Bailon-Houghton won her first-ever Grammy Award earlier this year with husband Israel Houghton and New Breed for 'Coritos, Vol. 1'
Credit: Johnny Nunez/Getty; Karen Steyr/Disney Channel/Courtesy Everett Collection
NEED TO KNOW
- Adrienne Bailon-Houghton tells PEOPLE “The Party’s Just Begun” from The Cheetah Girls 2 deserved a Grammy
- She won her first Grammy this year for Coritos, Vol. 1 with husband Israel Houghton and New Breed, marking the first Spanish-language winner in its category
- “When we actually heard our name announced, we just screamed and cried,” recalls Bailon-Houghton
If Adrienne Bailon-Houghton could give a Grammy Award to any song by The Cheetah Girls, which would it be?
After winning her first-ever Grammy Award earlier this year for contributing to husband Israel Houghton and New Breed's Coritos, Vol. 1 album, Bailon-Houghton, 42, is looking back on how The Cheetah Girls could've fared at the ceremony.
"I have always loved the musicality of 'The Party's Just Begun,'" she tells PEOPLE, referencing the opening song from Disney Channel's 2006 film The Cheetah Girls 2. "I also think that iconic bridge of ‘chillin’ out, break it down, that’s the way…’ It's such an ultimate girl group [song]. I feel like we honored En Vogue and so many other great girl groups in that bridge."
Recorded by Bailon-Houghton and her castmates Raven-Symoné, Kiely Williams and Sabrina Bryan, "The Party's Just Begun" was released as the lead single off the Cheetah Girls 2 soundtrack and reached No. 85 on the Billboard Hot 100 at the time. The song doubled as the name of the girl group's 2006 tour, later released as a concert film and live album.
At the 68th Annual Grammy Awards in February, Bailon-Houghton took home her first gramophone trophy for Coritos, Vol. 1 in the Best Contemporary Christian Music Album category.
The album was first nominated at last year's Latin Grammys, which went down in November — around the same time the general Grammy Award nominations were announced. Upon learning of the Grammy nomination, Bailon-Houghton recalls, "We were like, 'Oh, we know. We're nominated for the Latin Grammy.' And they were like, 'No, the announcement just came out for the the Grammys. You're also nominated there.' And we were like, wait, what?"
Coritos, Vol. 1 made history as the first Spanish-language project to win Best Contemporary Christian Music Album. "There's just a really special message in there, the fact that I'm Latino and the fact that this really is proof that Latinos are the mainstream these days," says Bailon-Houghton. "Music has no language, and that something really connected with our project across the board."
Credit: Michael Buckner/Billboard via Getty
The Chef's Kiss star adds of the win, "When we actually heard our name announced, we just screamed and cried because it was me, my sister, and our childhood best friend. We literally were the triplets growing up, three girls born and raised in the projects in New York City, just standing there being honored for an album of songs that our grandmas taught us."
Bailon-Houghton is quite close with her family, and she recently partnered with Finish alongside her mom Nilda Felix to promote the detergent brand's new Finish Ultimate Quantum. "My mom is the one that taught me how to cook, but now I am teaching her some really cool ways to clean up," she says of the collaboration.
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