The life of Alberto Aguilera Valadez, better known as Juan Gabriel, is full of stories that, when read, extol the legend of the Divo de Juárez. Some of his songs became immediate anthems; the passage of time favored others with a bittersweet taste in the lyrics, as happens with some wines, and the interpretation of the pieces he composed for himself, which he gave to others, such as Rocía Dúrcal, José José or Vicente Fernández, forged in the singer from Michoacán a status that few are able to equal. He was born on January 7, 1950 and died at the age of 66, on August 28, 2016.
He wrote his first songs between the ages of 13 and 15, while he was in a boarding school that he attended as a child. He released his first album The young soul in 1971, where the song came from I have no money which would be his first big hit. During the following decade, Juan Gabriel established himself as one of the most important Mexican singers and composers, not only in the country but in the entire American continent.
In the late 1980s, he appeared on the television show Bad night… no!hosted by Verónica Castro. The actress co-starred in the film Ranch nobility together with Juan Gabriel in 1977. After 11 years they appeared together again in front of the cameras, this time on the small screen. The program began at 10:30 p.m. and its duration varied depending on the audience; the broadcast ended when the number dropped. On Wednesday, August 31, 1988, the Diva was the star guest and viewers were hooked; the numbers did not drop.
The show was on the air for almost nine hours. During that time, Juan Gabriel sang with guest musicians, who left when they saw that the hours were passing, the broadcast was approaching dawn and the end seemed far away. But that didn’t stop the Divo de Juárez; he asked for the tracks of his background songs to be played so that he could perform them as if it were karaoke.
The 8 hours and 50 minutes were a demonstration of the talent that Juan Gabriel displayed when he grabbed the microphone and sang from the depths of his being. He made it very clear how much he mastered his voice as an instrument. Of course, he didn’t sing for eight hours straight; between tunes, Verónica Castro organized different sketches alongside the Diva. Castro’s charisma, combined with the years of friendship he had accumulated with Juan Gabriel, were gunpowder for television. People decided to stay up late and watch the chemistry that emanated between them until after seven fifteen on Thursday morning.
The most talked about part of this marathon broadcast was the kiss between the protagonists. In the film they participated in a decade ago, Ranch nobilityplayed two lovers. On the show, Castro thanked the singer for his participation with a kiss on the cheek. Juan Gabriel claimed that this was not enough, closed his eyes and stopped his mouth, “give me a kiss like the one you gave me in the movie.” The host imitated the singer, approached him and they kissed. Their lips barely touched, but it was enough for rumors to spread that there was a romance between the two.
The show was held together without a script or structure. Verónica Castro improvised on the fly. Juan Gabriel knew how to keep up with her and that is how they immortalized “the night that Mexico did not sleep.” The anecdote seems taken from a novel by David Foster Wallace.
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