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Juan
Gabriel is one of Mexico's most successful vocalists. A six time Grammy
nominee, Gabriel has
sold thirty million copies of his albums and has performed sold out concerts
throughout the world. In addition to recording numerous hits on his own, Gabriel
has produced albums for Rocio
Durcal, Lucha
Villa, Lola
Beltran and Paul
Anka. His songs have been covered by a lengthy list of Latin artists
including Ana
Gabriel (no relation), Rocio
Durcal, Isabel
Pantoja, Raul di
Blasio and Marc
Anthony. The recipient of the "ASCAP Songwriter Of The Year" award in 1995,
Gabriel was inducted into the "Billboard Latin Music Hall Of Fame" the following
year. |
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During an interview shortly after his induction, Gabriel
said, "I compose songs with a lot of simplicity because my school has been the
streets and people have been my books".
The youngest of ten children, Gabriel
(born: Alberto Aguilera Valadez) was raised in the border town of Juarez by his
mother, who worked as a housekeeper. He now owns the mansion in which she
worked.
Singing from earliest memory, Gabriel
was already writing his own songs by the age of thirteen. Changing his name
to "Adam Luna", Gabriel began singing in the nightclubs of Juarez's downtown
strip in his teens. One night spot, El Noa Noa, was later immortalized in one of
his most popular tunes.
Moving to Mexico City, and changing his name to "Juan Gabriel", Gabriel
recorded his first hit, "No Tengo Dinero (I Have No Money)", in 1971. Over the
next fourteen years, he rose to international recognition, appearing in such
films as "Nobleza Ranchera", "Del Otro Lado Del Puerte" and "Es Mi Vida" and
selling an estimated twenty million records by 1985.
Just as his career reached its peak, Gabriel had
a major conflict with BMG over control of his copyrights. Over the next eight
years, he refused to record any new material. Reaching a compromise with BMG, in
1994, Gabriel
quickly made up for lost time. In 1995, three of his songs reached the top forty
of Billboard magazine's "Hot Latin Tracks" radio charts his own recording of
"El Palo (The Stick)", which reached number one, and cover versions of his
songs, "Como La Luna (Like The Moon)", by Banda
Maguey, and, "No Tengo Dinero", by Ana
Gabriel.
In 1999, Gabriel's
tour of United States was sponsored by the Sears Corporation. Craig
Harris |
