listening to freestyle music by Lisa Lisa, Brenda K. Starr and George Lamond. He started writing his own songs and singing in the same falsetto style as Lamond. At 15, he signed a contract with a small Canadian independent label (Ventura Records) working as "Frankie Boy" and recorded songs which failed to achieve any success but the oppurtunity gave him more exposure and followed bigger labels knocking at his doorstep. He had a couple of songs, like "She's Leaving" and "My Precious Love" but didn't achieve much success in his music career. In 1997, he signed with Jellybean Benitez.
In the late 1990s, he joined Kumbia Kings and was a member of that successful Latin group touring throughout Latin America. As a member of Kumbia Kings (which was a Spanish-language mix of Cumbia, pop, rap, and R&B) Frankie was known as 'Cisko'. In 2000, they crossed over to an English language album and had the hit single "U Don't Love Me", the group played in front of 100,000 people in a concert in Monterrey, Mexico.
Frankie's ambitions were always directed to the American pop-music markets. In 2002 He approached Los Kumbia Kings management in an attempt to secure record deal as a solo-artist. He proposed that they record, promote, and market him to the "MTV" market. A vastly different music culture then what Los Kumbia Kings made their name in, but they declined, citing the risky investment. Frankie then shopped demos to an array of record companies, and garnered a tremendous amount of interest, but his contract with The Kumbia Kings would prove to be a problem.
Frankie asked to be his released from his Kumbia Kings contract, but they declined. Frankie bolted from the group anyway, but soon found himself in court over the matter. Lawsuits were filed from both sides, and eventually settled out of court. Details of the settlement were not disclosed.
Solo career
Frankie J signed as a solo artist with Columbia Records and released his first album What's A Man To Do in 2003 which failed to chart. His self-titled first Spanish-language album was released later in the same year. The single "Don't Wanna Try"(which he says was the song that he owes his whole career to as 'Frankie J') peaked in the top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles Chart, while "Ya No Es Igual" was top 10 on the World Latin charts.
He collaborated with Baby Bash, a relative, on another pop hit called "Suga Suga" which reached #1 in New Zealand in 2004 and was a top 10 hit in the US and Australia in the same year. Frankie J worked with a number of well known producers on The One including Irv Gotti of Murder Inc. on the title track. Mario Winans on a track called "Just Can't Say It's Love". The first single "Obsession (No Es Amor)" featuring Baby Bash has been a big hit on the US pop charts reaching the top 5 in April 2005. The One was released in the US in April 2005 and debuted at #3 on both the Billboard 200 chart. The follow-up singles "How To Deal" and "More Than Words" (released in conjunction with a DualDisc re-release of The One) continued the album's route to platinum sales. However, the fourth and final single, the title track featuring 3LW garnered few spins at radio.
Frankie J's second Spanish-language album "Un Nuevo Dia" was released on June 13, 2006. It spawned the major hit "Pensado En Ti" but wasn't popular in the US.
Frankie's third English-language CD, Priceless, was released in stores and online on October 17, 2006. This is the first time that Frankie produced any songs on his album since the release of 2003's "What's A Man To Do." The video for "That Girl" was shot in Miami in July.
Columbia quickly released the second single "Daddy's Little Girl" to radio in early November 2006. The album's third single "If He Can't Be" was released in February 2007.
Priceless has't performed poorly on the charts but the album debuted at #30 and quickly dropped off the Billboard 200 Albums chart after only 3 weeks. It reaches the Billboard 200 every other week but vanishes just as fast as it gets there, most recently the album was at #54. Priceless is RIAA certified for gold and some critics believe that the album should at least win some awards but other than that Priceless will not make alot of noise.
On February 2007 Frankie J together with Latino celebrities, including Don Omar, Paola Turbay, Edgar Lopez, Miguel Varoni, Leti Coo, and Mary GamarraTazón. He played in the National Football League (NFL) Latino I, or Latin Bowl I. This was the first nationally televised flag-football game between ex-NFL players and Latino celebrities. The game was filmed during Super Bowl week in Miami.
Frankie is currently in the studio recording more new songs. He has said in a recent interview that he is not sure if he wants to move to a new studio album or a Greatest Hits complilation. He said whatever is chosen to be done a new single will be out in July or August and the album will follow in September or October of 2007.
There are also rumors saying that Frankie J is currently working with Alicia Keys, Ne-yo, Brian McKnight, Mary J. Blige, and Angel López (the former lead singer for the Puerto Rican vocal quartet band Son by Four.) on making tracks and producing them, but these tracks most likely wont be found on his new album that will be due out by late this year or early next year. When asked about these rumors in a recent interview Frankie just said "Im not at liberty to say anything right now but I can say that it's been a dream of mine to work with some of my music inspirations from the past...& present but you're just gonna have to wait along with my fantastic fans...the best in the world."
Most people dont know that Frankie J is a talented dancer & pianist as well, he's been dancing since he was 5 years old. One of his idols in dancing on stage was of course the legend himself Michael Jackson "I use to watch him when I was a kid and I always wanted to do that moonwalk of his...He was just incredible." Frankie in his free time goes to local dance studios and works up a sweat and teaches some of the students how to do the moonwalk. He also spends time to perfect his skills on the piano, he's been playing it since his early teen years. His very own grandfather use to give him lessons with same piano he used in the music video "Daddy's Little Girl", he states that he wants to show the world his piano skills and his honor to dedication for his late grandfather.
Personal life
Frankie J is married to the mother of his two children, he has said numerous times that he's been married for years although he and his wife have separated off and on it never resulted in divorce, the two are still married.
Rumors were spread about him dating Dayanara Torres after she was in his video for More Than Words, but he has denied numerous times that this was not true.
He has two children- Frankie J III (6 1/2) and a little girl named Emily Sade (2).
He has 3 siblings, an older brother, Louie, older sister Adriana, and a younger sister Ana.
Awards/Certifications
2006 : Got nomination for ALMA Award category Outstanding Male Performer
2006 : Got nomination for Billboard Latin Music Award category Hot Latin Song of the Year, Vocal Duet for "Obsesión (No Es Amor)" shared with Baby Bash
2006 : Got nomination for Billboard Latin Music Award category Latin Pop Airplay Song of the Year, Duo or Group for "Obsesión (No Es Amor)" shared with Baby Bash
2004 : Got nomination for Groovevolt Music and Fashion Award category Best Song Performance - Male for "Don’t Wanna Try"
Discography
Albums
| Album Cover | Album Information |
|---|---|
| File:FrankieJ.90073.cov.jpg | What's A Man To Do
|
| File:FrankieJT1.jpg | The One
|
| File:938535.jpg | Priceless
|
Spanish Albums
| Album Cover | Album Information |
|---|---|
| File:Frankiejcover.jpg | Frankie J
|
| File:FrankieJUnNuevoDia.jpg | Un Nuevo Dia
|
Other Appearances
- Count on Me (on Kumbia Kings album "4")
- Dime/Tell Me [Remix] (Pitbull feat. Frankie J)
- Run Away (Bubba Sparxxx feat. Frankie J (On "The Charm" CD)
- Los Infieles Remix (Aventura feat. Frankie J
- Suga Suga and Menage A Trois (Baby Bash) feature Frankie J (on "Tha Smokin' Nephew" CD)
- Are You Still Alone (Play N Skillz) features Frankie J (On "The Process" CD)
- Be Gone (First Class Fiction) features Frankie J. www.myspace.com/firstclassfiction album out June '07
- I Love Her (Louis James)features Frankie J. www.myspace.com/louisjames album in the works on Nick Cannon's record label Can-I-Ball Records.