Lilian Garcia Biography

Lilian Garcia has done the ring announcing for some of professional wrestling’s most historic matches. Along the way, her melodious tone has become synonymous with the success of WWE’s flagship program, Monday Night Raw.

If Lilian is announcing your name, you know you have made it to the big leagues of professional wrestling. Her heavenly vocal cords have accompanied WWE Superstars to the squared circle since 1999. She has explained match stipulations, introduced new title holders and welcomed fans to the arena more times than she can remember.

In addition to ring announcing for WWE, Lilian is an accomplished vocalist. While serving as the ring announcer for Monday Night Raw from 2000 through 2009, the beautiful Diva showed off her talents with an emotional and heartfelt rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner prior to each show. She has also opened up for many professional sports teams, including the National Football League’s New York Jets, Major League Baseball’s Chicago Cubs, and the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association. The popularity of her amazing voice ultimately led to the production of her ¡Quiero Vivir!, which was released on October 9, 2007 via Universal Music Latino.

Her most revered memories, though, are of singing America the Beautiful at WrestleMania on two occasions. She belted out an emotional rendition on the first SmackDown after the September 11 attacks. Lilian’s beautiful performance of the United States national anthem helped WWE to rally suffering citizens. She always empties her heart into her singing, but there was something extra special in her voice on the memorable night in Houston, Texas.

Being as beautiful as Lilian is, it was only a matter of time before a WWE Superstar made a pass at her. In May 2005, the inevitable occurred when the mighty Viscera proclaimed his love for the sexy ring announcer. On the surface, Garcia and the wrestler formerly known as Mabel didn’t look like the prototypical couple; but inside, they shared a deep connection. Or so Lilian thought. The following month, a smitten Lilian proposed marriage to her man during WWE’s Vengeance pay-per-view event. Unfortunately for Lilian, she was ultimately heartbroken when he chose to be with The Godfather’s “Hos” rather than marry her.

Following a remarkable 10-year career with WWE, Lilian emotionally bid farewell to fans on the September 21, 2009 episode of Monday Night Raw. Thankfully, this turned out to be a two-year sabbatical and her angelic voice returned to WWE airwaves on SmackDown and once again, Raw.

Lilian Garcia Rocks WWE

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Lilian García began her career in WWE in 1999 — the sports-entertainment organization was then known as the World Wrestling Federation, or WWF — when she was hired for the role of a ring announcer. She made her first appearance on the August 23, 1999 episode of Raw Is War from Ames, Iowa.

Garcia was involved in her first angle on the September 13, 1999 edition of Raw Is War as an irate Jeff Jarrett applied a Figure-Four Leglock to the blonde beauty for announcing that he lost to Luna Vachon via disqualification. The humiliation would continue on the December 13, 1999 edition of Raw Is War. After introducing Miss Kitty for a WWF Women’s Championship Match in a pool of chocolate pudding, the titlist snatched the microphone from Garcia to tell her that she was now known as The Kat. Moments after the contest began, X-Pac showed up in a diving suit complete with flippers, a snorkel and goggles. While the D-Generation X member was adjusting his goggles, Tori jumped on his back causing both of them to fall into the pool. With X-Pac landing on top of Tori, this allowed Miss Kitty to score an easy pinfall victory. Garcia announced the winner as Miss Kitty, infuriating the WWF Women’s Champion. In response, The Kat shoved Garcia into the pool of chocolate pudding. The lovely ring announcer was not pleased.

While high school classmates and teachers of Garcia knew she could sing, it wasn’t until Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson found out about her amazing talent that her singing career began to blossom.

“The Rock likes to sing, too, and he found out I could sing,” Garcia revealed in an interview with the Miami Herald in 2011.

“I was talking to him one day, and the national anthem came up as a subject. I said, ‘Yeah, I sang the national anthem at my high school graduation.’ There was 600 people in the auditorium. I was in drama in high school, and I always sang in high school. So people there knew me as a singer.

“So he goes, ‘Wow. We actually play the national anthem [at house shows]; it’s always an instrumental [recording] that plays, before we go out.’ He goes, ‘I’m going to talk to the agent, and we should get you to sing the national anthem.’

