Lucero

Lucero Hogaza León (born 29 August 1969) is a Mexican singer and entertainer.

She is a multi-platinum singer in Mexico and has sung in Spanish, English, and Portuguese.

Lucero has sold more than 16 million records worldwide.

She is often referred to as "La Novia De América" ("America's Girlfriend").

As a child she starred in the popular Mexican children shows Alegrias de Mediodia and Chispita.

She went on to release a series of successful albums.

Some of her songs peaked on top of most of the Latin charts including the Billboard charts in the US.

She received her first leading role in the film Coqueta and went on to film a total of seven movies.

Lucero starred in the leading role of nine Mexican telenovelas and has won more TVyNovelas Awards than any other actress.

Lucero has been the hostess of the Latin Grammy Awards on eight occasions, and has been the face of the fundraising show Teletón Mexico.

Lucero is the daughter of Lucero León and Antonio Hogaza.

Her career began in 1980.

When she was young, she had concerns about being an artist, but at the age of 10 Televisa offered her the opportunity to appear in a juvenile theme program named Alegrías De Mediodía (Eng.: Midday Happiness), next to several children and young talents in music and comedy, like Aida Pierce and Aleks Syntek.

She combined work with her academic studies, also taking singing and dancing lessons.

During that time, she also performed in the program Juguemos a Cantar (Let's play to sing), in which she was the performer of the main theme.

Following this opportunity, she received several offers, among them Chiquilladas (Childishness), making her first starring appearance in the series for children.

On the program, one of her more memorable roles was in a Popeye skit, portraying Olive Oyl.

In 1982, Lucero appeared in her first telenovela, Chispita ("Little spark"), costarring with such actors as Enrique Lizalde and Angélica Aragón, among others.

From that moment on, her talent was seen as promising.

Curiously, with her emergence as a singer, Lucero did not sing the theme song for Chispita; rather, that opportunity was given to Timbiriche, the most popular teenybopper group in México at that time.

Regardless, her acting earned her two awards, with her first TVyNovelas Award and an Azteca de Oro Award.

With these accolades, Raúl Velasco invited Lucero to perform and record the main theme of the musical pageant América, Esta Es Tu Canción (America, this is your song).

In 1982, she released her first album through Musart Records, titled Él (Him).

In 1985, Lucero was cast in her third film, Fiebre de amor (Eng: Love Fever), starring alongside one of the most sought-after male celebrities—Luis Miguel.

The duo, together, were a complete success, and the film received two Diosa de la Plata Awards, including Breakthrough Performance for Lucero's role.

Lucero performed on the soundtrack with two songs, and due to the favourable outcome of the film, the soundtrack also had a special edition for Italy.

In this same year, at the suggestion of her mother, Lucerito left her mentor from the first two albums, Sergio Andrade, as the gossip began to grow that he had fallen in love with her.

To avoid problems, the music company decided to release another album, but this time without the guidance of Sergio Andrade.

Instead she was provided with different producers and composers, among them Joan Sebastian and Jaime Sánchez Rosaldo.

In 1986, she recorded Un Pedacito De Mí (Eng: A little piece of me), her fourth and last album with Musart Records.

In order to get away from the shadow of Sergio Andrade's management, she signed to Melody Records the same year.

Due to the departure of the singer to another company, Musart did not promote this album, which resulted with sales lower than her previous albums.

Her single "Era la primera vez" (Eng: It was the first time), was a hit in Mexican charts reaching the top 10 and the top 20 in Billboard.

In 1986, she was also cast in her first theatre role, in the play Don Juan Tenorio, playing Doña Inés de Ulloa.

Ending the decade, she established herself as one of the best singers in Latin America and the United States.

She continued her ascent in her career, now releasing her sixth studio album Cuéntame.

The sales of the album reached gold and platinum status in Mexico.

This album opened the U.S. market, Spain, also across borders in Central America, in countries like Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama and all South America.

The title single achieved great success, becoming a number 1 hit in Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, Guatemala among other countries.

The same song was included in VH1 list "Best 100 Songs of the '80s in Spanish".