Lilian Garcia

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Lilian Garcia
Born (1973-08-19) August 19, 1973 (age 50)[1][2]
Florence, South Carolina, United States[1]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Lilian Garcia
Billed height5 ft 6.5 in (1.69 m)[1]
Billed weight[undue weight? – discuss]
Billed fromNew York, New York
Debut1999

Lilian Annette Garcia[1] (born August 19, 1973) is an American singer and ring announcer. She is currently employed by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and appears with the RAW brand.

Early life and career

Garcia 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".[3][4] 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]

Garcia was a top ten finalist in the Miss South Carolina beauty pageant.[1] Lilian 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

Garcia began singing at an early age, and began taking part in singing contests alongside her sister at the age of five.[5] 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 Kathy Lee and as an opening act for James Brown. [citation needed]

Garcia 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.

Garcia 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.[6]

Professional wrestling career

Garcia 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.[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]

Garcia 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.[5] 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 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, Garcia 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, Garcia began an on-screen romance with wrestler Viscera. The angle saw Garcia 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 favour 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]

Garcia 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.[4]

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 14 between The Rock and Ken Shamrock.

On the June 5, 2006 episode of RAW, Garcia suffered a sprained wrist when wrestler Charlie Haas inadvertedly 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.

Garcia took part in her 2nd 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, Garcia's skirt was torn off by Lashley expossing her black panties 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 came back on the July 2,2007 edition of Monday night Raw.

Personal life

Garcia was previously married, but is now divorced.[12]

Garcia is fluent in English and Spanish.[1]

On March 17, 2007, Garcia 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 2nd.

Quotes

  • Ladies and gentleman at this time would you please rise as it is my honor to sing our national anthem.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Bio at IMDb
  2. ^ "IMDB". Retrieved May 28, 2007.
  3. ^ Garcia, L. (January 9, 2007). "Spain Blog". World Wrestling Entertainment. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ a b Waldman, J. (May 25, 2005). "Divas don't all shine in Viva Las Divas". Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved April 7, 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ a b Medalis, K. (March 30, 2007). "Lilian Garcia, All Grown Up". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved April 7, 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Williams III, E. (January 13, 2006). "Lilian Garcia records duet with Jon Secada". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved April 7, 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ Zimmerman, C. (August 23, 1999). "RAW - 23 August 1999". Retrieved April 7, 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ Zimmerman, C. (September 13, 1999). "RAW - 13 September 1999". Retrieved April 7, 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ Zimmerman, C. (September 13, 2001). "RAW - 13 September 2001". Retrieved April 7, 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ Tywalk, N. (June 28, 2005). "Raw: A return worthy of Hollywood". Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved April 7, 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ Pena, D. (April 4, 2007). "Ashley Cries Backstage, Lilian Garcia Buzz, Cryme Tyme". Retrieved April 7, 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); line feed character in |date= at position 14 (help)
  12. ^ Ross, J. (April 6, 2007). "Internet Rumors". Retrieved April 7, 2007. I know that Lilian was married... {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ Garcia update after surgery

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lilian_Garcia&oldid=142284669"