María Guadalupe Araujo Yong (born December 10, 1955), known professionally as Ana Gabriel, is a Mexican singer and songwriter. With over 40 million records sold worldwide, Gabriel is the best-selling Mexican female artist, and one of the best-selling Latin music artists of all time. Dubbed as the "Diva de América" and the "Luna de América",[1] during her long career, she has performed different genres of music (primarily Latin pop, Latin ballad and Ranchera).
As of 2013, Gabriel had released twenty studio albums, three live albums, and fifteen compilation albums. Three of Gabriel's albums have topped the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart, and has achieved 7 number-one singles on the Hot Latin Songs chart, including "Ay Amor", "Es Demasiado Tarde", and "Quién Como Tú".
She has been listed amongst history's greatest Latin artists by Billboard.[2] Her accolades include a Grammy Award nomination, four Latin Grammy Award nominations, thirteen Lo Nuestro Awards (including the Excellence Award),[3] as well as awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
María Guadalupe Araujo Yong was born in Guamúchil, Sinaloa, Mexico on December 10, 1955. She did not receive formal training for singing and she credits her maternal grandfather Roberto Yong, an immigrant from China, for providing the only singing coaching she received.
She first sang on the stage at age six, singing "Regalo A Dios" by José Alfredo Jiménez. She moved to Tijuana, Baja California and studied accounting. At age 21, in 1977, she recorded her first song, titled "Compréndeme".
In 1987, Ana Gabriel won third place at the OTI Festival, celebrated in Lisbon, Portugal, where she performed an orchestral version of the pop-power ballad song "Ay Amor", which later was released as a single in its album version; it climbed to the top position in Mexico, throughout Ibero-America and on the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart for 14 consecutive weeks.[4]
In 1988 Gabriel released her first album, Tierra de Nadie, followed by Pecado Original in 1989, which met with some chart success. Her 1990 album Quién Como Tú made her a force within the Mexican music industry. Eight months later, her live album En Vivo showcased her powerful stage act and scored several hits: "Hice Bien Quererte", "Propuesta", and "Solamente una Vez".
Throughout the 1990s Gabriel released an album almost every year. A versatile singer, she showcased her talent as an interpreter of many different musical styles, from lambada to mariachi and romantic ballads to pop music. She also honed her skills as a songwriter and a producer, releasing Mi México, a ranchera-influenced, mariachi-backed pop album, in 1991. This unique blend of styles was also reflected in the songs, all written by Gabriel. Her lyrics described strong, active women involved in their love lives, counter to their passive, traditional depiction in older songs. The album also included a tribute to Mexico's most popular singer-songwriter, Juan Gabriel (no relation).
Gabriel scored a number-one hit with the duet "Cosas del Amor" in 1991, which she sang with Vikki Carr, a Mexican-American pop singer. The single earned Gabriel a Lo Nuestro Award for Song of the Year in 1992. At the same awards ceremony, Gabriel was also named Female Artist of the Year in the Regional Mexican category and Pop Female Artist of the Year; Mi México was named Regional Mexican Album of the Year. In 1993, Gabriel was awarded Best Pop Female Performer at the Lo Nuestro Awards.[5] The following year, she appeared as a guest artist on Plácido Domingo's Grammy-nominated[6] album, De Mi Alma Latina.[7]
In 1996 she released the pop-oriented Vivencias. She followed this with the traditional ranchera album Con un Mismo Corazón in 1997, an album she wrote and produced herself. Of particular interest is her title-track duet with Vicente Fernández, one of the most prolific and popular ranchera singers in Mexican history. Burr[who?] wrote of the duet, "The beauty here lies in the melding of two great voices—Gabriel's husky sensuality and Fernandez's powerful, understated expressions—set against a 25-piece symphony."[citation needed]
Gabriel released another live album in 1998, En la Plaza de Toros México, a 30-track boxed set. That same year she traveled to Miami to work with the renowned producer Emilio Estefan, Jr., on her 1999 album Soy Como Soy. The result was a pop-influenced ranchera album that went gold in the Latin music market and helped Gabriel win the Ritmo Latino Music Award for Female Pop Artist of the Year in 2000.
With the release of Eternamente in 2000, Gabriel returned to mariachi love ballads, using only guitar as accompaniment. That same year she also appeared with other Mexican music icons in an Independence Day television special called Viva Mexico, a celebration of Mexican music and history. In 2001 Gabriel released Huelo a Soledad, once again balancing the traditional sounds of Eternamente with sophisticated pop songs, a cappella numbers, and dance tracks.
In 2002, Gabriel's platinum-selling album Sagitario was released. In that same year, she won the Billboard Latin Music Estrella Award in recognition of her contribution to the Latin music industry, performed at a tribute concert for Vicente Fernandez sponsored by the Latin Music Awards, and participated in the ninth annual Las Cruces International Mariachi Concert and Festival in New Mexico. In December of that year, she was scheduled to perform at the eleventh annual Christmas Mariachi Festival in Phoenix, Arizona, but was denied a work visa and refused entry into the United States.
In December 2014, singer Ana Gabriel told reporters on TV Azteca's Ventaneando program that in 2015 she would release her new recording project after seven years without releasing an album with unreleased songs. She performed at the 2014 Viña del Mar Festival, receiving the award for most popular artist along with the gold and silver seagulls and torches. In 2015, she received the Legend Award at the Hispanic Heritage Awards.[8] Two years later, she was inducted into the Latin American Songwriters Hall Of Fame.[9]
In 2017, Gabriel appeared in the multi award-winning documentary film The American Epic Sessions directed by Bernard MacMahon. In the film, Gabriel recorded live on the restored first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s.[10] She performed Lydia Mendoza's "Mal Hombre" accompanied by a large band featuring Omar Rodríguez-López and Van Dyke Parks.[11][12] Stephen Dalton in The Hollywood Reporter described her performance as "fantastic".[13]
Gabriel identifies as asexual.[14][15]
The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in the United States. Ana Gabriel has received one nomination.[16]
The Latin Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences in the United States. Gabriel has received four nominations.[17]
The Lo Nuestro Awards are awarded annually by television network Univision in the United States. Ana Gabriel has received thirteen awards from twenty-nine nominations.[5]
