Ximena Sariñana

Biography

Ximena Sariñana Rivera (Spanish: [xiˈmena sariˈɲana]; born October 29, 1985) is a Mexican singer-songwriter and actress. In 2009, she received critical acclaim and a Grammy nomination for her debut album, Mediocre×Mediocre19 February 2008 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Mediocre4:172Vidas paralelas3:573Normal3:404La tina3:575Reforma3:256No vuelvo más4:147Cambio de piel3:538Sintiendo rara3:539Un error4:3310Gris3:0811Pocas palabras (Juan)6:1512Monitor4:23. Since 2024 she has starred as Ángeles Cruz in the Apple TV+ Spanish-language crime drama Women in Blue (Las Azules).

Early life

Ximena Sariñana was born in Guadalajara, Mexico to director Fernando Sariñana and Spanish screenwriter Carolina Sariñana Rubello and was raised in Mexico City. When she was two years old, Sariñana attended an Ella Fitzgerald concert, claiming this to be the beginning of her interest in music and one of her biggest influences. She soon started listening to other artists such as Paul Simon and Tracy Chapman. She would often be seen singing and dancing and dressed up in costumes as a child. When Sariñana was 7 years old, her neighbor, singer Cecilia Toussaint, suggested she should take singing lessons with her teacher, Ricardo Sánchez, who instructed some of Mexico's biggest talents.
She also took up piano lessons with Hanna Cot. In 1994, Sariñana acted in the film Hasta morir ('Til Death), which was produced by her father. Sariñana was educated at the Academia de Musica Fermatta, a performing arts school and Edron Academy, a private multi-lingual school, both located in Mexico City.

1996–2010: Acting and debut album Mediocre

She began her acting career at 11 as the villain, "Mariela", in the popular Mexican telenovela Luz Clarita, starring Daniela Luján as the main character, Luz Clarita. The following year, Sariñana acted in the telenovela María Isabel as Rosa Isela, with Adela Noriega as the main character, María Isabel. Her final appearance in a telenovela was in the 1998 drama, Gotita de amor (Droplet of Love) as "Enriqueta". Other important movies in which she acted were as Ximena in the 2001 film El Segundo Aire (A Second Chance), Valentina in Niñas Mal (Bad Girls), and Mariana in the 2002 blockbuster film Amar Te Duele; all of which were directed by her father and written by her mother. She also appeared in a short film called De paso in 2005. In 2007, Ximena Sariñana acted in the movie Dos abrazos (Two Embraces) directed by Enrique Begne. Dos abrazos won Sariñana an award for Best Female Actress at the 38th Diosas de Plata of Pecime awards. She also acted in the movie Enemigos íntimos (Intimate Enemies), which was released on DVD in late 2008.
Sariñana showed an interest in music from an early age. At seventeen, after earning a scholarship for a five-week program at the Berklee College of Music, she composed three songs for the soundtrack of the Mexican movie Amar te duele; she also played the part of "Mariana" in the film. Later, she performed as the lead vocalist in Feliz No Cumpleaños (Happy Un-Birthday), a Mexican funk-jazz, pop-rock band that she formed alongside old friends from the Academia de Musica Fermatta. She captivated audiences by singing "El Triste", originally performed by Mexican icon José José, during a televised performance.
Her first solo album Mediocre×Mediocre19 February 2008 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Mediocre4:172Vidas paralelas3:573Normal3:404La tina3:575Reforma3:256No vuelvo más4:147Cambio de piel3:538Sintiendo rara3:539Un error4:3310Gris3:0811Pocas palabras (Juan)6:1512Monitor4:23 was released on February 12, 2008, by Warner Music Group. The album was recorded in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Uruguay. Ximena wrote most of the songs on the album and revealed in Venus Zine's Summer 2009 cover story that, "Learning the language of my nationality was something I really wanted to achieve... so I thought maybe if I did a Spanish album it would be a good challenge." On March 28, 2008, Mediocre was certified gold by AMPROFON for selling more than 50,000 copies. Sariñana would later receive further achievement when Mediocre reached platinum status in Mexico for selling more than 80,000 copies.
The music videos for "Vidas paralelas×Vidas paralelas24 January 2008 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Vidas paralelas3:57", "Normal", and "No Vuelvo Mas" were all shot in Iceland. "Vidas paralelas" was directed by Pablo Dávila. In late June, British electronic group, Metronomy, stated that they were fascinated with her debut album Mediocre and produced a remix of "La tina". Her music video for the second single, "No Vuelvo Más", was premiered as an exclusive video on July 14, 2008, in MTV Mexico.
The album received critical praise in both Latin America and the United States. It earned a rating of four and a half stars from Rolling Stone magazine in September 2008. The album was also nominated for a Grammy for "Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album" at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards in 2009. She was later nominated for two Latin Grammy awards for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Song but lost to Kany García and Volver a Comenzar by Café Tacuba respectively.
In 2007, she contributed vocals for the song "Valenciana" in the album Extempore by the Ensenada-based nujazz band Kobol. In March 2009, Sariñana was featured as a vocalist alongside her then-boyfriend Omar Rodríguez-López with his solo group on a European tour, which resulted in the live record Los Sueños de un Higado. She also provided vocals on Rodríguez-López's solo albums Xenophanes, Solar Gambling, Ciencia de los Inútiles, Cizaña de los Amores and Tychozorente.
She and Jason Mraz released a Spanish version of Mraz's song "Lucky". The video for the Spanish-version was released to MTV on June 22, 2009. In 2012, she recorded a duet for the song, "Oceanside" by musician Alex Wong for his first solo album, A City on a Lake.

