RBD

RBD was a Latin pop group from Mexico that gained popularity from Televisa's soap opera Rebelde, and found international success from 2004 until their separation in 2009. RBD has sold over 60 million Records worldwide, making them the most successful Latin pop group of all-time.

In November 2004 they release their debut album titled Rebelde. In September 2005 they release their second studio album, Nuestro Amor, receiving their first nomination in the Latin Grammy Awards. In 2006 they release their third album, Celestial. The album's lead single, "Ser o Parecer", topped the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart for two consecutive weeks. In the same year they released their first English album, Rebels. In 2007 they released Empezar Desde Cero, being nominated again in the Latin Grammy Awards, and finally in 2009 their last album entitled Para Olvidarte De Mí. The members are popular Mexican actors and singers Anahí, Dulce María, Christian Chávez, Alfonso Herrera, Christopher von Uckermann, and Maite Perroni.

The band was officially formed on October 30, 2004, and on August 15, 2008, RBD announced through a press release that they would disband in March 10, 2009.

2004–05: Rebelde and Nuestro Amor
RBD (abbreviation for "ReBelDe") was formed on October 30, 2004, following the premiere of the Mexican soap opera, Rebelde. The members were Dulce María, Anahí, Maite Perroni, Christian Chávez, Alfonso Herrera, and Christopher von Uckermann. The band released their debut single, "Rebelde" was released exactly one month before they were put together. Their first album Rebelde, was released on November 11, 2004 by EMI. All four singles were number one hits in Mexico.

Rebelde sold well in the United States, reaching #95 on the Billboard 200 and reaching number two on the Latin Albums chart. In July 2005 a live CD/DVD, Tour Generación RBD En Vivo was released documenting their tour around Mexico (45 sold-out concerts across the country, including sixteen in Mexico City alone).



They released their second studio album, Nuestro Amor on September 22, 2005. This album set new record sales in Mexico, selling 127,000 copies on its release day, and ←160,000 copies within its first week. In the U.S., the album topped the Latin Albums Chart for 3 weeks and peaked at #88 on the Billboard 200. The first four singles reached number one in Mexico. In the United States "Nuestro Amor", "Aún Hay Algo" and "Este Corazón" charted on the Hot Latin chart at #6, #24 and #10 respectively.

With the success of Rebelde, the group used the hiatus between the first and second season to release Nuestro Amor, which included twelve songs plus "Una Canción" (a live recording), and "Liso, Sensual" (a studio version of the song previously performed on their last tour).

2006 also brought RBD a nomination for the Latin Grammy Awards in the category "Best Pop Album by a Group or Duo" for Nuestro Amor. They performed a new version of "Tras de Mí" at the ceremony.

In November 2005 a Portuguese language version of their debut album was released under the title Brazilian Edition. In early 2006, RBD went on tour around the U.S. for the first time. The tour was recorded and released as a CD/DVD in April under the title Live in Hollywood. It peaked at number 6 on the Latin Albums Chart. Since that year, former pop-rock singer Lynda Thomas, officially became a recurring contributor for RBD, she had been working uncredited with the band since their debut album, but the first song that was credited to her, was the single "No Pares", written by Lynda herself and performed by Dulce María.
 * Rebelde (versão Brasil) and Nosso Amor Rebelde

In May 2006, they released a Portuguese version of Nuestro Amor, entitled Nosso Amor Rebelde, intended for the Brazilian market. Nosso Amor Rebelde is their second album in Portuguese. Released only in Brazil, the album contains Portuguese versions of 11 songs from Nuestro Amor.

2006: Celestial and Rebels
In November 2006, they released their third studio album Celestial produced and directed by Carlos Lara which debuted at number 15 in the Billboard 200, marking first-week sales of over 137,000 copies in the U.S.

2006 also brought RBD a nomination for the Latin Grammy Awards in the category "Best Pop Album by a Group or Duo" for Nuestro Amor. They performed a new version of "Tras de Mí" at the ceremony.

In November 2005 a Portuguese language version of their debut album was released under the title Brazilian Edition.
 * Rebelde (versão Brasil) and Nosso Amor Rebelde

In early 2006, RBD went on tour around the U.S. for the first time. The tour was recorded and released as a CD/DVD in April under the title Live in Hollywood. It peaked at number 6 on the Latin Albums Chart.

In May 2006, they released a Portuguese version of Nuestro Amor, entitled Brazilian Edition, intended for the Brazilian market. Nosso Amor Rebelde is their second album in Portuguese. Released only in Brazil, the album contains Portuguese versions of 11 songs from Nuestro Amor. The album however did not have a full week of album sales, due to its Friday release. Despite this, it became their first album to peak or chart within the top 20 of the Billboard 200.

