Festival Starlite Occident and Gloria Trevi

"Supreme Diva of Mexican Pop" may sound hyperbolic when one first hears it, especially considering it was a term coined by VH1 of all things. However, when it comes to Gloria Trevi, it’s a perfect fit. There are few musicians alive that have the kind of influence and reach that she does, with most of her studio albums going to number one on her native Mexico’s album charts.

By the looks of it, this was Trevi’s plan all along. Her life in music began when she was twelve, when she left the town of Monterrey, where she was born, to pursue a career in Mexico City.

By 1985 she’d met her manager Sergio Andrade, and had joined a girl group called Boquitas Pintadas. The group was short lived, only lasting three years before splitting, but the year after that happened, Trevi’s debut solo album came out. “¿Qué Hago Aquí?” (What am I Doing Here) and was an instant smash, eventually selling two million copies and scoring a number one single in the form of “Dr. Psiquiatra”.

Trevi was almost immediately being talked about as the Mexican Madonna, and not just for her sexually provocative image. She often talks and sings of the social issues that made up the day to day life of many in her home country and around the world, from homelessness, to prostitution, drug trafficking and violence against women. She became an icon to millions in a very short space of time.

Her career in music and film blossomed but in 2000 she, Andrade and backup singer Maria Raquenel Portillo were arrested on charges of corrupting minors. Come 2004 she was released from prison and was immediately back in the studio.

“Cómo Nace El Universo”, the resulting album, was another number one smash that put her career right back on track. Hers is a career and in a lot of ways, a life, that only the strong could make it through, and in Gloria Trevi we have an artist who can face those challenges, pull through and still create the best music of her life. We’re all better off to have her around, and if the opportunity to see her perform comes up, I urge you to take it.