Early life

Daniel Noriega was born on September 29, 1989 in Azusa, California. He is the youngest of five children in his family, having two older brothers and two older sisters. His ethnicity is primarily Mexican-American, with some German and Native American ancestry.

Career

2008: American Idol

In 2008, he appeared on the seventh season of American Idol, making it to the semi-finals. He became known for his flamboyant personality and sassy rapport with the judges, notably a comment towards judge Simon Cowell, which later went viral. After watching him on Idol, Rosie O'Donnell invited Noriega to perform on her R Family Vacations cruise. Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres also invited Noriega to be a guest on her show.

Performances:

Stage

Theme

Song choice

Original artist

Result

Audition

Singer's Choice

"Proud Mary"

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Advanced

Hollywood

Singer's Choice

"When I Need You"

Albert Hammond

Advanced

Top 24

The 1960s

"Jailhouse Rock"

Elvis Presley

Safe

Top 20

The 1970s

"Superstar"

Delaney & Bonnie

Safe

Top 16

The 1980s

"Tainted Love"

Gloria Jones

Eliminated

2009-14: RuPaul's Drag Race and Till Death Do Us Party

Following American Idol, Noriega became a YouTube personality, performing skits as himself, in drag as Adore Delano, or as his other character, Angel Baby. In June 2009, Noriega released the music video for his song "24/7," featuring Diamonique, his sister.

After seeing RuPaul's Drag Race contestant Raven perform at the nightclub Micky's in West Hollywood, Noriega was inspired to enter a drag competition at the club, later winning it. Following the win, Noriega started performing in Southern California as Adore Delano. Along with other RuPaul's Drag Race contestants, Adore walked the Marco Marco runway for Los Angeles Fashion Week in 2013.

In December 2013, Logo announced that Adore Delano was among 14 drag queens who would be competing on the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race. Adore had previously competed for the season 5 fan-vote competition via Facebook, ultimately losing to Penny Tration. Despite a slow start to the competition, Delano eventually went on to win three challenges, the joint most of the season. She became a member of the final three and in the season finale, was ultimately named co-runner up along with Courtney Act, losing out to Bianca Del Rio.

Immediately following the finale of Drag Race, Delano released the single "DTF" on May 20, 2014, as the lead single from her debut album "Till Death Do Us Party". The full album was released on June 3, 2014, charting at number three on the US Dance/Electronic Albums chart, 11 on the US Independent Albums chart, and number fifty-nine on the Billboard 200, making Delano the highest charting artist of any RuPaul's Drag Race contestant. Throughout the rest of 2014, Delano focused primarily on promotion for the album, releasing music videos for the majority of its tracks, including "I Adore U" which peaked at 49 on the US Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs.

In November 2014, Delano announced that a second album was in the works, that is expected to see a 2015 release.. In regards to the album's sound, she said it would be darker in content, “It’s going to be a little more serious. I’ve gone through a lot of shit this year - I fell in love, I got to travel the world, my dad passed away, I want to write about real shit. It’s darker I think, but it’s still me.” In May 2015, Delano announced she had started writing sessions for the album.

2015-present: After Party

In August 2015, Delano spoke to So So Gay, revealing that her "double album" would feature 22 songs, and will be released sometime in 2016. This was changed in a recent interview with Queen Magazine, confirming that half of the songs would be used for another album. She has performed a new song from the album, "I Can't Love You" various times on her tour. She's described it as "about not being able to give your full self to someone. It's a sad song". On November 17th 2015, Delano confirmed that her upcoming album's name was going to be called After Party. She confirmed it via twitter, and later on through Facebook. The album was put on Amazon Music for pre-order, with a release date of March 11, 2016. The first single "Dynamite" was released February 26, 2016 and her second single "Take Me There" was released March 10, 2016.

Discography

Main article: Adore Delano discography

• Till Death Do Us Party (2014)
• After Party (2016)

Filmography

Film

Title	Year	Director	Role	Notes	Ref.
Dragged	2015	Christopher Birk	Herself	In production
TupiniQueens	2015	João Monteiro	Herself	Documentary about drag queen's scene in Brazil.

Television

Title	Year	Role	Notes	Ref.
American Idol	2008	Himself
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
RuPaul's Drag Race	2014		Season 6 - Runner-up
RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked			Companion show to RuPaul's Drag Race
Chasing Life	2015	Adore Delano

Web series

Title	Year	Role	Notes	Ref.
Let the Music Play	2014	Herself
Hey Qween	2015		Episode: "Adore Delano"

Music videos

Title	Year	Artist	Director	Ref.
"Sissy That Walk"	2014	RuPaul	Steven Corfe
"Mean Gays"		Courtney Act	Kain O'Keeffe

[ Source: Wikipedia ]