La India

Women in salsa - women everywhere - we always gotta be defending ourselves.

I felt pressure to follow in Madonna's footsteps, and I didn't want to base my career on sex. So I began to change how I saw myself.

I don't do anything just 'cause nothing else is happening, or for money.

I loved singing rock-and-roll, jazz, anything on radio, anything commercial. I was able to do anything, but I didn't know what direction to go in.

I used to be so embarrassed by salsa; I wasn't into it.

I fight manic-depression, and I have been able to live battling that sadness that I get sometimes.

There's so many other things I want to do. I don't want to do them to be different or just for a challenge, but because my heart and soul tell me to.

My style of singing is very much Latin jazz meets Latin and a little bit of rhythm and blues. When I do ballads, my fans love it. They want to listen to my classics. They want to party.

At 14 and 15, I used to listen to Tito Puente, Dave Valentine and everything that was happening with American jazz. I love it.

I try to stay real with my thoughts and the things that I go through in life. I like being free.

Many women, sometime in their life, are going to get to a point where they have to admit infidelity.

In my music and my life, I'm honest with my feelings, and people appreciate that. That's just the way I am.