Ernesto Cortazar II was born in Mexico City into a family of composers. Ernesto's father, Ernesto Cortazar Sr., was an accomplished composer respected in his field and was named president of the Society of Authors and Composers.

When Ernesto Cortazar II was 13 he tragically lost both of his parents in a horrible auto accident. Despite tragedy Ernesto preceded with his intense studies by attending a music academy, and by age 17, he began scoring for movies.

At age 18, Ernesto completed his very first musical score for the motion picture "La Risa de la Ciudad". The main musical composition for this film was Ernesto's piano piece titled "River of Dreams." With this film, Ernesto Cortazar won the award for Best Background Music for a Latin American Film at The Cartagena Festival. Since then, Ernesto has composed musical scores for more than 500 motion pictures.

Ernesto traveled to more than 25 countries and performed his original compositions for political figures such as President Menem of Argentina, Nikita Krushev of the USSR and entertained in such prestigious venues including The Kremlin (USSR) and The Mexican Presidential House.

Ernesto's incredible performance was requested and enjoyed by many of Hollywood's biggest celebrities including Charlton Heston, Danny de Vito, Michael Bolton, Octavio Paz, and The Rolling Stones.

Ernesto Cortazar found even bigger fame being the #1 artist on the #1 music website in the world. Out of 130,000 artists Ernesto leaded the way with over 14,000,000 downloads to his compositions on MP3.com fromm 1999 to 2001 and his sites were visited for more than 4,000,000 viewers.

Including the U.S., Ernesto sold over 30,000 CD's to 69 countries without any record label, management company or agency.

In 2001, Ernesto moved from Los Angeles to Tampico, Mexico to live his last years near his family. Ernesto Cortazar II died in 2004 but his legacy remains with his music and his two sons, Ernesto Cortazar III and Edgar Cortazar, who are succesfull songwriters on the Latin Market.

The term "justmegan" plain and simply began as a stage name that was used to represent an 18 year old girl, Megan Carlson, a singer/songwriter from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. This name has remarkably evolved from a one-woman-band to a tight, rock and blues group, with each member offering an essential, irreplaceable talent.

You might ponder, "is that a typo?" No! You have read correctly. "justmegan," all lowercase letters and one word, to boot, is completely deliberate. What started as a clear indication of a young woman establishing herself in the musical world, has grown into a close-knit group of musicians completely using their individual talents to accentuate her original songs. Together, they have created a very unique sound that blends blues, rock, and indie music with influences from various other genres to become quite the musical force. The name was originally intended, "Just Megan." to be certain people would know there was, in fact, just Megan: her guitar, her vocals, and her raw implausible gift for writing deep, melodic songs of well beyond her years. Her paradigms were entirely shifted, as her hopes of having a full band to support her music had finally come to pass. "I love to create independently. But, by no means am I the lime-lighter type. I firmly believe that as an artist, you have to be willing to be a team player and work together and compromise. You can't do it all on your own. When that begins, sadly, it's reflected in your music. They don't say two heads are better than one for nothing!" Carlson chuckles. "Besides, there's no feeling better than other musicians wanting to play TO you! It's easy to go strictly acoustic all the time," she articulates.

In June of 2006, the band released their first album as a unit, Blue Avenue, gaining a whole new entourage of fans and radio stations, as well as a well-known author from Alabama, "Quillan." "[The album] is a well "put-together" project [with] excellent music, well written lyrics, and good photo work. I highly recommend it," he raves.

In addition to writing and performing inimitable tunes for all types of listeners, the band is extremely passionate towards using music to benefit assorted organizations. In the past, a track off their debut album was featured on a compilation disc to benefit cancer research. Most currently, the band is working with Illumina Records. Their latest endeavor was participating in a "Rockers for Life" campaign to promote drunk driving awareness.

As if this now 22 year old front woman for "justmegan" isn't busy enough with creating music, she is a recent college graduate teaching elementary students, in addition to creating digital art for an accomplished author, while continuing to photograph as a side hobby. Her vocals have been compared to those of Pat Benatar, Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac, Tracy Chapman, Chrissy Hynde of the Pretenders, Blondie, Joan Jett, Jewel, Ani Difranco, Lisa Marie Presley, and most recently, Aimee Mann.

Currently, the band has just released their second album, I Get What I Want, and their music is being played on over 100 FM radio stations, as well as numerous Internet stations, podcasts, and XM/Satellite radio. For more information, or to hear sample tracks, visit www.justmegan.net or check out their myspace site at www.myspace.com/justmeganmusic.

We are also currently on TONS of sites so please be sure to check them all out! (listed below)
Visit www.justmegan.net to see them all!