Jenni Rivera says no one should be surprised that she named her latest CD Mi Vida Loca. After all, she has endured teen motherhood and two troubled marriages and is raising five children. All this while maintaining a busy touring and recording schedule as a red-hot norte o/banda singer.
It sang to my life, she said in a recent interview. My life that has been very crazy and different. I think I've lived happily.
Difficultly, but happily.
It came from the fact that throughout my productions, I've always been asked, 'Do you identify with this song? Do you actually interpret what you record?
' Most of the time, it's no, they don't apply directly in my life. These songs in one way or another apply either to my experiences or my sentiments.
The 11-track CD is a mix of cumbias, rancheras and polkas, all fueled by the big-horn power of banda music.
Like the colorful Paquita Del Barrio, Rivera is known as an outspoken male-bashing singer.
Highlights include the Rivera-penned party tune Mi Vida Loca 2 and the slow and poignant ballad Dejame Vivir, written by Vicente Uvalle about an abortion that wasn't performed. All of the tunes have a short intro and explanation by Rivera.
Rivera also offers a banda version of Gloria Gaynor's anthem I Will Survive.
Rivera, who has three brothers in the regional Mexican scene, including narco-corrido singer Lupillo, has survived quite a bit.
Just little, simple things, she said.
Economic struggle with an immigrant family. Being raised by four brothers who made me tough and strong and more of a tomboy, which I believe was able to help me face the difficulties that I put myself through later on as a 15-year-old teenage mother going through domestic violence.
Finding out, years after our separation, after an eight-year marriage with this man, that he was sexually abusing my daughter.
Getting married to my second husband, thinking I was totally in love, helping him through staying with him through thick and thin, finally divorcing. Paying spousal support to that one, and so on.
The first single from the CD is titled La Sopa del Bebe ( The Baby's Soup ), a provocative song about a woman's choice to cheat on her wayward husband as payback.
During my eight-year relationship to my second husband, I was heartbroken, Rivera said. I found out that he was cheating, and I was going through hell. Just being cheated on by the person that you love can destroy you if you let it.
He was out there, just being the badass that he was, getting all the girls and stuff, and I was working hard, being a real-estate agent, being a housewife and a mother. So 'La Sopa de Bebe' is kind of like the I-got-you-back song. I got you back, but you never found out.
So what keeps Rivera going?
Honestly, I feel God has a plan for me, she said. God will not give me more than I can handle.
Therefore, if I do come out of these problems and make it, it's because he wants me to be able, through my experience, to teach another human being that they can do it.
I know that I was stuck being a mother and a father to my five children at different times in my life. I didn't have a choice but to be a good example and a role model, showing them that we can succeed and we can make it if we don't give up.
Upcoming concerts are lining up. Molotov, the Mexican rock/rap group, will bring its thundering grooves to Sunset Station on April 12. Opening is Los Abandoned, a Los Angeles foursome that really impressed during their SXSW showcase last week.
Singer-songwriter Julieta Venegas, who is on tour behind her latest CD Limon y Sal, is due at the Lila Cockrell Theater on April 19.
Latin pop singer Belinda will play St. Mary's Oyster Bake on April 21.
Also on the same bill are La Onda Caliente, Hecho En Mexico, La Cima, Varonil and Grupo Metal.
Paulina Rubio returns for a concert at Municipal Auditorium on July 6. And finally, Manu Chao, former singer of the French world-music band Mano Negra, is set for a June 10 date at Dallas' Palladium Ballroom and a June 11 show at Stubb's in Austin.
Ramiro Burr's Latin Notes appears Fridays in Weekender and Sundays in S.A. Life Culturas.
He can be reached at (210) 250-3429 or rburr@ express-news.net.
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