Sharlene, born Sharlene Taulé Ponciano in Santo Domingo, is a Dominican singer, songwriter and actress. She trained as a musician before she trained as anything else, and the two careers have been feeding each other for twenty years.

Two educations

She studied music with the Spanish singer María Remola and acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York. She plays guitar, piano and drums, sings mezzo-soprano, and speaks four languages.

The acting came first commercially — film from 2005, then television, then six musicals, and the part of María Teresa Mirabal in a film about the sisters. She was also the lead in the video for Bendita Tu Luz, by Maná and Juan Luis Guerra 4.40, which is the first place a Dominican audience saw her face attached to music.

What changed the balance was a children’s series. Playing Katty in Nickelodeon’s Grachi put her in front of an audience across Latin America, Europe and Asia, and the live tour that followed was the thing that let her go back to singing as a career rather than a sideline.

Toy Enamorao

She debuted as a solo artist in 2014 with Mal de Amor, a bachata cut with the Venezuelans Servando & Florentino. Aquí Nadie Toca, with Mozart La Para, followed and took two nominations at the Dominican Videoclip Awards.

Then Toy Enamorao — Mozart La Para’s record, with her and Nacho on it — went to number one on Billboard’s Tropical Songs. La Fila, the same year, put her with Don Omar and Maluma on a Luny Tunes album.

The self-titled album came in 2016. Universal Music signed her in February 2017 and Encanto arrived with it.

Viaje, and after

The singles kept coming — Me Siento Bien, Yo Pago Lo Mío, El Vecino, Lento, San Pedro, Quién Dijo Miedo, Aerofobia — with collaborators from six countries, which is a fair description of where her career actually sits.

Viaje arrived in 2020. She signed with Warner Music México in 2021 and released Todo Pasa and Dopamina.

She has also made four soundtracks — Grachi, Pasión Prohibida, Strings and Star — and sang Vives en Mí for the second of them. A Dominican singer with a Universal deal, a Warner deal and a Billboard number one is not a common thing, and neither is one who got there by way of a Nickelodeon set.