Latin music’s iconic, flamboyant showman
MEXICO CITY— Juan Gabriel, a superstar Mexican songwriter and singer whowas an icon in the Latin musicworld, died Sunday at his home in California at age 66, his publicist said.
Juan Gabriel was Mexico’s leading singersongwriter and top-selling artist. His ballads about love and heartbreak and bouncy mariachi tunes became hymns throughout Latin America and Spain and with Spanish speakers in the United States.
He brought many adoring fans to tears as they sang along when he crooned his songs about love and heartbreak, including his top hits, “Hasta Que Te Conoci” (“Until I Met You”) and “Amor Eterno” (“Eternal Love”). His hit “Querida” (“Dear”) topped Mexico’s charts for a whole year.
A flamboyant performer, Juan Gabriel, whose real namewas Alberto Aguilera Valadez, liked towear jackets covered in sequins or dress in shiny silk outfits in hot pink, turquoise blue or canary yellow, and he was known for tossing his head before dancing or jumping around the stage.
“He has passed on to become part of eternity and has left us his legacy through Juan Gabriel, the character created by him for all the music that has been sung and performed all around theworld,” his press office said in a statement.
It gave no details on his death. Publicist Arturo de la Mora told The Associated Press that he died at 11:30 a.m. in his home. He said the family would provide a statement later.
Juan Gabriel performed to packed auditoriums,
including New York’s Madison Square Garden and the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. His last concert was Friday night at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif. Hewas scheduled to perform Sunday in El Paso, Texas.
A six-time Grammy nominee, Juan Gabriel was inducted into the Billboard Latin Music Hall of Fame in 1996 and received countless industry awards, including ASCAP Songwriter of the Year in 1995, Latin Recording Academy’s Person of the Year 2009, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that same year.
The singer, whowas born Jan. 7, 1950, wrote his first song at age 13 and went on to compose more than 1,500 songs.
The youngest of 10 children, he rose rags to riches. Hewas born in the western state of Michoacan. His father, Gabriel Aguilera, was a farmer and his mother, Victoria Valadez, a housewife. The family lost contact with his father after hewas taken to a psychiatric hospital in Mexico City when Juan Gabriel was still a baby. Unable to support her
children, his mother moved the family to the border city of Ciudad Juarez, where he grewup as she worked as a maid.
Juan Gabriel said his mother was one of the people he most loved in his life even though he spent most of his childhood away fromher. Unable to care for him, she sent him to an orphanage.
He said he wrote “Eternal Love,” one of his greatest hits, thinking about his mother, who died in 1974.
“Even though I don’t have my mother’s love today, I have the love of millions,” he told the newspaper La Jornada in an interview in 2012. “Her love comes through all the mothers of Mexico.”
Juan Gabriel rarely gave interviews. When he did, he avoided talking about his private life.
“I’m not married; I don’t ever plan to marry. I’m happy single,” JuanG abriel is quoted as saying in his biography by Mexico’s Society ofM usic Authors and Composers. “I have many loves, but the most important are: my mother, my children, my sister, my brothers, my nieces and nephews andmy songs.”