Pepe Aguilar

Following in the footsteps of his father Antonio Aguilar and mother Flor Silvestre (both music and movie legends in Mexico), Pepe Aguilar's mix of rock, pop, and mariachi styles has made him a Grammy Award-winning star of Latin music. Born Jose Antonio Aguilar on August 7, 1968, in Texas but raised in Zacatecas, Mexico, Aguilar first started performing at his parents' concerts when he was just three before forming prog-influenced groups in his teens. With the market for Spanish-language rock bands limited during the late 1980s, he turned his attention to the more traditional form of Mexican folk music known as ranchero and released the album Recuérdame Bonito in 1992. Wearing a sombrero and charro suit, he delved fully into mariachi on Qué Bueno (1994) with Rigoberto Alfaro arranging his songs and enjoyed great popularity with LPs such as Por Mujeres Como Tú in 1998, which sold over 2 million copies and spent a year in the Latin charts. Por Una Mujer Bonita won him his first Grammy Award in 2000 and he paid tribute to the great Latin artists who influenced him on Lo Grande de los Grandes (2001) before becoming the first Mexican artist to perform at the Hollywood Bowl in 2002. He went through tough times with the deaths of his father and former colleague Jenni Rivera and the kidnapping of his wife, but bounced back with a highly acclaimed performance on MTV Unplugged in 2014. Over the following years, Pepe Aguilar continued honoring his Mexican roots on the albums No Lo Había Dicho (2016), Setentas (2020), Mexicano Hasta los Huesos (2021), and A la Medida (2022). In 2024, his single "Hasta Que Me Duermo" reached number 40 on the Regional Mexican Airplay chart.