Hasta Que Te Conocí

Ten years ago today, Juan Gabriel died in Santa Monica, California. August 28, 2016. He was 66. He was born Alberto Aguilera Valadez in 1950 in Paracúaro, Michoacán. The youngest of ten children. His mother placed him in a Ciudad Juárez orphanage at age four. A music teacher there named Juan Contreras introduced him to singing. He was performing in bars by sixteen. He was wrongly accused of theft and spent a year and a half imprisoned at Lecumberri. When he came out, he chose the name Juan Gabriel. Juan for his teacher. Gabriel for his father. The name was a map of the people who made him.

He wrote more than 1,800 songs. Released 32 studio albums. Sold more than 150 million albums. More than 20 of his songs reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. Seven reached number one. The Lo Nuestro Excellence Award in 1991. Inducted into the Billboard Latin Music Hall of Fame in 1996. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2002. The Latin Recording Academy named him Person of the Year in 2009. Hasta Que Te Conocí appeared in 1986 on his twentieth studio album, Pensamientos. Marc Anthony said this song was what inspired him to pursue Latin music. Maná covered it and reached number one. He was the most covered songwriter in Latin music and kept writing anyway.

Juan Gabriel never changed his style to fit the industry around him. His theatrical presence and flamboyant performance were his own from the start. Mexico embraced him anyway. Then the rest of Latin America. His music moved between mariachi and ranchera and pop ballad without asking permission. In 2016, Los Dúo 2 won Latin Grammy Album of the Year and Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. He died before the ceremony. Gabriel Abaroa of the Latin Recording Academy said his legacy was much more than songs. He composed philosophy. President Obama issued a statement on the day he died. Ten years later, people are still hearing him for the first time.