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Raffaëla Paton (born June 1, 1983 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland) is a Dutch singer of Surinamese descent and the winner of the 2006 Dutch talentshow Idols.
Raffaëla moved to Assen when she was a little girl. Her mother was a famous singer in Suriname. Raffaëla's aunt is Ruth Jacott, also a famous Dutch singer who represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest of 1993. Before she participated in Idols, she worked as a hostess in a restaurant in Emmen.
Raffaëla amazed many by admitting her love to Henkjan Smits, one of the judges in Idols, what turned out to be a joke later on. On January 31, 2006, Raffaëla reported to be pregnant. The father of the baby is her current boyfriend; Paul van der Vlugt, also from Emmen, whom she was seeing for four months at the time. The baby was born August 24 and is called: Beautifull Hope (double-ell was intentional).
March 11 2006 was a big day for Raffaëla; The grand finale of "Idol 2006", a Dutch imitation of hit reality TV show Pop Idol. Raffaëla won Idols with 58% of the total votes, beating favourite Floortje. After the show, RTL 4, the broadcaster of Idols, reported that Floortje was winning the contest, until Raffaëla sung "Right Here, Right Now (My Heart Belongs to You)", which was going to be the debut single of the winner of Idols. The song is a cover of Agnes Carlsson, the Swedish Pop Idol.
On April 21, 2006, Raffaëlla's debut album Raffaëla was released. The album contains 12 songs she sung during her Idols career and two new songs about pregnancy. The album debuted at #1 in the Dutch Album Top 100.
On August 24, 2006, Raffaëla delivered her first daughter, named Beautifull Hope. Inspiration for the name is from the 2004 You Got Served movie, where a black little girl appeared in and said "My name is Beautifull, with two L's". Raffaëla and her boyfriend Paul found this hilarious and named the baby after the child.
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