Angela Aguilar

Born into Mexican Regional music, Ángela Aguilar launched her professional career at nine. As the child of veteran performer Pepe Aguilar, the vocalist with classically trained alto range issued her first full-length project at ten: the 2013 holiday collection Navidad con Ángela Aguilar. Three years afterward she appeared at the BBC’s 100 Women Festival in Mexico City. Her initial solo album arrived in 2018 as Primero Soy Mexicana, an eleven-track set of landmark rancheras and mariachis overseen by her father. At the Latin Grammy Awards the following year she earned nods for Best New Artist and Best Ranchero/Mariachi Album while also taking the stage. Later in 2020 she delivered the seven-song EP Baila Esta Cumbia, a contemporary tribute to ranchera trailblazer Selena, then followed it months later with the traditional mariachi outing Que No Se Apague la Musica. The 2021 long-player Mexicana Enamorada came next, succeeded in 2024 by Bolero—a Havana-recorded collection of classic romantic material—plus an accompanying hour-long documentary film.

Ángela Aguilar Álvarez entered the world in Los Angeles during one of Pepe Aguilar’s tours, her mother Aneliz Álvarez Alcalá at his side. Heritage extended further through paternal grandparents: singer, producer, and actor Antonio Aguilar alongside celebrated vocalist and actress Flor Silvestre. Her sibling, singer and guitarist Leonardo Aguilar, has also received Grammy nominations. From an early age she studied voice and joined her father on Latin American tours, absorbing ranchera and mariachi repertoire by studying its foremost interpreters. Pepe produced her introductory EP, 2012’s Nueva Tradición; the Christmas album Navidad con Ángela Aguilar followed in 2013. Between academic terms she performed alongside her father, on solo dates, and across radio and television, culminating in an invitation to the 2016 BBC festival.

Her first standalone studio album, Primero Soy Mexicana, surfaced in 2018 under her father’s production. The track list revisited signature rancheras previously associated with Lucha Villa, Rocío Dúrcal, and Flor Silvestre. She introduced the lead single “Tu Sangre en Mi Cuerpo” at that year’s Premios Tu Mundo. Nominations arrived for Best New Artist and Best Ranchera/Mariachi Album, while the project drew acclaim throughout Mexico and the United States, including praise from Vicente Fernández. December brought an additional Grammy nomination for Best Regional Mexican Music Album.

Early 2019 saw Mayor Ulises Mejía Haro appoint her Artistic and Cultural Ambassador of Zacatecas; in May she collected three Premios Juventud nominations and joined Christian Nodal and Pipe Bueno for a medley. July marked her English-language debut with a charity cover of Lady Gaga’s “Shallow” for the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel benefiting MusiCares.

January 2020 brought the Selena tribute EP Baila Esta Cumbia, whose finale merged “Dreaming of You” and “I Could Fall in Love.” Amid pandemic lockdowns she recorded the follow-up EP Que No Se Apague la Musica at home in Zacatecas to aid the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.

Shortly before turning eighteen she released the full-length Mexicana Enamorada. Pepe produced the ten-song set and recruited composers including Cheche Alara, Javier Calderón, Gussy Lau, Joss Favela, Ana Bárbara, Edgar Barrera, Ale Zéguer, Christian Nodal (featured on “Dime Cómo Quieres”), and Jesse & Joy (appearing on “Ella Qué Te Dio”). The closing “La Malagueña” highlighted her vocal range; she also issued a standalone version of “Bésame Mucho.” The Yuridia duet “Que Agonia” reached the upper half of the Global 200 and remained on the chart for sixteen weeks.

The six-track EP Celebrando a Mexico appeared on streaming platforms in 2023, featuring two selections each from Ángela and Pepe plus one from Leonardo; the family united on the finale, “Un Puño de Tierra.”

With 2024’s Bolero, recorded in Cuba under Pepe’s supervision, Ángela focused on enduring torch songs and ballads by Armando Manzanero, César Portillo de la Luz, Pedro Flores, Agustín Lara, and María Teresa Lara Aguirre. Trio Los Panchos accompanied her on four of the nine tracks. She additionally filmed an hour-long documentary in Havana, where she met Buena Vista Social Club veteran Amadito Valdés and performed for 93-year-old bolero icon Omara Portuondo.