Considered the last great ranchera singer in Mexico, Vicente Fernández died yesterday Sunday at the age of 81, news that was reported by his family through his official account on Instagram.
Thus ends the era of the great interpreters of regional Mexican music, a period that began with Tito Guízar in the 30s, Pedro Infante in the following decade and followed with Jorge Negrete, Javier Solís and José Alfredo Jiménez. Fernández was the heir to this saga, and one of the most recognized voices in Latin America, according to the BBC.com newspaper.
The singer had been hospitalized since the previous week, after a relapse from the accident he had in his room last August.
YOU CAN SEE: Vicente Fernández is fired between mariachis and fans
Since then, his health has deteriorated. “Always in my thoughts and my prayers, give it a try, boss, we all miss you. I love you and cheer up, you’re doing very well, “wrote his son, Alejandro, a few weeks ago on his social network.
Also known as ‘Chente’, in his 50-year career he has sold more than 65 million records, made 25 films and won eight Latin Grammy Awards. Until now there is no artist of that musical genre who occupies his position.
He liked the contact with his audience. In bullrings, palenques (auditoriums where cockfights are held) or theaters, he attended without hesitation to people who asked him to interpret their favorite songs.
YOU CAN SEE: Alejandro Fernández says goodbye to his father with a meaningful message: “Have a good trip, my dear old man”
“There are two types of singers, those who live by singing and those who live to sing,” he confessed in an interview to the magazine Who. “My vice is to go on stage and listen to the applause, I don’t care about the money.”
Yesterday, the newspaper El País in Spain recalled that Fernández was born in the town of Huentitán El Alto, Jalisco, in 1940, the son of a rancher and a housewife, and began in the world of music singing in restaurants and weddings in Guadalajara and then Mexico City. He first appeared on television –in La calandria musical and El Dawn Tapatío– and in the capital of the country he managed to get some of his songs to be played on the radio, until in 1965 the CBS station (today Sony Music) opened the doors for him. His songs began to become known – “Your way and mine”, “Forgive me”, his album Word of the King – but his great musical success came a decade later, the unforgettable song of spite that catapulted him to fame in 1972: ” Return Return”.
In one of his last interviews, Vicente was asked where he would have liked to die. He responded in his style: “Wherever God wants to pick me up, nothing else gives me a chance to repent.”
YOU CAN SEE: Vicente Fernández died at the age of 81 after a multi-organ failure
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