Jonatan Cerrada

Jonatan 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 and Valentín Cerrada. He was eight years old when he entered the Opéra Royal de Wallonie (Liège) where he stayed until age fourteen. He speaks fluent French and Spanish.

Professional career

Jonatan won over Thierry Amiel 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 his second single "Rien Ne Me Changera". "Siempre 23" his debut album was released after that and was successful across France and Belgium. Months later he represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 singing "A Chaque Pas" (I still believe) 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 vocals.

He sang the soundtrack for the French edition of the film 'Robots' - "Mon Paradis". Soon after that he released his 2nd Album "La Preuve Du Contraire". In September 2005, he released "Libre Comme L'air", his fifth single to date.

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 bombing attack in Madrid, Spain on March 11, 2004.

In June/July 2007, Jonatan took the title role of Arthur Rimbaud in the semi staged musical Rimbaud by Charest & Kerane.

In May 2007 he created a new MySpace site Tercero, showcasing songs, all sung in Spanish, with a distinct Latin and R&B style. It was also apparent that he had parted company with his record company.

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, Jonatan 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. Jonatan's Sellaband blog also revealed his disappointment at being dropped by a major record company. On Sellaband, Jonatan's profile, blog and updates were in English.