InkBlog

Diana Danelys De Los Santos (born October 4, 1990), known professionally as Amara La Negra, is a singer, actress, and entertainer, and author. Diana is an Afro-Latina of Dominican descent, and is most know for her role on the VH1 reality TV show Love & Hip Hop: Miami. La Negra was dubbed by Billboard as the show’s “breakout star”, landing a multi-album record deal with BMG hours after the show’s premiere.

Early life

De Los Santos grew up in Miami, Florida as the only child of a single mother, Ana Maria Oleaga, who immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic.

Career

De los Santos’ started her musical career at the age of 4 on the Spanish language television program Sabado Gigante as a regular cast member. According to an interview with DJ Vlad, Diana was the only dark skin girl on the cast that the show has ever had in over 50 years. After her 6-year run on Sabado Gigante, Diana became a back up dancer for major Latin Artist such as Celia Cruz and Tito Puente.

During her teenage years, Diana joined an all girl group named Amara. The group struggled to stay together and eventually split up. However, Diana wanted to keep the name Amara and added the “La Negra”, meaning “black girl” in Spanish, after the question was repeatedly asked “Who’s the black girl’s of the group?”

In 2013, she released the single “Ayy” which became a hit in the Latin market. However, she has experienced difficulties being accepted in her home country due to her dark skin and afro, and was even parodied in blackface on the Dominican variety show Aquí Se Habla Español by former beauty queen Geisha Montes de Oca.

In 2018, De Los Santos became one of the main cast members on VH1’s Love & Hip-Hop Miami. Her story line explores with color-ism and eurocentrism within the Latin community, which has garnered significant media attention. The series chronicles her attempts to crossover to the mainstream American market. In the first season, she comes into conflict with light skinned Latino producer Young Hollywood after he criticizes her afro during a business meeting. In the same year, La Negra, laded a multi-album deal with BMG and then went on to release two singles, “Insecure” and “What A Bam Bam”, which was the song that went on to hit the number 8 spot on Billboard’s Latin Pop Digital Song Sales chart in March 2018.

With the release of her debut studio album ‘Unstoppable’ in 2019, Diana performed at numerous venues across the United States and Latin America including 2019 Hispanic Heritage Awards, 2019 Premios Juventud, Premio Lo Nuestro 2019, and co-hosted on the 2019 BET Live Experience with Safaree Samuels. In the same year, De Los Santos appeared as lead role in the BET movie Fall Girls directed by Chris Stokes in addition to acting in the Spanish language movie Bendecidas.

Personal life

In April 2019, Diana announced via Instagram that she is in a relationship with Bachata singer EmJay, who is the brother of Love & Hip-Hop Miami co-star, Shay Johnson.

Discography

Studio albums

Unstoppable (2019)

Singles

• 2012 “Quitate La Ropa” featuring DJ Jim Enez
• 2013 “Whine”
• 2013 “Ayy”
• 2016 “Se Que Soy”
• 2018 “What A Bam Bam”
• 2018 “Insecure”
• 2019 “Celebra” featuring Messiah
• 2019 “Otro Amor” Remix with Miriam Cruz
• 2019 “There’s No Way”

Filmography

Television

Film

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