Celestial is the third album in Spanish of the Mexican group RBD, and also the first to be launched simultaneously in all the countries in which the group is known. Three singles were released: "Ser o Parecer", "Celestial" and "Bésame Sin Miedo"

One month later, in December 2006 a Portuguese language edition of the album was released for the Brazilian market called Celestial (Versão Brasil). This 3rd album in Portuguese was the first to be recorded in Brazil.

From their tour of Brazil, RBD released a DVD entitled Live in Rio. They were also honored for selling over 2.5 million copies of their albums and DVDs in Brazil. In Spain, Rebelde spent 5 weeks on the top of the charts going 3x Platinum for sales over 240,000, Nuestro Amor sold enough to be certified 2x Platinum, while Celestial, has been certified Platinum.

In December 2006, they released their first English album, Rebels which debuted at number 40 on the Billboard 200 album chart with first-week sales of 94,000 copies. With Rebels RBD won gold record in Japan for more than 250.000 copies sold. Rebels sold 3 million copies worldwide.

They were nominated twice in the category for "Latin Pop Album of the Year By a Duo or Group", with Celestial and Live in Hollywood, which were both released in 2006. They also received a nomination for "Top Latin Albums Artist of the Year" and "Latin Tour of the Year" for Tour Generación 2006. The show was held on April 26 in Miami. They won in all categories they were nominated in; Celestial was the one for which they won the "Latin Pop Album of the Year By a Duo or Group" award.

2007: Empezar Desde Cero
On March 2, 2007, Christian Chavez revealed that he is homosexual after pictures of him getting married to another man in Canada surfaced on the Internet. In a letter on the group's website, he asked fans for understanding and acceptance. After this the group worked two side-projects; Sálvame, an organization that helps homeless youth get an education and shelter, and RBD: La Familia, their new sitcom. RBD was also nominated four times in three categories for the 2007 Billboard Latin Music Awards.

The group also prepared their 2007 world tour called Tour Celestial 2007, starting in Ecuador on April 20. They were invited by Donald Trump to perform 3 songs at the 2007 Miss Universe final in Mexico City, on May 28, 2007. The group performed a medley of "Wanna Play", "Cariño Mio" and "Money Money" in the event. In June 2007, RBD recorded the video for "Bésame Sin Miedo" in Transylvania, while touring in Romania, where Celestial was also released. It was the same year they were chosen to headline, along with The Black Eyed Peas, a series of Pepsi commercials to air on South America and Spanish-speaking countries. On July 19, 2007, RBD performed their single "Bésame Sin Miedo" at Premios Juventud 2007, and also won 7 awards that night, including "Voice of the Moment" and "Favorite Concert". They had won a total of 24 Premios Juventud awards by then. RBD broke the record for most albums in the top 20 in Brazil, being with three different albums in the top 20 for the week ending January 20, 2007. The group has become such a phenomenon they have been nominated as best international song of "Tu Amor" in France proving their huge success. In a recent interview with Christopher in Mexico he stated that it has always been an honor to be compared to Menudo and Timbiriche but mentioned that RBD over passed those 2 groups accomplishing a lot more in only 5 years, being the only Mexican group ever to expand throughout the world.(RBD: World Wide Phenomenon)

The first worldwide "RBD Day" was held on October 4, 2007. RBD celebrated the day with many fans in Houston, Texas, and during their press conference they confirmed that their fourth Spanish studio album would be titled Empezar Desde Cero, produced again by Carlos Lara and Armando Avila. The first single from Empezar Desde Cero, "Inalcanzable", debuted on October 2007 and peaked at #2 in Mexican charts. Empezar Desde Cero was released November 20, debuting on #1 on the Billboard Latin Charts, and peaking at the top 5 in a variety of countries such as Brazil (being their first album not to top the charts in that country, peaking at #3) and Mexico. As of November 2008, Empezar Desde Cero had sold over 1 million copies worldwide. It was also voted by Billboard Readers as the third best album released in 2007.

2008–09: Best Of RBD and Para Olvidarte De Mí


In April 2008, RBD performed a concert for Brazil's capital city, Brasília's 48th Birthday Celebration Party. The free concert was held at the city's main park and had an audience of over 500,000 fans. Still on April, RBD was stated to be the first artist ever in the history of Slovenia charts to have 6 different albums in the Top 10 at the same weekend.

On August, 2008, the 2008 Latin Grammy nominations were announced, with RBD being nominated for Best Pop Album with Empezar Desde Cero.

On August 14, 2008, they released the album of the greatest hits:RBD-The Best of.

