MARIA VIDAL (US)

Born: 1 August 1960
Full name: Maria Elena Vidal

Maria was born in in Florida but moved to New York at some point. Here she would meet Desmond Childs and became his girlfriend. She would work at a diner and because of her resemblance to the actress Gina Lollobrigida, she got the nickname Gina. A few years later, Childs would see a song he had co-written called ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’, be a big hit for Bon Jovi. The song contains the line ‘Gina works the diner all day’. But before that Maria and Childs would release a couple of albums as part of the group Desmond Childs & Rouge. When the band broke up, she recorded ‘Body Rock’ for a film of the same name which starred Lorenzo Lomas who was probably best known in South Africa for his role as Lance Cumson in the soap opera ‘Falcon Crest’. ‘Body Rock’ would go to 11 in the UK and 48 in the US. This would be her only hit. She has done backing vocals for acts such as Aerosmith, Belinda Carlisle and Celine Dion amongst others and has seen songs she wrote or co-wrote with Desmond Childs be recorded by Belinda Carlisle and Ace of Base.

Date of entry	Song	Peak (weeks at 1)	Weeks
08-Feb-1985	Body Rock	5	15
		Total hits	1
		Total weeks	15

Biggest climber awards	1
Star rater climbs	4
Biggest fallers	0
Weeks with oldest in the charts	0
Longest run in the charts (weeks)	15
Weeks with more than 1 in the charts	0
Biggest gap between hits (weeks)	0
Top 30 points ranking	=660
Top 20 points ranking	=657
Top 30 points	260
Top 20 points	122