Once an artist finds a genre they’re successful in, they don’t usually leave it much. Sure, there was that one rock-inspired album that Lil Wayne tried in 2012, but it didn’t do that well, so he went back to rap.

Wayne is a good example of sticking to your genre – but Alejandro Fernandez isn’t. He moved fluidly back and forth between two or three genres during his career, with success in each one. While Latin-pop is his most successful genre, his work in traditional Mexican and Mariachi music is nothing to laugh at. He can thank his father for showing him the ropes there!

Early Life

Alejandro was born in 1971, in Guadalajara, Mexico, in the Jalisco province. He was born to Vicente Fernandez, who is a ranchera artist, successful in his own right. That exposure to music and the music industry during his early years sparked a love of the music – and the hustle in Alejandro. It led him to put out his first album in 1992 when he was just 21 years old.

That first album, unsurprisingly, was in the same genre his father performed in – and it was a good start. That album had hit singles and spurred five same-genre albums in the next five years.

Me Estoy Enamorando

Why fix what isn’t broken(?) is something you wouldn’t hear Alejandro say. Though he was doing very well for himself in the traditional genre, he decided to branch out in 1997. And thank goodness he did. His Latin pop album, Me Estoy Enamorando, was his most successful album ever! It showed him a new pathway to success, which he’s still confidently strutting down today. Since putting out that legendary album, Fernandez has worked with names such as Rod Stewart, Gloria Estefan, and even his own father. It’s truly been an astonishing career.