Lilian Garcia

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Lilian Garcia
An image of Lilian Garcia.
Statistics
Ring name(s) Lilian Garcia
Billed height 5 ft 6.5 in (1.69 m)[1]
Billed weight 110 lb (50 kg/7.9 st)
Born Florence, South Carolina, United States[1]
Resides New York, New York
Billed from New York, New York
Debut August 23, 1999

Lilian Annette García[citation needed] is an American singer and ring announcer. She is currently employed by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), as the lead announcer for their Raw brand.

Contents

Early life and career

García resided in Madrid, Spain for the first eight years of her life due to her father's employment with the American Embassy, and was schooled on an American military base, leading her to describe herself as a "military brat".[2][3] Upon returning to the United States, Garcia graduated from Irmo High School in Columbia, South Carolina. She went on to attend the University of South Carolina, graduating cum laude.[1]

García was a top ten finalist in the Miss South Carolina beauty pageant.[1] Garcia was also one half of a popular morning show on radio station WYYS,"YES 97" in Columbia with Chuck Finley in the early 90's. She was a VJ in Atlanta, Georgia, where she also had a drive-time afternoon radio show. Garcia appeared in the 1990 movie Modern Love as a singer.

Singing career

García singing the United States National Anthem at a WWE event.
García singing the United States National Anthem at a WWE event.

García began singing at an early age, and began taking part in singing contests alongside her sister at the age of five.[4] Garcia served as karaoke host at the Nitelites nightclub in the Embassy Suites Hotel in Columbia, South Carolina, and later at the West Columbia Ramada. She often sings the national anthem at home games of the NBA's Phoenix Suns and has performed at the 1996 Summer Olympics, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, and as an opening act for James Brown.[citation needed]

García released her first single, "Shout", in 2002. In November of that same year, she recorded Torrie Wilson's theme song, "Need A Little Time", for the WWE Anthology album. In January 2004 WWE released the album WWE Originals which included a new track from Garcia that was inspired by Paul Brown, entitled, "You Just Don't Know Me At All". This became Garcia's WWE theme song for WWE live events. Out of all the musicians who have opened WrestleMania events (most commonly singing "America the Beautiful"), Garcia is one of two singers to have sung the opening song at WrestleMania more than once. Aretha Franklin is the other.

García has been working on a debut solo album with producers George Noriega and Tim Mitchell since 2005. In January 2006, she recorded a duet with Latin pop singer Jon Secada.[5] On RAW in August, she announced that the title of her album would be Quiero Vivir, Spanish for I Wanna Live. It was released on October 9, 2007.[6]

Professional wrestling career

García has been the ring announcer for Monday Night Raw since 1999.
García has been the ring announcer for Monday Night Raw since 1999.

García was hired by the World Wrestling Federation as a ring announcer in 1999. She made her debut on the August 23, 1999 episode of Raw is War in Ames, IA.[7] She was involved in her first angle on the September 13, 1999 episode of RAW is WAR, when Jeff Jarrett applied a figure four leglock to her after she angered him by announcing his loss by disqualification to Luna Vachon.[8]

García sang in the WWF for the first time on February 14, 2000 at a house show, and began singing The Star-Spangled Banner at television tapings later that month.[4] Her first televised performance was on April 2, 2000 where she opened WrestleMania 2000 with The Star-Spangled Banner. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Garcia sang The Star-Spangled Banner on the September 13, 2001 episode of Smackdown!, receiving a standing ovation. In the course of the evening, Garcia commented on the attacks, saying "Well, to say the least, this has been a real roller coaster of a week. And especially because I live in New York City. Um, I have loved ones there, and I'm just very fortunate and very glad that a specific one didn't get to go to his meeting at 8:30 in the morning that he was supposed to be at the Twin Towers, and uh...so I thank God for that, and I still don't know about a lot of my friends. I have...uh, we'll be finding out, I guess, little by little. I pray for everybody there...".[9]

In mid-2002, García briefly "feuded" with rival announcer Howard Finkel after Finkel left her to be decimated by Three Minute Warning, culminating in an "evening gown versus tuxedo match" that Garcia won with the assistance of Stacy Keibler and Trish Stratus.