On August 15, 2008, RBD announced through a press release that they would disband in 2009. The group's manager, Pedro Damian, explained that, although there weren't any fights among the members, it was decided to be the best that they should disband, for the members were already planning different solo activities.

Herrera and Perroni were occupied with their television projects (Perroni as the protagonist of Cuidado con el ángel and Herrera with the TV Series Terminales). Chavez was in the middle of a tour with the musical Avenue Q's Mexican stage production, and was planning to build his career as a solo artist, actor and producer. Anahí managed her own clothing store in Mexico City and began an organization to help those with eating disorders. Dulce María was involved with the shooting of a movie "Alguien a visto a Lupita"and a variety of projects, such as dubbing a cartoon character in a Mexican motion picture. Later, Uckermann starred in the TV show Kdabra, produced by Fox in Colombia.

On November 25, RBD released Best Of RBD (in Brazil: Hits Em Português; in U.S.: Greatest Hits), a CD/DVD featuring their singles and a DVD with music videos, as part of their goodbye. A Portuguese version of the album was also released.

Para Olvidarte De Mí was the last RBD album to be released. It was released March 10, 2009. It is preceded by the first single "Para Olvidarte De Mí". On December 2, 2009 the live concert DVD, Tournée do Adeus, was released, containing the group's last show in Brazil. The DVD was recorded in São Paulo.

Documentary about the group
In late 2012, it was announced by Pedro Damián, told the Televisa channel, that the group would return to the stage in 2013. According to Damian, the project was to do something amazing and interesting: "Let's talk to them. Let's convince them to do something amazing, something interesting." He stated he was determined to revive the picture band and he would be chatting with members; trying to convince them to do a reunion. Following Damian's statements, Dulce María said in an interview with Televisa that it was too early for a comeback; however, she did not rule out the possibility of ever doing a reunion with her former teammates. "I do not know about the future," she stated in the interview. "[B]ut right now there's no way. Each of us is focused on his or her career. It's still very early. But don't say never." Around the same time, in an interview for MTV Brasil, Christian Chávez said it was possible for a return in 2014, and this was confirmed by Damían. On July 27, 2013, However, there was no official statement from Dulce, Herrera, Uckermann, Anahi or Perroni of this occurring or a set date.

With resistance from some members, producer Pedro Damián decided to develop a documentary about the group in celebration of the sextet's ten-year anniversary. In an interview with Televisa channel, the producer said he'll have something more concrete on the project later in the year. "I have something like 800 hours of recordings... We are already working."

Members

 * Vocals
 * Anahí
 * Dulce María
 * Christian Chávez
 * Alfonso Herrera
 * Christopher von Uckermann
 * Maite Perroni
 * Band


 * Charly Rey — Guitar
 * Eddie Tellez — Keyboard and piano
 * Gonzalo Velazquez — Guitar and viola


 * Guido Laris — Bass, musical director and vocalist
 * Luis Emilio "Catire" Mauri — Percussion
 * Mauricio Bicho Soto Lartigue — Drums

Spanish discography

 * Studio albums
 * 2004 — Rebelde
 * 2005 — Nuestro Amor
 * 2006 — Celestial
 * 2007 — Empezar Desde Cero
 * 2009 — Para Olvidarte De Mí

Bilingual discography

 * Studio albums
 * 2005 — ''Rebelde (Edição Brasil)
 * 2006 — ''Nosso Amor Rebelde
 * 2006 — ''Celestial (Versão Brasil)
 * 2006 — Rebels

2005: Tour Generación RBD
Tour Generación RBD was RBD's first national tour. It spawned 80 sold out dates in Mexico, they visited Monterrey three times gathering over 150,000 fans. The tour was certified by OCESA as the fourth most rapidly sold tour in Mexico, behind The Cure's 2004 Sing to the Deadly Mouse Trap Tour (#1), Britney Spears' 2002 Dream Within a Dream Tour (#2), and Backstreet Boys 2001 Black & Blue Tour (#3). The tour started on May 13, 2005 in Toluca, Mexico, and ended on December 18, 2005 in Lima, Peru. The band first international concerts took place in Colombia with much success, they performed first in Medellin in front a crowd of 30,000, later in Cali in front of more than 50,000 being the group's highest attendance concert in Colombia and later in Bogota.

