Friends Warned Lina Santiago That Hits in the Pop World Are Few and Far Between, but the 17-Year-Old’s First Recording Is Already No. 1 in L.A.

El Monte teenager Lina Santiago was thrilled when she won a karaoke contest at the Acapulco restaurant in Downey about a year ago. It was, she felt sure, a big move forward on her way to following in the footsteps of her musical idol, Selena.

But friends warned her to be patient--that success doesn’t come overnight in the pop world.

So much for their opinion.

The 17-year-old homecoming queen at Mountain View High School has since recorded a single, “Feels So Good (Show Me Your Love),” which has jumped to No. 1 in Los Angeles. In fact, the music programmers at powerhouse radio station KPWR-FM (105.9) report that in their market research, the dance-pop hit scored higher than any song they’ve ever tested.

“It’s overwhelming,” says Santiago, clad in blue jeans, black jacket and black boots as she sits on a couch in the living room of her family’s modest home. “Everybody said, ‘This is going to take a long time. It’s going to happen slowly.’ And then it’s like--wham! . . .”

Santiago now has an album contract with MCA’s Universal Records and a business team that includes an attorney, a publicist, a personal trainer and a pair of male dancers who join her onstage when she sings “Feels So Good” during her ever-more-frequent and far-reaching club appearances.

Emilio Estefan, whose record production credits include albums by wife Gloria Estefan and Jon Secada, has called to inquire about working on Santiago’s album. So has Secada, who would like to write a song for Santiago and perhaps join her on a duet.

“She has a big future,” says Daniel Glass, who was recently named executive vice president of the new Universal label after two years as president and CEO of EMI Records, where he worked with such major personalities as Secada and Selena. “People that I trust all think she has a great feel, a great look--and an amazing voice. The important thing is surrounding her with smart people and letting her talent blossom.”

Santiago’s dramatic success with the only song she has ever recorded began last fall when a mutual friend introduced her to DJ Juanito, a respected local producer and owner of tiny Groove Nation Records.

Juanito, whose real name is Juan Lopez, was impressed by her voice--”When she sang a cappella, I said to myself, ‘This girl’s good,’ ” he recalls--and put her into the studio to record his own synthesizer-driven composition, “Feels So Good.”

The history of “Feels So Good” demonstrates how quickly--and cheaply--hits can sometimes be made in the normally slow, big-bucks world of pop music.

The song was written and recorded in less than five hours, Juanito says. Since he owns his own recording studio, he saved the normal $1,000 daily cost of renting. His only formal outlay was $25 for an acetate demo disc that he could play for club deejays. After getting good response, he had about 300 vinyl pressings made--at a cost of $1.10 each.

Among the first to hear “Feels So Good” was DJ Enrie, host of KPWR’s midday “Power Workout,” a one-hour dance show. Given a four-week exclusive to play the song last November, Enrie added it to his daily mixes.

“He started getting requests,” Juanito says, “and the next thing you know, the song blew up. I got it out to the streets [clubs] right away and the deejays took over from there.”

Bruce St. James, KPWR’s music director, later played the song for Glass, who signed Santiago and Juanito to an album deal and released “Feels So Good” as a commercial single on Universal.

Released Jan. 9, “Feels So Good” debuted on SoundScan’s Los Angeles and Orange County sales chart the following week at No. 3 and jumped the next week to No. 1, where it has remained, beating out such national hits as Mariah Carey’s “One Sweet Day” and Whitney Houston’s “Exhale (Shoop Shoop).” Nationally, the record is No. 8 on Billboard’s dance sales chart and No. 44 on the magazine’s overall airplay-sales chart. Estimated sales to date: more than 25,000 copies.

Santiago’s record, St. James says, came along at a time when the popularity of dance music has escalated in Southern California.

“Feels So Good” is the latest in a series of similar songs that KPWR’s Latino-dominated audience has helped make into hits, including C+C Music Factory’s “Robi-Rob’s Boriqua Anthem,” Planet Soul’s “Set U Free” and another DJ Juanito-produced smash, Artie the 1-Man Party’s “A Mover La Colita.”

“So much of music is timing,” St. James says. “This whole dance-music thing is just starting to take off and--bam!--here comes a really well-produced song that just screams the sound.”

Industry insiders warn, however, against raising expectations too high based on the success of one single. The pop landscape is littered with artists who were unable to duplicate splashy debuts.

“Whether she’s capturing a moment in time or whether she’s in for the long haul depends on what her next record sounds like,” Larry Flick, dance-music editor at Billboard, says of Santiago. “The next record will tell the story.”

A determined Santiago hopes to move beyond the success of “Feels So Good” by showcasing her versatility as a singer. She’d like her album to include ballads as well as more upbeat numbers, both in English and Spanish.

Confidently, she says, “I don’t want to be a one-hit artist.”