Mijares

Manuel Mijares is an adult contemporary pop singer from Mexico who performs under his last name. Possessed of a resonant, theatrical baritone, he is one of Latin America’s most noteworthy performers. After placing three Top Five singles from his 1986 EMI debut Soñador, he rode the Latin album and singles charts to the tune of ten gold, seven platinum, and five diamond certifications and has won countless awards. Mijares has sold more than 20 million records. His biggest recordings — 1989′s Un Hombre Discreto, 2005′s Jose Jose tribute Honor a Quien Honor Merece, 2013′s Canto por Ti, and the following year’s No Se Me Acaba el Alma — have endeared him to fans across the globe. Further, his songs have appeared as themes and cues in a wide variety of television programs and films including Oliver y Su Pandilla, Beauty and the Beast, and The Road to El Dorado. In 2016 he released the live retrospective Sinfónico Desde el Palacio de Bellas Artes with his road band, two symphony orchestras, and a choir. In 2018 he recorded Rompecabezas and its 2019 counterpart, Rompecabezas II, entirely in Los Angeles. They included not only new songs but covers and all-star duets. After embarking on a pair of sold-out U.S. and Mexican tours, he issued his debut holiday collection, Feliz Navidad, in 2020.
Singer Manuel Mijares was born José Manuel Mijares-Morán in 1958 in Mexico City. He cites his mother, a dance teacher, as his first major musical influence. She encouraged him to participate in his elementary school choir where his distinctive vocal qualities were noticed by his teachers, who offered further encouragement. After singing in groups with friends throughout high school, Mijares got serious about music. He made his professional debut in 1981 in a local festival called Valores Juveniles. He emigrated to Japan at 24 to accept a singing job in a nightclub, and while there he recorded television and radio jingles. After returning to Mexico in 1983, Mijares won a spot in the backing chorus of Latin pop star Emmanuel. Two years later he signed a solo deal with EMI and released his debut album, Soñador, in 1986. He represented Mexico in the annual OTI Festival and won “Revelation of the Year.” The label reissued the album and it subsequently netted three Top Five singles. Mijares first hit the international pop charts with the 1987 single “No Se Murió el Amor,” the opening track from Amor y Rock ‘N' Roll. He toured incessantly across Mexico and made inroads to West Coast American radio. He made his debut as an actor in the 1988 film Escápate Conmigo, where he met his future wife, the pop singer Lucero. Based on the film’s success, Mijares issued the triple-gold-certified Uno Entre Mil that year and followed it in 1989 with Un Hombre Discreto, which was certified gold seven times over and peaked at number four on the Top Latin Albums chart.
Mijares would reside in the upper rungs of the singles and album charts throughout the early ’90s. After 1993’s number five Encadenado, he released Vive en Me, a live outing recorded in New York City. It featured songwriting contributions from Pablo Milanes, Lolita de la Colina, and Gerardo Flores. While the album missed the upper rungs of the charts, it did net two Top Ten singles in the title cut and Francis Cabrel’s “Je L’aime a Mourir”; it was adapted as “La Quiero a Morir” by Luis Gómez-Escolar.
In 1996, Mijares issued Querido Amigo, a tribute to Mexican singer and actor Pedro Infante. Producer José Luis Espinosa dubbed Mijares’ fresh vocals onto cleaned-up tapes of Infante’s singing, with fresh orchestral and choral arrangements.
In January of 1997, Mijares and Lucero married. El Privilegio de Amar, his debut album for Universal, was a chart hit; its title track, featuring Lucero on backing vocals, became the title theme of a telenovela, reached the Top Ten on three U.S. charts, and registered at number one in 11 Latin American countries. Its follow-up, “Estrella Mia,” didn’t chart in the U.S. but did reach number two in Mexico and the Top Ten in a dozen other countries. In 2000, he was invited by Dreamworks to sing three Elton John songs for the score to The Road to El Dorado. He also issued the ballads collection Historias de un Amor, followed by the 2002 live offering En Vivo.
Mijares had become an influential persona in popular music. He sold enough records and concert tickets to dictate having a say in what he recorded and how — a rarity in pop circles then and now. To that end, he signed a short deal with Sony to record and release Honor a Quien Honor Merece in 2005, a heartfelt tribute to the influence of José José. It marked Mijares’ first platinum certification. A year later he issued Acompañame, a duet album with Yuri, and in 2007, Swing en Tu Idioma, which presented some of his favorite songs in big-band settings. 2008′s Hablemos de Amor was an oddity for Mijares: A one-off for EMI, its title track was composed for a telenovela of the same title and used as its theme song. The rest of the recordings were left to languish.
In 2009, Mijares returned to Warner for the covers album Vivir Así; it attained platinum status and prompted a 2010 sequel that attained diamond certification. After more than a decade of marriage, Mijares and Lucero divorced in 2011. The singer undertook transatlantic tours in the next two years, and in 2013 he released the platinum-certified smash Canto por Ti. Its single “Hoy” featured a duet appearance by Peruvian Latin Grammy winner Glan Marco. The album spent five weeks in the top spot on the Mexican pop charts and registered Top Ten in a dozen other countries. The following year’s No Se Me Acaba el Alma also topped the chart at home, earning diamond certification. In September of 2016, Mijares performed a 30-year career retrospective concert at Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes with two symphony orchestras, a choir, and his road band. The show was filmed for a television special and released as an audio-video package the following year as the chart-topping Sinfónico Desde el Palacio de Bellas Artes. It was certified gold upon release and later attained platinum status.
The accompanying video format appealed to Mijares. For 2018′s Rompecabezas, he recorded a slew of new songs and covers in Los Angeles. Among them were three duets: “A Donde Vamos a Parar” with Marc Antonio Solis, the title track with former boss Emmanuel, and “Vencer al Amor” with ex-wife Lucero. He and the label also filmed videos to accompany each song. Rompecabezas reached number two in Mexico and earned gold certification. Mijares enjoyed the experience so much, he followed it with a second volume in 2019. Also recorded in L.A., it included three duets — “No Te Vayas Todavía” with Maria León, “Besos Usados” with Melendi, and “Bandida” with Andrés Cepeda — and once again included videos. It was certified diamond in early 2020. Later that year, Mijares released his first holiday album, Feliz Navidad. ~ Thom Jurek & Drago Bonacich