Vicente Fernandez, cowboy king of Mexican ranchera music, dies at 81
Source: Washington Post
Vicente Fernández, the cowboy crooner who became known as El Rey, the king of Mexican ranchera music, performing traditional songs across Latin America and the United States with his operatic voice and sprawling mariachi group, died Dec. 12 at a hospital in Guadalajara, Mexico. He was 81.
His death was announced in a post on his Instagram page. After suffering a fall at his home in August, he was hospitalized for several months and diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that causes muscle weakness.
Mr. Fernández started out singing for tips on the streets of Guadalajara, a cradle of mariachi music, and rose to become one of Mexico’s most popular musicians, recording dozens of albums that sold an estimated 50 million copies. Backed by violins, horns and guitars, he sang passionate rancheras, rural anthems about cowboys, lovers’ quarrels, cockfighting and tequila.
“For Mexicans, it’s a medicine that lifts you when you’re down,” he told the Dallas Morning News in 1994, describing the genre’s power. “It cheers you. It’s not so much about thinking as it is about feeling.”
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/vicente-fernandez-dead/2021/12/12/bf8cb158-38c9-11ec-8be3-e14aaacfa8ac_story.html
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What a great loss to the genre.
