Fernández, Vicente

VICENTE FERNÁNDEZ

Born: Vicente Fernández; Huentitán El Alto, Jalisco, Mexico, 17 February 1940

Genre: Latin

Best-selling album since 1990: Entre el Amor y Yo (1998)

Hit songs since 1990: "Lástima Que Seas Ajena," "Aunque Me Duela el Alma," "Me Voy a Quitar de en Medio"

Known as "El Idolo de Mexico" (the Idol of Mexico) among Spanish speakers for his chart-topping albums and sold-out tours, the ranchera singer Vicente Fernández embodies the valiant Mexican cowboy that figures so largely in the Mexican psyche. Ranchera music is the quintessential Mexican song form, idealizing rural life and drenching tales of love and breakups in unrestrained emotion. Fernández nearly always performs his rancheras with a mariachi backing. His gift for using his voice to plead, to exult, to taunt, and to bare his soul is unmatched. Though not a songwriter, he has a gift for recording songs that speak to Mexico's fatalism, romanticism, and machismo. From the humblest cantinas to family get-togethers to the preppiest discos, Mexicans use his music to heal broken hearts, to bond, to reaf-firm their roots. He has inspired hundreds of imitators, but none could match his operatic power and range. His impact in ranchera is comparable to Frank Sinatra's legacy in American pop standards. Despite his many achievements, Fernández remains proud of his humble roots, as Sinatra was.

Spot Light: Las Clásicas de José Alfredo Jiménez

Vicente Fernández's defining moment on record came in 1990, when Fernández, Mexico's greatest ranchera singer, released the album Las Clásicas de José Alfredo Jiménez, a tribute to Jiménez, Mexico's greatest ranchera songwriter. Like many great composers, Jiménez drew inspiration from the tragedies in his own life. He wrote more than 300 songs in his career, many of which have become classics. His death, on November 23, 1973, plunged Mexico into a period of national mourning. The album resonates with the driving emotional force of Jiménez's words and Fernández's powerful vocals. These are gripping tales, but they are also melodic, lyrical, and richly harmonic set against symphonic-like mariachi arrangements. In "Un Mundo Raro" ("A Rare World"), Jiménez describes surviving an unrequited love to walk away a better man. With his powerful vocals Fernández delivers the message in typical macho swagger: "Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved." Cascading violins and echoing horns evoke a sentimental mood. In "Viejos Amigos" ("Old Friends"), a gesture so simple as holding hands is made to sound incredibly romantic. In a touching scene Jiménez describes looking into the beautiful, tear-filled face of the woman he loves and has never gotten over: "Let me see you crying, let me be by your side." Even the toughest macho has to be moved.

Born to a rancher, Ramón Fernández, and a homemaker, Paula Gomez de Fernández, Fernández began dreaming of a singing career early. When he was eight, he received a guitar and quickly learned how to play. At fourteen, he entered an amateur contest in Guadalajara, where he won first place. Later relocating to Guadalajara, he performed in a mariachi band that worked the city's streets. He married Maria "Cuca" de Refugio Abarca Villasenor, a neighbor, in 1963. Among their four children are sons Vicente Jr. and Alejandro, who went on to successful solo careers of their own. In late 1965 Fernández traveled to Mexico City, auditioning at record labels. In the summer of 1966, he signed with CBS México (now Sony Discos), recording his first hits: "Perdóname," "Tu Camino y El Mío," and "Cantina del Barrio."

But it was not until 1976 that Fernández became the undisputed ranchera king. The songwriter Fernando Z. Maldonado had penned a ranchera tune with a new twist about a macho who accepted blame and acquiesced in a relationship. The angle may have been new, but the song made an impact. "Volver, Volver" went on to become an anthem in the mariachi ranchera canon. The song pole-vaulted Fernández to international stardom and began his string of unforgettable hits. In the ensuing years Fernández recorded a half dozen other standards, including "La Ley del Monte," "El Rey," and "El Penal."

By the early 1980s the Mexican music press coined a new title for him—"El Ídolo de México"—and it stuck. He continued his streak of hits through the 1990s, with "Aunque Me Duela El Alma" (1995) and "Me Voy a Quitar de En Medio" (1998), the theme song to Univision's popular soap opera La Mentira. That year, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

His 2001 studio set Más Con El Número Uno produced the hit "El Ayudante," a macho ranchera expressing a mix of resignation and satisfaction about an affair with a married woman. It was written by Manuel Eduardo Toscano, who penned the hit "Sublime Mujer" off Fernández's 1998 CD Entre el Amor y Yo.

In 2002 Fernández was named the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year by the Latin Grammy association for his artistic accomplishments and for donating ticket proceeds to the National Hispanic Scholarship Fund. In addition to the scholarship fund, Fernández helps out his rural fans by waiving his performance fee at small-town Mexican fairs.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Las Clásicas de José Alfredo Jiménez (Discos CBS, 1990); Lástima Que Seas Ajena (Sony Discos, 1993); Aunque Me Duela el Alma (Sony Discos, 1995); Entre el Amor y Yo (Sony Discos, 1998); Más Con el Número Uno (Sony Discos, 2001).

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