Juan Gabriel

Alberto Aguilera Valadez (7 January 1950 – 28 August 2016), known professionally as Juan Gabriel, was a Mexican singer, songwriter and actor.

Colloquially nicknamed Juanga and El Divo de Juárez, Juan Gabriel was known for his flamboyant style, which broke barriers within the Latin music industry.

Widely regarded as one of the best and most prolific Mexican composers and singers of all time, he has often been referred to as a pop icon.

Having sold an estimated of 40 million records worldwide, Juan Gabriel is among Latin America's best selling music artists.

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.

Among his most recognized penned songs are "Amor Eterno", "Querida", "Yo no nací para amar", "Hasta que te conocí", "El Noa Noa", "No tengo dinero", "Abrázame muy fuerte", "Te lo pido por favor", "En esta primavera", "Pero qué necesidad", "Te sigo amando", "Siempre en mi mente", "De mí enamórate", and "Lo pasado, pasado", among others; all of them, performed by him and many other artists.

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, he was the youngest of ten siblings.

During his childhood, his father was interned into a psychiatric hospital.

Because of this, his mother moved to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and he was put in the El Tribunal boarding school where he remained for eight years.

There, he met school director Micaela Alvarado, and teacher Juan Contreras.

Aguilera became very close with Contreras, then escaped El Tribunal and lived with him for a year when he was 13.

In the same year, Aguilera composed his first song.

At 14 Aguilera returned to live with his mother in the center of the town.

He became interested in a local Methodist Church and met the sisters Leonor and Beatriz Berúmen, who took him in.

There he sang in the choir and helped by cleaning the church.

Aguilera was a Roman Catholic.

In 1965, Aguilera debuted on the Notivisa (now Gala TV Ciudad Juárez) television show Noches Rancheras.

Host Raúl Loya gave him the pseudonym Adán Luna.

In the program, he sang the song "María la Bandida" by José Alfredo Jiménez.

From 1966 to 1968, he started to work as a singer at the Noa-Noa bar.

During this period, he wrote the song "El Noa Noa".

He also worked as a singer in other bars in the town.

Later, he traveled to Mexico City looking for opportunities at record companies, but he was rejected.

He returned to Juárez, where he continued working as a singer.

The next year, he tried again to be signed by a record label.

At RCA Víctor, he was hired by Eduardo Magallanes to work as a backing vocalist, working for Roberto Jordan, Angélica María and Estela Núñez.

In 1970, he resigned because he received insufficient payment and returned to work the bars in Juárez.

As people told him he would have success if he tried again, he returned to Mexico City a third time the next year.

Not having enough money, Aguilera slept in bus and train stations.

At a certain point, he was wrongly accused of robbery, and was imprisoned in the Palacio de Lecumberri prison for a year and a half.

During this time, he wrote songs (including "Tres Claveles y Un Rosal" and "Me He Quedado Solo"), which helped him to meet Andrés Puentes Vargas, Lecumberri's prison warden, who introduced him to Mexican singer and actress La Prieta Linda.

and to his wife Ofelia Urtuzuastegui Ruiz.

She helped him, and due to the lack of evidence he was released from prison and lived in the Puentes Urtuzuastegui home for about 2 years where he found shelter, protection and support to write more songs and launch his profesional career as Juan Gabriel.

La Prieta Linda helped Aguilera at RCA Víctor, where he signed a recording contract.

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).

In 1972, Juan Gabriel participated at the OTI Festival, where he sang the songs "Será Mañana" and "Uno, Dos y Tres (Y Me Dás un Beso)".