Lucero

Among Mexico's most celebrated figures stands Lucero, recognized worldwide as a top-selling singer and songwriter whose ranchera, mariachi, and pop interpretations have earned international acclaim. Her talents extend to award-winning performances on both screen and stage, complemented by her role as a favored television presenter. Beginning her professional journey at the age of eleven on a children's variety show in Mexico, she ventured into telenovela acting during 1982 while simultaneously issuing her initial record, Te Prometo, under the moniker Lucerito. The album Con Mi Sentimiento from 1990 marked her entry onto the charts, with Lucero de Mexico achieving a Top 40 position in the United States the following year. Throughout the nineties, nearly all her studio releases found chart success, among them the multi-platinum Cerca de Ti released in 1998. International impact came with Cuando Sale un Lucero in 2004 and Quiéreme Tal Como Soy in 2006. Indispensable, issued in 2010, included the popular single "Dueña de Tu Amor," which served as the theme for the telenovela Soy Tu Dueña. In 2017, she presented Brasileira, featuring bossas and sambas performed in Portuguese, and initiated her Sinaloan trilogy with Enamorada con Banda; this was succeeded by Mas Enamorada con Banda in 2018 and Sólo Me Faltabas Tú in 2019. A year after that came the retrospective collection 20y20.

Lucero Hogaza León entered the world in Mexico City. From her earliest steps and words she sang and danced, guided by her mother, the former performer Lucero León, who trained her and later oversaw her career. That path opened in 1980 when the eleven-year-old appeared with her guitar on the variety program Alegrías de Mediodía. Two years afterward she took the title role in the telenovela Chispita and received an industry prize as best new actress. During her teenage years she starred in the film Coqueta alongside Pedro Fernández and acquired the nickname "Queen of the Telenovelas," appearing in no fewer than nine such productions, among them Cuando Llega el Amor, Los Parientes Pobres, and Lazos de Amor.

Although her acting roles established her as a cherished national icon, Lucero's parallel musical career, launched with the 1982 debut Te Prometo, ultimately proved even more far-reaching. Throughout the eighties she appeared in at least seven films and issued six albums plus a dozen EPs and singles under the name Lucerito, spanning synthesized pop, traditional rancheras, mariachis, and romanticos. With the arrival of Con Mi Sentimiento in 1990 she began performing simply as "Lucero."

The 1993 album Lucero surpassed 800,000 copies sold in Mexico and reached radio audiences in the Southwestern United States. Siempre Contigo, released in 1995, climbed to number 15 on the Top Latin Albums chart in the U.S. and supported tours across Mexico and South America. In 1999 she delivered her first live recording, Un Lucero en la México, a two-disc set pairing pop material with Mexican Regional songs that earned immediate gold certification and ultimately sold millions worldwide. Her EMI debut, 2004's Cuando Sale un Lucero, also attained gold and later platinum status. That same year she portrayed Esperanza in Alfonso Arau's biopic Zapata: El Sueño de un Héroe, then the costliest Mexican production in history whose opening weekend set a new national box-office record. Quiéreme Tal Como Soy, released in 2006, presented reworked versions of earlier hits written by Rafael Pérez Botija together with covers drawn from the catalogs of Rocío Dúrcal and José José.

Indispensable, her first studio album in four years when it appeared in 2010, ranked among her most ambitious and commercially rewarding projects. Issued while she starred in the popular telenovela Soy Tu Dueña, its lead single "Dueña de Tu Amor" served as the program's closing theme, elevating Lucero to the top of the Mexican charts and securing placements in both the United States and Europe. Although Mi Secreto de Amor reached the Top 40 in 2011, the same year's duet album Un Lu Jo with Joan Sebastian topped the Mexican Regional Albums chart in the U.S. and rose to number three on Mexico's national chart. A set of romantic ballads titled Aquí Estoy surfaced on streaming charts in 2014.

Enamorada con Banda, issued in 2017, reimagined popular hits in the banda style and met with widespread praise, topping Mexico's national charts and entering the Top 40 on the U.S. Latin Albums chart. That same year Fonovisia released Brasileira to honor audiences in Brazil and Portugal; the collection mixed original material with bossas and sambas sung entirely in Portuguese. Mas Enamorada con Banda arrived in 2018 and matched the chart and sales performance of its predecessor, while 2019's Sólo Me Faltabas Tú, again produced with Luciano Luna, proved equally successful.

During a 2020 virtual press conference Lucero announced the four-disc retrospective 20y20, which surveyed her forty years in music. She remarked, "The first two discs cover the transition from girl to young woman and the second, the last 20 years as an experienced artist, mother, and mature woman." In 2021 she rejoined ex-husband Manuel Mijares for the streaming concert Siempre Amigos. The following year she released no fewer than nine singles, among them four distinct renditions of her pop hit "Los Ricos Tambien Lloran."