In June 2005, García began an on-screen romance with wrestler Viscera. The angle saw García propose to Viscera, stating that she wanted to marry him during the Vengeance 2005 pay-per-view on June 26, 2005. The angle ended at Vengeance when Viscera rejected Garcia in favor of The Godfather's "Hos". The angle was briefly resurrected eleven months later when Viscera proposed to Garcia on the May 22, 2006 episode of RAW, but was interrupted by Umaga before receiving an answer.[10]

García took part in her first major Diva publication in 2005 with the release of the Divas 2005 swimsuit magazine and related DVD Viva Las Divas of the WWE.[3]

At WrestleMania 22 on April 2, 2006, Garcia became the first female to announce at a WrestleMania event. However, Gennifer Flowers announced a sole match at WrestleMania XIV between The Rock and Ken Shamrock.

On the June 5, 2006 episode of RAW, Garcia (legitimately) suffered a sprained wrist when wrestler Charlie Haas inadvertently knocked her to the ground as she stood on the ring apron. One week later, the accident was metamorphosed into a storyline, with Haas incurring the wrath of Viscera. The storyline ended on the July 10, 2006 episode of RAW, when Viscera "accidentally" performed a Samoan drop on Garcia while confronting Haas. Garcia was removed from television for several weeks in order to sell the Samoan drop.

García took part in her second major Diva publication in 2007 with the release of WWE Divas Do San Antonio, in honor because WWE was in San Antonio for Royal Rumble. . On the April 2, 2007 episode of RAW, García's skirt was torn off by Lashley after Vince McMahon attempted to hide his newly shaven bald head under her skirt. The incident resulted in a large surge in searches for Garcia on the Internet, with searches for "Lilian Garcia" jumping 301% and becoming the fourth most searched-for term on the search engine Yahoo!.[11] She returned to announcing on the July 2, 2007 edition of RAW after taking time off to recover from a skiing injury in which she tore the ACL in her right knee. She was not fully recovered as was evident from her only announcing the first two matches from the ring and the rest from the floor.

On August 6th edition of RAW, Lilian announced her new album entitled "Quiero Vivir". Lilian then started a feud with Jillian Hall, who claimed to be a better singer than Lilian. The next week, Lilian competed in WWE Idol, a parody of American Idol, in which she sang "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra before being interrupted by Santino Marella.

Personal life

García was previously married, but is now divorced. She announced on the show "El Show De Fernando" that she at the moment was dating someone outside of WWE.[12]

García is fluent in English and Spanish.[1]

On March 17, 2007, García twisted her knee in heavy snow while skiing in Killington, Vermont, incurring a torn anterior cruciate ligament. She underwent surgery on her knee on April 5, 2007 in New York City under Dr. Amin Tehrany.[13] She returned to Raw on July 2.

García's first album, ¡Quiero Vivir!, was released on October 9, 2007.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Bio at IMDb
  2. ^ Garcia, L. (January 9, 2007). Spain Blog. World Wrestling Entertainment.
  3. ^ a b Waldman, J. (May 25, 2005). Divas don't all shine in Viva Las Divas. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
  4. ^ a b Medalis, K. (March 30, 2007). Lilian Garcia, All Grown Up. World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
  5. ^ Williams III, E. (January 13, 2006). Lilian Garcia records duet with Jon Secada. World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
  6. ^ Diva Dish: Lilian’s big week. WWE.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-28.
  7. ^ Zimmerman, C. (August 23, 1999). RAW - 23 August 1999. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
  8. ^ Zimmerman, C. (September 13, 1999). RAW - 13 September 1999. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
  9. ^ Zimmerman, C. (September 13, 2001). RAW - 13 September 2001. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
  10. ^ Tywalk, N. (June 28, 2005). Raw: A return worthy of Hollywood. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
  11. ^ Pena, D. (April 4, 2007). Ashley Cries Backstage, Lilian Garcia Buzz, Cryme Tyme. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
  12. ^ Ross, J. (April 6, 2007). Internet Rumors. Retrieved on April 7, 2007. “I know that Lilian was married...”
  13. ^ Garcia update after surgery

External links

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Persondata
NAME Garcia, Lilian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Ring announcer
DATE OF BIRTH
PLACE OF BIRTH Florence, South Carolina, United States
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH