Valentin Elizalde

Valentín Elizalde, born Valentín Elizalde Valencia on February 1, 1979, in Jitonhueca, Sonora, was a Mexican singer known as “El Gallo de Oro” and one of the defining voices of early-2000s banda and regional Mexican music. He came from a musical family headed by singer Lalo “El Gallo” Elizalde, and after spending part of his youth in Sonora, Jalisco, and Sinaloa, he made his first documented public performance in 1998 at a local festival in Bacame Nuevo, Sonora. His recording career began with Regresan los Mafiosos in 1999, followed by Traición Federal in 2000 and 17 Éxitos en Honor a mi Padre in 2001, a tribute shaped in part by the loss of his father. Over the next few years he expanded his audience with albums such as Y Se Parece a Ti in 2002, Mi Satisfacción and Corridos Entre Amigos in 2003, Herencia Mexicana and Volveré a Amar in 2004, and Soy Así in 2005, while songs like "Vete Ya," "Ebrio de Amor," and "Soy Así" became closely tied to his name. In 2006 he released Vencedor, one of the key albums of his career. On November 25, 2006, shortly after a performance in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, he was murdered at age 27. His death sharply changed the scale of his legacy: Vencedor became his first Number1 album on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart, and his catalog remained central to the modern corrido and banda canon long after his career was cut short. That legacy was revisited again in 2026, when his music returned in the posthumous collaborative EP Un Día Como Hoy with Edgardo Núñez, introduced by a new version of "Vencedor" that peaked at number 37 on the Regional Mexican Airplay chart.