| | |  Entertainment 
Mexico's Juan Gabriel Records 1st Album in 7 Years
 Ayala Ben-Yehuda - Reuters
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May 03, 2010
| | Juan Gabriel (Billboard.com) | |
Los Angeles - Nobody cuts off Juan Gabriel. After he performed a rousing mariachi number at November's Latin Grammy Awards in Las Vegas, it turned out that the 61-year-old Mexican entertainer/composer was just getting warmed up.
As the lights dimmed, one of his guitarists handed the singer a full glass of something - tequila? cognac? Even if it had been apple juice, it wouldn't have mattered. He took a swig and raised the glass. "To everyone who's in jail ... get out soon. That's an order," he proclaimed before launching into "Por Que Me Haces Llorar?," one of his oft-covered classics and the single from his first new album in seven years, the self-titled "Juan Gabriel," due Tuesday (May 4).
"Why do you make me cry and mock me if you know very well I don't know how to suffer?" he belted, gesticulating wildly to the music as the liquid sloshed out of his glass and onto his purple brocade jacket, which was augmented by a pink vest. He sang the lyric "I'm going to get drunk," shaking his glass for emphasis. More spillage. He finished the verse - "Let them know that I drank today and got drunk today over you" - and sent what was left in the glass over his head.
Gabriel's "divo" theatrics quickly lit up YouTube. He wound up performing that night for more than 30 minutes, sending Univision cameramen and security guards scurrying to keep up with him as he did laps around the Mandalay Bay Events Center, soaking up love from the fans he'd had on their feet since the beginning of his set. His show-stealing antics pushed the live broadcast well beyond its scheduled run time and, according to Nielsen Media Research, led to the highest-rated quarter-hours of the broadcast. "He was supposed to play as much as he felt he needed to," Latin Recording Academy president Gabriel Abaroa said.
"Work is my best friend," Gabriel explained to Billboard a few months later. "When I have the opportunity to work, I organize a whole party - like what you perhaps saw at the Grammys."
DEVOTED TO MARIACHI
Gabriel (born Alberto Aguilera Valadez) is 40 years into a career that has spanned styles from pop to bolero to regional Mexican, and his upcoming studio album is one of the year's priority releases from Fonovisa in the United States and Universal in Latin America. Six of its songs were written by Gabriel and originally made famous by other singers - but never recorded by him - and five are new.
Gabriel has his own rationale for releasing a mariachi album now. "Mexico is known throughout the world thanks to mariachi," he said. "It's not known for (the political parties) the PRI, nor the PRD nor the PAN. Nor is it known for being a Catholic, evangelical, apostolic, Methodist or Buddhist or atheist country. It's known for music and mariachi, which is our devotion. As Juan Gabriel, music is my religion and mariachi is my devotion. And my songs are my prayers." With barely a pause to reflect, he then asked: "Are you writing down everything I'm saying?"
To call Gabriel a world-class singer-songwriter doesn't even begin to account for his music's enduring appeal. He's written a large portion of the contemporary Latin music songbook: His label puts the number at roughly 1,000 compositions. To the Latin world, he's a combination of Frank Sinatra, Burt Bacharach and Liberace. Add a dose of mystery - he performs live but rarely gives interviews or appears on TV - as well as catchy songs laced with drama and wit, and you have a multigenerational household name.
With his broad fan base resulting in consistent sales of his Sony hits compilations, on top of the rising value of his publishing catalog, Universal saw an opportunity to put Gabriel's masters and publishing under one roof. He had been signed to RCA, Ariola and later BMG for much of his career, but relations were rocky; at one point, he didn't release a studio album for BMG for a period of eight years. His last album for the label arrived with little fanfare in 2003.
In 2008, Universal Music Latin America chairman/CEO Jesus Lopez signed Gabriel to a deal that included a global publishing administration agreement for all of his catalog, as well as new master recordings. The idea was to build for Universal a valuable collection of Gabriel masters by having him record famous songs he'd written but never recorded himself. (Ownership of the masters eventually reverts back to Gabriel.) Gabriel's albums for Universal - which will number as many as two per year - also will include new versions of hits he'd recorded previously and new songs he's written.
In addition to "Juan Gabriel," Universal already has another Gabriel album of rerecorded hits in the can and slated for pre-Christmas release.
ON THE ROAD
Key to sealing the deal was Gabriel's longstanding relationship with Lopez, who had helped end the standoff with BMG when he was an executive at the label years earlier.
"Mr. Lopez knows me well and he knows my catalog very well. It was really easy to reach an agreement," Gabriel said. But "even though I had signed (in 2008), I didn't record for a long time because I kept touring."
A 20-show run at Mexico City's Auditorio Nacional in September and October 2008 grossed nearly $7.7 million and brought in more than 176,000 people, according to Billboard Boxscore. A 2007 U.S./Mexico tour brought in $5.8 million and more than 96,000 people to 14 shows.
"Don't think I don't record because I don't want to," Gabriel said. "The truth is, I've had a lot of work, and because I have all this work, I don't have the voice as clean and clear as it should be for recording."
Though Gabriel's hits come in many styles, his signature extravaganza is his sexy, lively mariachi band, which accompanies him on tour and dances up a storm onstage. The new album's first single, "Por Que Me Haces Llorar?," is a '50s-style ballad set to a sweeping arrangement of mariachi strings.
For Gabriel, who gave frequent shout-outs to his home country at the Latin Grammys, a mariachi album was a way to commemorate Mexico's 2010 bicentennial and the centennial anniversary of the Mexican Revolution.
"As a Mexican and as an artist, I wanted to (contribute) something to such a big celebration," Gabriel said. "We're celebrating the independence of Mexico from Spain. Hopefully someday we'll celebrate our independence from the United States. Then I'll be even happier to release an album."
He continued, "But for now I have this album, the best of mine that (others) have sung that I haven't (recorded), and new songs that are beautiful - because I wrote them thinking about Mexico, about mariachi and about how long it's been since I recorded. And they came out beautifully."
(Additional reporting by Leila Cobo) |
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