2006–07: Generación World Tour
The Generación World Tour began in the United States in March 2006, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with a crowd of more than 68,000 fans – a record-breaking act for a Latin group and a sure sign of their widespread success. 694,655 tickets were sold in 2006 accounting for North American Shows worth a total of $23,600,000 worldwide tickets sells reached 749,485 they came in as the 14th top selling act of 2006 worldwide. RBD did a stadium tour through Brazil. They were the first Mexican pop group to perform in big venues such as Maracanã and Morumbi which are usually used by global pop stars, such as Madonna, U2, The Rolling Stones and Michael Jackson.
 * RBD Tour Brasil 2006

2007–08: Celestial '07 World Tour
Celestial '07 World Tour is RBD's third tour where they performed in America and Europe and South and Central America. On June 22, 2007 RBD filmed their concert in Madrid, Spain(40.000+ attended the concert) for a DVD called Tour Celestial 2007: Hecho en España. In early October, it was confirmed by Roptus.com that the rest of the tour would be postponed until further notice. The reason the website gave for these actions was that RBD wants to give their audience a much well deserved show by performing some songs off their new album, Empezar desde Cero, which was released on November 20, 2007. RBD Grossed $5,400,000 alone on North American dates only and a combined total of 293,742 Tickets WorldWide.

2008: Empezar Desde Cero Tour
The Empezar Desde Cero Tour began in Hildalgo, Texas on February 2008, at the Dodge Arena. In late 2007, their Celestial Tour 2007 in the United States was rescheduled until February 2008 and became part of their new tour, Empezar Desde Cero Tour. La Nueva Banda Timbiriche was their opening act in the United States. The tour is taking place in the United States, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Spain, Slovenia, Serbia, Dominican Republic, Romania, and many other countries in South America, and Europe. RBD performed in Brazil for over 500,000 people, breaking the Rolling Stones's record. In September, they did a series of concerts in Slovenia, the first concert was sold out in only 30 minutes breaking records. Poll Star released the top 100 selling concerts for the mid year 2008 RBD came in number 49 with 166,839 Tickets sold from 1/1/08 to 6/30/08.. Third Quarter sales from Pollsatr ranked RBD at number 48 out of 100 with 301,015 tickets sold from 1/1/08 to 9/30/08. PollStar Year end sales from 1/01/08 to 12/31/08 showed RBD with a total of 367,346 tickets sold for 2008. RBD pulled in 4.4 million dollars worth of ticket sales in from there North American dates.

2008: Gira Del Adiós World Tour
The Gira Del Adiós World Tour was a world tour by Mexican group RBD. The tour was set to visit South America, North America and Europe and it started on November 1, 2008. The tour ended on December 21, 2008.

On August 14, 2008 the group RBD announced its last tour, named Gira Del Adiós or Tour Del Adiós. The tour itinerary included about 20 cities in countries such as Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Paraguay and Chile, and Brazil. In November 2008 the group began the tour in the following cities: La Paz (Bolivia), Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Rosario (Argentina). In December, RBD concerts were held in the cities of: Los Angeles (United States), Guayaquil (Ecuador), Quito (Ecuador), Lima (Peru), Santiago (Chile), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Bucharest(Romania), Belgrade (Serbia), Madrid (Spain). The last presentation of "Gira Del Adiós" occurred on December 21 in Madrid, as well as the final farewell of the phenomenon, RBD.

In Brazil, the tour was called "Turnê Do Adeus". The first five presentations in the country were held soon after the presentations in Argentina.
 * Turnê Do Adeus.

As in Fortaleza, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro with 30 000 persons and more than 25 000 in São Paulo (Where was the last recorded live DVD of the group, entitled "Tournée do Adeus.") and Brasília.

Legacy
RBD was one of the most important phenomenon of Latin pop culture in the 2000s despite their short transition in music scene, the cultural phenomenon led by the soap opera Rebelde and the pop music group RBD, accompanied by advertising strategies and artistic from 2004 to 2009 first in Mexico and then in Latin America meant the recognition from the young audience who followed the adventures of the group massively, leaving a legacy of six studio albums, two TV Series and multiple recognitions. On March 2, 2007, the world knew about the sexual orientation of Christian Chávez, who through a statement spoke about this, after photos of his marriage with the Canadian BJ Murphy came out. The RBD member became the first openly gay Mexican international singer. 4 October, it was selected as the RBD World Day since on that date in 2004 the Soap Opera Rebelde was released in Mexico.

Fundación Sálvame
After the accident in Brazil where thousands of RBD fans ran to a van thinking RBD was inside of it and while it happened 43 people were injured and 3 people were killed in February 2006, the Mexican group RBD launched "Fundación Sálvame" (the "Save Me Foundation", named after one of their songs) to help street children. It began operations on May 1, 2006, The foundation serves Mexico, Brazil and Spain. Later during the Celestial tour they spoke about the incident and said "it is something that struck us all they didn't tell us what happened until we were on are way back to Mexico and to know that your fans were killed at your concert is a horrible feeling"

Awards and nominations

 * Awards