Alberto Aguilera Valadez (; 7 January 1950 – 28 August 2016), known professionally as Juan Gabriel (), was a Mexican singer-songwriter. Colloquially nicknamed Juanga () and El Divo de Juárez, Juan Gabriel was known for his flamboyant style, which broke norms and standards within the Latin music industry. Widely regarded as one of the best and most prolific Mexican composers and singers of all time, he is considered a pop icon.
Juan Gabriel is one of the best-selling Latin music artists in history and the top-selling Mexican artist of all time, with over 100 million records sold worldwide. His nineteenth studio album, Recuerdos, Vol. II, is reportedly the best-selling album of all time in Mexico, with over eight million copies sold. During his career, Juan Gabriel wrote around 1,800 songs. In 2023, he ranked number 172 on Rolling Stone<nowiki/>'s list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. The following year, the Library of Congress selected his recording of "Amor eterno" for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry.
Early life
Alberto Aguilera Valadez was born on 7 January 1950, in Parácuaro, Michoacán, Mexico. The son of Gabriel Aguilera Rodríguez and Victoria Valadez Rojas, of the influential Macias-Valadéz of Jalisco, Juan was the youngest of their ten children. During Juan's childhood, his father was interned into a psychiatric hospital. Given the family's challenges, Aguilera's mother moved them to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and Alberto was enrolled and resided in the El Tribunal boarding school for eight years, where he met the director Micaela Alvarado and teacher Juan Contreras; At age 14, Aguilera returned to live with his mother in the city center. and was incarcerated in Palacio de Lecumberri Prison for about 18 months. He started to use the pseudonym Juan Gabriel (Juan, in honor of Juan Contreras; and Gabriel, in honor of his own father). In 1971, Juan Gabriel released his first studio album El Alma Joven..., which included the song "No Tengo Dinero", which became his debut single and his first hit. El Alma Joven... was certified as gold by the Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas (AMPROFON). After releasing El Alma Joven III (1973), Juan Gabriel released his first mariachi album featuring the group Vargas de Tecalitlán.
Over the next fifteen years, Juan Gabriel's fame grew as he recorded 15 albums and sold 20 million records. He wrote and recorded over 1,000 songs in a variety of musical genres. His lyrics dealt with heartbreak and romantic relationships that became hymns throughout Latin America, Spain, and the United States. In 1984, he released Recuerdos, Vol. II which one source says is the best-selling album of all time in Mexico, selling over eight million copies. In 1990 Juan Gabriel became the first non-classical act to perform at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. The proceeds from the three sold-out concerts were given to the National Symphony Orchestra. "Abrázame Muy Fuerte" ended 2001 as the most successful Latin single of the year. For the song, Juan Gabriel won two Billboard Latin Music Awards in 2002 for Hot Latin Track of the Year and Latin Pop Airplay Track of the Year; and also received the Songwriter of the Year award. "Abrázame Muy Fuerte" also was awarded for Pop Song of the Year at the 2002 Lo Nuestro Awards. At the time of his death, Juan Gabriel was touring the United States and was scheduled to perform at a concert in El Paso, Texas, that same day. He also had four albums which reached number one on the Top Latin Albums from 2015 and 2016, including Vestido de Etiqueta por Eduardo Magallanes, which reached number one a week before he died. He holds the record for most albums peaking at number one on the Top Latin Albums chart over a short time.
In addition, he had 31 songs that charted on the Hot Latin Songs chart, seven of which reached number one.
BMG copyright dispute
thumb|upright|Hands of Juan Gabriel embodied in 1996 in the [[Plaza de las Estrellas located in Mexico City]]
Between 1986 and 1994, Juan Gabriel refused to record any material because of a dispute with BMG over copyrights to his songs. He continued his career in live stage performances, setting attendance records throughout Latin America. By 1994 the copyright dispute reached a resolution under an agreement whereby ownership of the songs reverted to Juan Gabriel over a specified time period. Nearly a month after his death, the news program Primer Impacto discovered that Juan Gabriel had a fifth child, a son living in Las Vegas. The two maintained a long-distance relationship, primarily communicating via e-mail. The mother of his fifth child is Guadalupe Gonzalez, who worked as Juan Gabriel's domestic employee. On 26 October 2016, Primer Impacto found the sixth child of Juan Gabriel living in Los Angeles, California. His mother is Consuelo Rosales, who also worked as Juan Gabriel's domestic employee. Genetic testing was conducted to confirm parentage.
