Floricienta

by Jason Ankeny Argentine bubblegum singer Florencia Bertotti rose to fame as the star of the telenovela Floricienta, a Cinderella-inspired musical romance that premiered March 15, 2004, and concluded a year later. So phenomenally popular that a Buenos Aires retailer sold nothing but Floricienta merchandise, the broadcast series' end proved to be only the beginning of the attendant marketing juggernaut -- a live musical version sold out all 90 performances at Buenos Aires' Teatro Gran Rex, followed by a sold-out tour that extended from Peru to Chile to Israel. Inevitably, Bertotti recorded a series of dance-pop LPs under the Floricienta aegis, among them La Banda de Floricienta and Especial Navidad.