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Cover Story

Into The Wind
With the release of his first album in three years, Alejandro Fernández is sailing
full speed ahead.

There is a long pause as the 36-year-old Mexican crooner ponders how to best sum up his 15-year career. He is in Guadalajara. The next day he will appear before 15,000 screaming fans at a concert in Tijuana, wearing a stunning black Mexican charro outfit, accompanied by his Mariachi band.
Only two days before, he was shooting the music video for his hit single Te Voy a Perder—a pop song played relentlessly on Spanish radio waves across the country since its release in late April. In June, his first original album in three years, Viento a Favor, meaning favorable wind, hit the stores.
Fernández finally speaks. “With the title of the album, Viento a Favor, that’s how I can best describe the last 15 years of my career,” he says.
Ever since he launched his debut self-titled album of ranchera music in 1992—after breaking away from a future career in architecture—Fernández has pushed onward to explore new pastures. He has successfully crossed over pop music barriers with the release of Viento a Favor. “You always have to keep proposing. You have to keep searching and risking, because I’ve always believed that he who doesn’t risk anything, doesn’t gain anything,” he says.
Dashing and handsome with his black eyes and glistening dark hair (now with more traces of gray), Fernández has become a staple in Mexican music, simultaneously evolving into an international pop star. The son of legendary ranchera singer Vicente Fernández, he carved out his own path fusing romantic boleros and ballads with contemporary sounds, while never straying too far from the Mexican music tradition. With a growing fan base nationally and abroad, he has released 16 albums that have sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.
That 6-year-old kid who broke down into tears during his first major performance in front of an audience of tens of thousands, and who refused to sing for more than a decade afterwards, grew up to become a double Latin Grammy-winning, multi-platinum selling singer. His powerful voice has since projected from hundreds of stages across the globe, even all the way in Vienna where he performed alongside Placido Domingo of The Three Tenors. And his success has already earned Fernández a star on the Hollywood walk of fame.
Much like his own career, the new album represents “a musical evolution,” Fernández says, one that delves deeper into the pop music genre than anything he’s done before. The songs on Viento a Favor, while still dramatic and romantic—elements that have always characterized Fernández’ work— feel more modern and contemporary. “We wanted to continue along the lines of pop but going a step higher, maybe surprising a bit more, risking a bit more, and in that tune, we incorporated instruments that are more present in rock, like electric guitars and drums” he says.
“The material for this album was also produced with live concerts in mind,” Fernández says. It was necessary to add a kick to the pop song presentations by incorporating livelier music—an effort to strike a balance with the more spectacular mariachi orchestra displays on stage. The expectations for a live show have been running high since there was talk last year of a possible 2007 concert tour of Latin America and Spain alongside Puerto Rican singers Chayanne and Marc Anthony.
Although the crossover into pop began in 1997 with the album Me Estoy Enamorando, a collaboration with producer Emilio Estefan that sold around 3 million copies and made him an international star, it was the 2004 hit A Corazón Abierto that generated the momentum for his new release. That album, with its hit track Me Dediqué a Perderte, sold 250,000 copies. It led Fernández into new markets in countries like Spain, Argentina and Chile. Within the United States and Mexico it appealed to younger generations and surpassed all expectations.
“It was a surprise for all of us. We thought the material was going to work well, but it exceeded everything that we could have imagined,” Fernández says. “So we wanted to give continuity to that.”
Viento a Favor further consolidates Fernández as a pop star by including a steamy duet with pop diva Beyonce Knowles. The song Amor Gitano, a sensual flamenco-pop track to be used as the theme song for Telemundo’s El Zorro telenovela, was recorded in New York earlier this year. “I thought she was spectacular. She is a very beautiful girl, very humble, and has a spectacular voice,” Fernández says of Beyonce, who was in a crossover journey of her own. As a way to tap into the Latin market, the song was included in her special edition of her B’Day album, along with six other Spanish-language tracks including a Spanish version of her song Irreplaceable and a duet with Colombian singer Shakira.
Under the direction of producer Aureo Baqueiro, who produced both of his previous albums, Fernández and his team listened to over 500 songs before picking the right 12 for the album. These include songs written by popular composers Gian Marco, 3 de Copas, Reily Barba, Fonseca and Sin Bandera’s Leonel García and Noel Schajris, among others.
Then Fernández and his team flew down to Buenos Aires to record at Santito Studios. “It was great. We wanted a change of air, to be in another place, and to take advantage of the time there to do a bit of public relations,” he says.
Aside from working hard, (recording until 5 a.m. some days), Fernández set aside time to relax during his 15-day stint there. He recalls a few sunny Argentine mornings of bumping into Chris Martin and other Coldplay band members drinking a beer by the hotel pool, as the popular British band was also there on tour. Finishing touches for the album were later made at Igloo Music Studio in Los Angeles.
“We were all eager to get back into the studio and record something new,” says Fernández.
His last production México Madrid En Directo y Sin Escalas (Mexico-Madrid Nonstop) was recorded live in concert in 2005. At that sold-out concert at the Palacio de Congresos of Madrid he sang some of his biggest hits from A Corazon Abierto accompanied by a 28-piece orchestra. He also sang duets with Spanish popular artists like Amaia of La Oreja de Van Gogh, Malu and flamenco star Diego Cigala. The concert was part of his 2005 tour through nine cities in Spain.
Despite the deeper incursion into pop, Fernández, who bears a tattoo that reads “Made in Mexico” on his back, says he will always be a proud ambassador of his country’s music.
“Even though the direction we are heading in is pop, at no time am I going to stop singing Mexican music, nor am I going to remove my charro outfit,” he says emphatically.
The charro attire, characteristic of traditional mariachi music, might even amp up his sex appeal in front of female audiences, whom he seduces with a powerful velvety voice and a strong stage presence.
“Wherever I go, even if I am presenting a pop album, I always take my mariachi [band] with me and I always dress like a charro.”
Characterized as being romantic and passionate, Fernández, nicknamed El Potrillo of Mexico, or The Colt, describes himself as persistent, someone who learns from his mistakes, and a perfectionist. “I don’t know if that is good or bad,” he says. “Maybe I am too complicated.”
What is certain is that he has tackled the first 15 years of his career with a spirit of self-discovery and reinvention. “I’ve always liked to be surprising with my projects,” he says.
For the next 15 years to come, he hopes to continue doing the same.
“While the public, which is the most important thing, gives me permission to still be here dedicating myself to this which I really enjoy, and while God gives me faculties to do so, in the next 15 years I will still be singing. I am a very young person that still has a lot of things to give and experience, to discover and rediscover.”