Although he was widely assumed to be gay, Juan Gabriel never explicitly talked about his sexuality. However, as he got older he began to give implicit responses towards questions about his sexuality, saying to interviewers "Lo que se ve no se pregunta" ("what one sees doesn't have to be asked about"). Some may interpret this to be an implicit affirmation of homosexuality, while others have interpreted this to be an affirmation of heterosexuality, due to the female romantic partners he had.
In June 2005, Gabriel was arrested for alleged tax fraud. On 14 November 2005, Juan Gabriel was injured when he fell from the stage at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, and was hospitalized at Texas Medical Center. He sustained a cervical fracture on his neck, forcing him to refrain from performing on tour while being bedridden for eight months.
Political views
Juan Gabriel was a lifelong supporter of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which governed Mexico from 1929 to 2000 and from 2012 to 2018. In 1994, he stated that "his best friends [were] from the PRI" and he campaigned in support of then-presidential PRI candidate Ernesto Zedillo. In the 2000 election he again campaigned for the PRI candidate, Francisco Labastida (who eventually lost the election). In 2015, he wrote a letter to the then-President of Mexico Enrique Peña Nieto (a member of the PRI), expressing his support for his administration and for the PRI, which he stated, "will never go away".
Death
thumb|Statue of Juan Gabriel in [[Plaza Garibaldi, Mexico City, on 28 August 2016. Crowds gathered to pay their respects on the day of his death.]]
On 28 August 2016, Juan Gabriel died in Santa Monica, California, reportedly from a heart attack. Gabriel's body was cremated; his ashes were returned to a house he owned in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, after receiving tributes from the city and Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. An autopsy was not performed to determine the cause of death.
Charitable work
Juan Gabriel continued to do 10 to 12 performances per year as benefit concerts for his favorite children's homes, usually posing for pictures with his fans and forwarding the proceeds from the photo ops to support Mexican orphans. a house for orphaned and underserved children located in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. It serves school children between the ages of 6 and 12. In his list of the most influential Latin music artists in history, Carlos Quintana of About.com, ranked Juan Gabriel number six for shaping "the sounds of Mexican music" and exploring genres from ranchera to Latin pop. In 1986, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley declared 5 October Juan Gabriel day. In 1996, he was inducted into the Billboard Latin Music Hall of Fame, and posthumously inducted into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame in October 2016. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Juan Gabriel at number 172 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.
thumb|left|Juan Gabriel's star on the [[Hollywood Walk of Fame]]
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) honored Juan Gabriel the Latin Songwriter of the Year Award in 1995, 1996, and 1998. In 1999, Gabriel received the People's Choice Awards for Best Regional Artist. That same year, he was awarded a spot on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars. He also received his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in May 2002.
His death became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter after news reports were confirmed. Gabriel Abaroa, the CEO of the Latin Recording Academy, said his legacy was "much more than one or hundreds of songs; he composed philosophy" and that Juan Gabriel "broke taboos, devoured stages and conquered diverse audiences". Leila Cobo of Billboard proclaimed Juan Gabriel as a "prodigal performer" and noted that his songs were "romantic, colloquial, emotional compositions that sometimes rambled but managed to strike a universal chord with lyrics that could apply to many people and many situations."
thumb|upright|Mural made in tribute to Juan Gabriel located in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
Gabriel's songs have been covered by artists such as Rocío Dúrcal, Gloria Trevi, La India, and Marc Anthony, the latter of whom credits his song "Hasta Que Te Conocí" as the inspiration to launch his career in Latin music. Lorenzo Antonio, Álvaro Torres, Los Tri-O, Nydia Rojas, and La India. A television series based on Gabriel's life titled Hasta que te conocí, began airing on 18 April 2016, and the series ended on 28 August, coincidentally the same day Gabriel died. He was portrayed by Colombian actor Julián Román and Juan Gabriel served as the executive producer.
Selected films and television shows
- 1965: Noches Rancheras
- 1997: Juntos Otra Vez with Rocío Dúrcal
- 1998: Con la Banda...El Recodo with Banda El Recodo
- 1999: Todo Está Bien
- 2000: Abrázame Muy Fuerte
- 2003: Inocente de Ti
- 2010: Juan Gabriel
- 2015: Los Dúo
- 2015: Los Dúo, Vol. 2
- 2016: Vestido de Etiqueta por Eduardo Magallanes
- 2022: Los Dúo, Vol. 3
- 2023: México con Escalas en Mi Corazón (Ciudades)
- 2025: Eterno
Concert tours
- Volver Tour (2014)
- Bienvenidos al Noa Noa Gira (2015)
- Mexico Es Todo Tour (2016, died during tour)
See also
- List of best-selling Latin music artists
- Music of Mexico