Kat DeLuna went back from The Bronx, US to the Dominican Republic, where she spent her time listening to Aretha Franklinand realized her potential as a singer. At the age of 12, Kat was invited by the 'Queen of Merengue', Milly Quezada, to sing with her on stage in front of a big crowd of thousands of people. She responded to an audition in The Village Voice and was accepted into an all-Latina, Hip Hop/R&B group called Swallower. In April 2004, she opened for J Records musician Cassidyas part of the all Latino girl group Swallower. Kat was accepted to the Arts High School in Newark, New Jersey under the vocal instruction of Dr. Jerry Forderhase. Kat continued to pursue her dream of becoming a solo artist and at age of 15, she entered a Coca-Cola sponsored karaoke competition. Her version of "I Will Always Love You" won the competition. After the competition, Cuban salsa singer Rey Ruiz advised Kat to start writing her own music. Kat DeLuna signed a contract with the production label, Get Money Brothers (GMB) Music Group owned by Haitian male supermodel Tyrone Edmond. Kat was finally picked up by Epic Records and is currently under both labels. She is managed by Cape Town Management. Her debut album, 9 Lives, produced by hitmaker RedOne, and written by grammy nominated songwriter Jane't Sewell-Ulepic, was released on August 7, 2007, as confirmed by Billboard.

Epic Records launched a promotional campaign for her worldwide first single "Whine Up". The song features Elephant Man. On the official website, a video of DeLuna doing a choreography to the song with Elephant Man is shown on the front page. The music video premiered on MySpace on June 20. The song was released to radios in the United States on May 15, 2007. The song has debuted at number 24 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles, equal to a #124 position on the Billboard Hot 100. It has since peaked at #29 on the Billboard Hot 100. She also had an appearance in Yung Berg's video for the single "Sexy Lady". "Whine Up" has also been released in Australia because of heavy airplay and heavy rotation on Australian TV.

"Whine Up" was used as the theme song for WWE's SummerSlam 2007 pay-per-view wrestling event. DeLuna recorded a version of "Whine Up" for the 2007 New York Mets.