India

India – also known as [i]La India[/i] in the latin music industry. Born on March 9, 1969 as Linda Viera Caballero, in Río Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and raised in the Bronx, New York City, USA. Worked as backing vocalist on latin-freestyle artists [a=TKA]'s track "[r=98844]" (1986), even featuring on its back cover, when she was 14. Then under the tutelage of producer [a=John "Jellybean" Benitez] on a couple of tracks including her track "[r=264534]" (1988) (with co-producer [a=Louie Vega] who she had been introduced to in her mid-teens, and would later go on to marry in 1990, though divorce in 1996). Signing briefly to [l=Reprise Records], who supposedly planned on making her the Latin version of [a=Madonna] –Jellybean's other main find earlier in his career– where both Jellybean and Louie Vega produced her album "[r=1458694]" (1990). However, it wasn't until her major involvement in the music business working with [a=Louie Vega] and [a=Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez] on various projects mainly in the mid-1990's whilst in her twenties, for which she achieved great success. The three tracks of note during this time were as [a=Masters At Work] with "[r=18862]" (1993), and "[r=1218441]" (1997), along with their [a=Nuyorican Soul] project track "[r=42801]" (1997). Alongside work on latin-house music into the early 2000's, she also became more involved in the more purist latin arena around the late 1990's, and in fact on these projects the name La India was generally used. Whilst moving her career and concentrating on latin music, she built quite a reputation as 'The Princess Of Salsa' garnering three Grammy Award and two Latin Grammy Award nominations. She has collaborated with her godmother [a=Celia Cruz], and many other artists like [a=Marc Anthony], [a=Gloria Estefan] and even [a=Tito Puente], releasing several albums of her own.