JUAN GABRIEL

Born: Alberto Aguilera Valadez; Parácuaro, Michoacán, Mexico, 7 January 1950

Genre: Latin

Best-selling album since 1990: Juntos Otra Vez (1997)

Hit songs since 1990: "Pero Que Necesidad," "Canción 187," "Abrázame Muy Fuerte"

The Mexican chapter of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) lists Juan Gabriel as its number one royalties generator. His sentimental, direct lyrics and his marriage of Mexican folk rhythms to pop melodies have made his music legendary and ubiquitous throughout Latin America. His Mexican folkloric songs like "Querida," "Amor Eterno," and "Hasta Que Te Conocí" have become part of the ranchera canon, considered standards by mariachis everywhere.

His parents, Gabriel Aguilera Rodriguez and Victoria Valadez Rojas, were peasants and struggled to support Alberto's nine older siblings. As a young teenager, he lived in the Mexican border city of Juarez, selling tortillas downtown with his sister.

Moving to Mexico City in the late 1960s, he tried to secure a recording contract, but success escaped him until 1971, when Queta "La Prieta Linda" Jimenez introduced him to officials at RCA and recorded his song "Noche a Noche." In late 1971 he recorded his first pop ballad hit "No Tengo Dinero."

Gabriel began writing songs for the Spanish pop/ranchera singer Rocio Durcal, a collaboration that lasted for years. By the early 1980s Gabriel had gained major momentum, expanding his music to include mariachi and disco songs for the label Ariola Discos and scoring ever-bigger hits, including "Costumbres" and "Querida." But it was not all good news. Juan Gabriel was seriously shaken when his mother Victoria died in 1988. He wrote the ode "Amor Eterno" as a tribute to her. The song became another monster hit and was covered by more than a dozen top artists, including Durcal, Ana Gabriel (no relation), and Vicente Fernández.

A dispute with his record company prevented him from releasing any studio albums in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the interim, however, he reached the pinnacle of his career with the double CD En Concierto en El Palacio de Bellas Arte s (1990). Hailed critically, the concerts feature backing by the seventy-piece Mexican Symphonic Orchestra, a top-notch mariachi. Juan Gabriel is in impeccable shape. His inspired interpretation of "Querida" elevates the song into a form of worship. On "Amor Eterno," Gabriel plumbs new emotional depths in a song about a dear one gone but not forgotten.

In 1994 Gabriel released his comeback studio album, the synth-driven Gracias por Esperar, featuring an uncharacteristic but uplifting first single, the gospel-tinged "Pero Que Necesidad." Gabriel produced an album in 1997 with Durcal, appropriately titled Juntos Otra Vez (Together Again). The title track, a duet, got solid airplay.

While a bevy of regional Mexican and Latin pop artists have covered his songs or recorded tribute albums, Gabriel has remained creatively vibrant—witness the orchestral title song to his 2001 album, Abrázame Muy Fuerte, which hit number one on Billboard 's Hot Latin Tracks. He also performed a duet with the talented young ranchera-pop singer Nydia Rojas on her 2001 CD Nydia, which consists entirely of Gabriel songs.

Although his exuberant, sometimes mannered persona makes him an unlikely star in a nation that exalts its singing charros (cowboys), Juan Gabriel's direct, poetic lyrics and ingratiating melodies have launched a million serenades in his romantic country.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Siempre Estoy Pensando en Tí (RCA, 1978); Lo Mejor de Juan Gabriel con Mariachi (RCA, 1983); Debo Hacerlo (RCA, 1988); Gracias Por Esperar (BMG, 1994); El México Que Se Nos Fue (BMG, 1995); Juntos Otra Vez (BMG, 1997); Todo Está Bien (BMG, 1999); Abrázame Muy Fuerte (BMG, 2000).

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