2010–2012: Ximena Sariñana

In November 2009, Sariñana was in the studio working on her second album. Her second, self-titled, album consists of English songs written or co-written by her. The album contains one Spanish-language track, called "Tu y Yo". The album was recorded in Mexico City and Los Angeles during 2009 and was completed in early 2011. It was released in North America on August 2, 2011. The album's first single, "Different×Different25 February 2011 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracks1Different3:382Tú y yo4:27", was released in June 2011. "Shine Down" was released as a promotional single in summer 2011.

2013–2019: No Todo lo Puedes Dar and "México tiene talento"

Her third studio album, No Todo lo Puedes Dar×No todo lo puedes dar4 November 2014 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Parar a tiempo4:392La vida no es fácil3:483No voy a decir que no3:314Sin ti no puede estar tan mal4:355No todo lo puedes dar4:476Ruptura4:097No vas a venir3:428Cuando mientes2:589Éste final4:1010Un amor / En medio de la noche6:4311Cuidado conmigo4:04, was recorded in Mexico City and Los Angeles in 2013. The album was released digitally worldwide on November 4, 2014.

The album's lead single is called "Sin Ti No Puede Estar Mal". The official lyric video was directed by her brother Sebastian and filmed in Mexico City in August. It was released on her YouTube account on September 18, 2014. The music video for the single premiered on Sariñana's YouTube account on October 1, 2014.
Sariñana also returned to acting, appearing in the short film, Gonzalo, alongside Alfonso Herrera in May 2014. In September 2014, she was revealed as one of the judges for the reality talent show competition, México tiene talento, the Mexican franchise of Got Talent. The program airs weeknights on TV Azteca in Mexico beginning on October 20, 2014.
In 2011, she recorded vocals for the song "Those Were The Days" by the English band McFly while they were on a trip to America to write and record songs for their 6th studio album in a duet with lead singer Tom Fletcher, as well as shot a music video for the song. The songs recorded in that time were shelved, but were eventually brought back out for The Lost Songs. Her song with them was officially released on October 27, 2019, for the album.
On March 1, 2019, she released her album, ¿Dónde Bailarán Las Niñas?׿Dónde bailarán las niñas?1 March 2019 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1¿Qué tiene?2:572No sé3:383Si tú te vas3:094Pueblo abandonado3:355Que seas tú3:316Lo bailado2:537Todo en mi vida3:248Fácil de amar (Chega pra cá)4:179Fuego4:2310Cobarde3:3511Huracán3:1112Saguaro2:45, her first studio album since 2014 and her first album since giving birth to her first child, a daughter. The album was commercially successful in Mexico and Latin America. The album was influenced by Sariñana's desire to express her femininity in Mexico's male-dominated recording industry and as a tribute to important female figures in her life, including her mother, infant daughter, and friends.

2020 to present

On April 16, 2020, she participated in a charity single for the people of Mexico, titled "Resistiré México". Her fifth studio album, Amor Adolescente×Amor adolescente4 February 2022 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 16 tracks1Ximena C1:352Nostalgia2:553TBT 4Ever2:474El aquí y el ahora2:595Todavía me recuerdas2:536Emilio0:527Una vez más4:058Bailas3:149Alduin1:3610Mr. Carisma3:5211A no llorar3:4612Annapurrna0:5813Amor adolescente3:1114Diva2:5215El amor más grande3:2616Sophia0:49, was released in October 2021, after birth of her second child in 2020.
She released a pair of EPs, Ojos Diamante in 2024 and Rompe in April 2025. The EPs are part of a trilogy with the final EP instalment, Las Cosas Simples×Las cosas simples2 October 2025 · EPSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 4 tracks1Las cosas simples3:372No es igual3:463Las tormentas3:184Viendo vemos3:19, due for release in late 2025.
Sariñana returned to acting in 2024 as Ángeles Cruz, one of four leads in Women in Blue (Las Azules), an Apple TV+ crime drama set in Mexico City in 1971. The series returned for a second season in August 2026.

Personal life

Sariñana dated musician and producer Omar Rodríguez-López for 2008 to 2011. Her brother, Sebastian, is a director and toured alongside her as a musician in her band.
In 2016, she married Rodrigo Rodríguez, a film photographer. They have two children, a daughter, Franca, born in early 2018, and a second child born in 2020. To protect her children's privacy, Sariñana does not share their photos on her social media platforms. Sariñana is fluent in Spanish and English and is based in both Mexico City and Los Angeles, California. In 2020, she was announced as the UN Women National Goodwill Ambassador for Mexico. She has spoken against femicide and gender-based violence in Mexico.

Guest appearances

Extempore by Kobol (2007)
Los Sueños de un Higado by Omar Rodríguez-López Group (2009)
Xenophanes by Omar Rodríguez-López (2009)
Solar Gambling by Omar Rodríguez-López (2009)
"Lucky / Suerte" by Jason Mraz (2009)
"Fue Por Ti" by Audifunk (2010)
Ciencia de los Inútiles by El Trío de Omar Rodríguez-López (2010)
Tychozorente by Omar Rodríguez-López (2010)
Cizaña de los Amores by Omar Rodríguez-López (2010)
Dōitashimashite by Omar Rodríguez-López Group (2010)
"TQM" by Little Jesus (2016)
"Those Were The Days" by McFly (2019)
"Bombas" by Aléman (2022)
"Pretty Is Dead" by Oh Land (2023)