Discography
D 2007: Viento a Favor

D 2005: México-Madrid Nonstop
No.10 on Billboard Top Latin Albums,
No.11 Billboard Top Heatseekers

D 2004: A Corazón Abierto
No.125 on the Billboard 200,
No. 2 Billboard Top Latin Albums,
No. 3 Top Heatseekers

D 2003: Niña, Amada Mia
No. 22 on Billboard Top Latin Albums

D 2002: Un Canto a México
No. 33 on the Billboard 200

D 2001: Origenes
No. 2 on Billboard Top Latin Albums

D 2000: Entre Tus Brazos
No. 144 on the Billboard 200,
No.1 Billboard Top Latin Albums

D 1999: Mi Verdad
No.148 on the Billboard 200,
No. 5 Billboard Top Latin Albums

D 1997: Me Estoy Enamorando
No.125 on the Billboard 200,
No.1 Billboard Top Latin Albums Muy Dentro de Mi Corazón,
No. 13 on Billboard Top Latin Albums

D 1995: Que Seas Muy Feliz
No. 28 on Billboard Top Latin Albums

D 1994: Grandes Exitos
No. 30 on Billboard Top Latin Albums

D 1993: Piel de Niña

D 1992: Alejandro Fernández

West-Coast Tour Dates
* Subject to change

August 31 Sacramento Arco Arena
September 1 San Jose Events Center
September 2 Fresno Selland Arena
September 7-8 Los angeles Gibson Amphitheater
September 13 Tucson AVA Casino
September 14 Phoenix Dodge Theater
September 15 Las Vegas Mandalay Bay