“It was February 11, 2000, and I was doing my first live event [house show] because I had only done Raw, and we were in Denver. Rock mentioned it to one of the agents, and they had me sing it there that night. It went over so well that the agent had me do it that whole weekend — Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

“By Monday morning, Vince McMahon heard about it, and he mentioned it at the meeting. He said, ‘So I hear that someone took the house down and can sing. I’ve got to see it for myself. So I want you to sing it tonight.’ It was in San Jose for Raw on February 14 on Valentine’s Day 2000, and I sang it ever since.”

Garcia’s first televised performance took place on April 2, 2000, where she opened WrestleMania 2000 with America the Beautiful. Two days after the tragic events of 9/11, Garcia sang The Star-Spangled Banner during a live episode of SmackDown! from Houston, Texas.

“I got asked to do the national anthem and at first I was like, “Oh my gosh. How am I going to get through this?” No music, no nothing, because [Vince McMahon] wanted it a cappella. I said to myself, “This is bigger than me. I have an obligation. I have to do this,” Garcia said in 2013 in an interview with WWE.com recalling the event. “When you hear that recording, you can hear my voice quivering and how emotional I was. I ended up crying at the end because I was trying to keep everything together during the performance.”

García briefly feuded with fellow ring announcer Howard Finkel in August 2002 — the WWF (World Wrestling Federation) was now known as WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) — after the WWE Hall of Famer allowed the beautiful songstress to be decimated by Jamal and Rosey of 3-Minute Warning. On the August 26, 2002 episode of Raw, Garcia and Finkel wrestled in an Evening Gown vs. Tuxedo Match to be the permanent announcer of the show. Garcia came out on top with the assistance of Trish Stratus and Stacy Keibler.

Being as stunning as Garcia is, it was only a matter of time before a WWE Superstar made a pass at her. In May 2005, the inevitable occurred when the gargantuan Viscera proclaimed his love for the beautiful WWE Diva. On the surface, Garcia and “Big Vis” didn’t look like the prototypical couple; but inside, they shared a deep connection. Or so Garcia thought. A smitten Garcia proposed marriage to the wrestler formerly known as Mabel during WWE’s Vengeance pay-per-view event on June 26, 2005. Unfortunately for Garcia, she was ultimately heartbroken when he chose to be with The Godfather’s “Hos” rather than marry her.

“Do you know what it took to publicly ask Viscera to marry me? I don’t understand,” Garcia said to Maria in a backstage interview. “He was always so loving and caring and compassionate. I mean we couldn’t do the normal things that couples could do in bed ‘cuz I always had to be on (cuts herself off crying).”

The storyline was briefly resurrected the following year when Viscera proposed to Garcia on the May 22, 2006 edition of Monday Night Raw. The two, however, were interrupted by Umaga before Garcia could give her answer.

On April 2, 2007 on Monday Night Raw, Garcia was humiliated when ECW World Heavyweight Champion Bobby Lashley ripped off her blue satin frilled skirt the middle of the ring to expose her panties to the live audience and the millions watching at home. WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon, portraying his not so dissimilar from his alter ego McMahon, had attempted to hide his newly shaven bald head in between her legs and underneath her skirt. The event caused a huge surge of searches for the WWE Diva online, with searches for “Lilian Garcia” jumping 301% and becoming the fourth most searched-for term on Yahoo.com that day.

Following a remarkable decade-long career with WWE, Garcia emotionally said goodbye to fans on September 21, 2009 on an episode of Monday Night Raw. The songstress later revealed that she left the sports-entertainment organization due to burnout from the grueling travel schedule, as well as her desire to spend more time with her family.

“Leaving the WWE was one of the hardest decisions I had to make because I was very close to everyone there and loved my job, but after 10-plus years of being on the road it was time to take a break,” Garcia said in a 2010 interview with Monday Night Mayhem. “I really missed being away from my family, and that was one of the decisions I made. When my contract was up, I was like do I sign on for a new contract, or do I really want to take the time to be with my family and my new husband, and I just made that decision that it was time.”

She didn’t stay away long, however, and returned to WWE in December 2011. After serving as the ring announcer for SmackDown for three years, Garcia returned to Monday Night Raw on October 20, 2014.