NOISE: Cross-Cultural Exchange

How I finally got Alejandro Fernandez

Jayson Whitehead

Early one evening, I am sitting in my office waiting for Alejandro Fernandez—or his manager or publicist—to call, trying to think of questions to ask the Latin pop superstar. This particular night, he is in Chicago where he is performing as part of an Hispanic all-star tour with fellow singers Marc Anthony and Chayanne. Other than this, I know little about Fernandez or his music, have only heard samples here or there, and it sounds like a lot of Latin pop does to me—slick and overproduced, I guess like most pop.


I read his publicity material e-mailed to me earlier in the day. I Google him and look on Allmusic.com, too. His story as presented is a tale of mythic proportions. Born to a mariachi star, the boy Fernandez at first suffers from ghastly stage fright but overcomes this obstacle to become an international sensation by melding his father's music with a more up-to-date, modern style of his own.


Jotting down a few notes on a yellow legal pad, I begin to fret. My questions suck. They are boring. What will we talk about? Then the phone rings. I had halfway hoped he would not call, postponing it until the next day when I had a little more to say.


Once connected, we exchange brief pleasantries and then I launch right in. I might as well.


"How is the tour going so far?"


"It is going really, really well," he says with only a slight accent. We are speaking in English because I speak all of three Spanish words. "The people is loving the tour. The people is going crazy and really liking it."


I ask another painfully obvious question. "Do you end up playing to mostly Hispanic crowds or is it a mix?"











MUSIC BOX

What else to listen to




While Alejandro Fernandez enjoys millions of fans in the Latino world, you non-Spanish-speaking folks out there can be forgiven for not being as familiar with him as, say, Madonna. Here's a quick rundown of some of his notable albums.



Muy Dentro de Mi Corazon


1996


His fourth album, it went double-platinum shortly after its release. It's also the first without embarrassing cover art.



Me Estoy Enamorando


1997


Signaling a change in direction, it fuses boleros, ballads and mariachi with help from the London Symphonic. It stayed No. 1 on Billboard for seven straight weeks.



Christmas in Vienna


1998


It's a U.N. yuletide season, as Fernandez teams up with Placido Domingo and French singer Patricia Kaas.



Juntos por Ultima Vez


2003


Teaming up with his dad, Vicente Fernandez, it's a recording of a Mexico City concert that lasted more than five hours.




Martin Stein





"Every night is different. Sometimes I open, sometimes I close and sometimes I'm in the middle"— I realize then we are talking about entirely separate subjects—"every night is different and special."


A lifelong performer, Fernandez released his first album in 1993 to moderate success but blew up with 1997's Me Estoy Enamorando. Selling three million copies worldwide, it was his first release to successfully blend the old-time Mexican music known as ranchero with an effete pop style. Sort of like modern American country music.


"It's a very, very, very good sound," he stresses. "The people is liking it a lot and it's more universal and international."


Thanks to my inane queries, we are not really having much of a conversation so I decide to ask one of the questions I have written down on my pad. "Are you influenced by other music as well, American music?"


"No, it's mostly Mexican with international pop," he says, to my disappointment. I had hoped to stay on this subject for awhile.


Instead, I bring up an event from this past summer when Fernandez had the unique honor of replacing Pavarotti in a performance with the Three Tenors in Monterrey to approximately 400,000 people. It was a daunting task for the pop balladeer. "It was hard for me but the people loved it," he says. "And I was very happy with my presentation there. And you know what? I am very happy too with Vegas."


He adroitly shifts me to the topic of his upcoming performance at Caesars Palace where, for the fourth straight year, he will lead a musical celebration of Mexican Independence Day. This year's show has been sold out for more than three weeks. "It's like, uh, how do you say?" He pauses. "Uh, you are always yourself there."


Vegas proved to be fertile ground for Fernandez, and according to him, has become like a second home, or a second country. "They adopted me," he says. Last year, the city made it official by designating September 15 as Alejandro Fernandez Day and awarding him a key to the city. "It's like something special for me, for my public and for my fans," he says. "It's something special for Mexico, no?"


Slow of wit this particular night, I finally get it and with that an ending for this piece. More than even an entertainer, Fernandez is a man of the people, and once the singer found a musical style that touched a broad audience, he seized upon it and has been preaching his particular mix of tradition and inspiration ever since. His philosophy for success is simple and apparently effective. "If you play with the heart and you play for the people, they enjoy it."

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