The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Mexico mourns Prince Of Song Jose Jose, age 71
Mexican crooner Jose Jose, the elegant dresser who moved audiences to tears with melancholic love ballads and was known as the Prince Of Song, has died at the age of 71.
Mexican artists’ association Andi confirmed the death in a Twitter post.
Multiple media outlets said the singer had died of pancreatic cancer at a hospital in South Florida.
Jose Jose, whose real name is Jose Romulo Sosa Ortiz, climbed to the top of the Latin charts in the 1970s with slow songs such as El Triste or The Sad Man, and Amar Y Querer or Love And Want.
The power of his voice and ability to sing technically difficult tunes in a wide register made him a treasured cultural figure in Latin America.
The artist’s voice, a combination of baritone and lyric tenor, captivated audiences while his dress style of suits accented with bow ties, pocket handkerchiefs and silk scarves was copied at nightclubs across Latin America.
“He squeezed our hearts with his unmistakable voice and left an indelible mark on the world of music,” Latin music star Gloria Estefan said on Twitter.
Jose Jose was born to a family of musicians on February 17 1948 in Mexico City.
His mother, Margarita Ortiz Pensado, was a concert pianist and his father was a tenor in the National Opera of Mexico.
The singer added a second Jose to his artist’s name in honour of his father, who died when Jose Jose was 17.
The father had abandoned the family when Jose Jose was young.
“I wanted to honour the memory of my father, who was a great opera singer and died very young, without knowledge of my success,” Jose Jose said in a 2005 interview.
“Since I inherited his voice, this is recognition of that inheritance.”
Jose Jose got started in music singing in cafés before founding a rock group called the Heart Breakers that launched an unsuccessful album in the mid-60s.
His solo career took off with a single called La Nave Del Olvido or The Ship Of The Forgotten and peaked in the 1980s with albums like Secrets, his best-selling collaboration with Spanish love song composer and producer Manuel Alejandro.
He struggled with Lyme disease, facial paralysis, substance abuse and depression. His problems with alcohol and drugs led to the 1993 dissolution of his 18-year marriage with model Anel Norena, with whom he had two children. Following the separation he began sleeping in a taxi on the outskirts of the Mexican capital.
Friends intervened and took him to an addiction treatment centre in the US.
The artist married again in 1995, to a Cuban-American named Sarita Salazar who he met while in rehab.
The couple had a daughter, Sara, the following year.
Jose Jose was nominated on multiple occasions for a Grammy, but never obtained the prize.
The Latin Recording Academy recognised him with a Musical Excellence Prize at the 2004 Latin Grammy awards.
That same year, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
His voice troubles made it very difficult for him to sing in his later years.
Jose Jose had confirmed via a video message to fans in March 2017 that he was battling pancreatic cancer.