Jonatan Cerrada

Birth name Jonatan Cerrada Moreno
Born 12 September 1985 (1985-09-12) (age 25)
Origin Belgium
Genres Pop
Years active 2003–present
Labels BMG (2003-2004)
Sony BMG (2004-2007)
Jonatan Cerrada (born 12 September 1985 as Jonatan Cerrada Moreno) is a Belgian-born singer who became the first French Pop Idol. He has had hit singles across Western Europe especially in France, Belgium, and Spain.

Personal lifeJonatan was born in Liège, Belgium, and grew up in the city of Ans with his four siblings (Julien, Rafaël, Audrey and Rachel) and his Spanish parents María Victoria Moreno, a secretary, and Valentín Cerrada, a mechanical technician. He was eight years old when he entered the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège where he stayed until age fourteen. He speaks fluent French and Spanish.

Professional careerJonatan is the winner in the first season of A La Recherche De La Nouvelle Star. Soon after winning the competition, he released his debut single «Je voulais te dire que je t’attends», a revival of a song originally by Michel Jonasz, and then «Rien ne me changera». His debut album, Siempre 23, was released after that and was successful across France and Belgium.

He represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 singing a power ballad song, «À chaque pas», and came 15th out of 24 finalist countries.

He was invited to star as a guest role in the Spanish comedy/drama Un Paso Adelante. It was also aired in France with French dubbing, and he dubbed his own lines.

He sang the soundtrack for the French edition of the film Robots - «Mon Paradis». Soon after that, his second album La Preuve du contraire was released. In September 2005, «Libre comme l’air» was released only in Belgium.

In March 2006, it was confirmed his next single was to be «Ne m’en veux pas» which appeared on La Preuve du contraire as a duet with Ophélie Cassy. A new solo version was recorded but was never released.

In February 2007, a year after his latest single «Ruban noir» (from La Preuve du contraire) became a major download hit without any specific promotion. It is sung partly in Spanish and is about the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings.

In June/July 2007, he took the title role of Arthur Rimbaud in the semi-staged comedy musical Rimbaud, written by Richard Charest & Arnaud Kerane ([1])

He is no longer signed by the major record label that released his first two French albums. Instead, he started working on a Spanish album as independently. In May 2007, he created a new MySpace site Tercero, showcasing songs, all sung in Spanish, with a distinct Latin and R&B style. In July 2007, he signed up to the Sellaband website aiming to find «believers» willing to buy «parts» (funding) the recording of his third album. Regularly appearing in the top three of Sellaband’s charts, he managed to collect $25,000 (half of the required $50,000), before deciding to leave the website in October 2007. He stated that even though he had written the lyrics, he was not the composer of his proposed songs. The composer did not wish to give a percentage of earnings to Sellaband and was unwilling to proceed. His Sellaband blog also revealed his disappointment at being dropped by a major record company. On Sellaband, his profile, blog and updates were in English.

AlbumsSiempre 23, released on the 15th September 2003. Reached number 7 in the French charts.
La Preuve du contraire, released on the 13th June 2005. Reached number 23 in French chart.
Tercero, previously collected believers for this project on Sellaband.
SinglesJe voulais te dire que je t’attends July 2002, FR # 2, CH # 9, BE fr. # 1
Rien ne me changera, October 2003, FR # 22, CH # 61, BE fr. # 6
Non, laissez-moi le temps, March 2004, FR # 84
À chaque pas, March 2007, FR # 12, CH # 36, BE fr. # 5
Mon Paradis, download only
Libre comme l’air, September 2005, BE fr. # 28
Ne m’en veux pas, promo only
Ruban noir, download only, January 2007, BE fr. # 28