Died On This Date (January 23, 2017) Bimba Bosé / Popular Spanish Singer, Model & Actress
themusicsover Bimba Bosé (Born Eleonora Salvatore González)
October 1, 1975 – January 23, 2017
Bimba Bosé was a Spanish model, actress and singers who graced some of the most respected fashion magazines and runways in the world. Her contributions to popular music weren’t nearly as well-known, but included performances with her uncle, Miguel Bosé, the revered Spanish singer. In 2007, Bosé sang with her uncle on his hit single and video, “Como un Lobo,” which they performed on that year’s Latin Grammy Award show. The following year Bosè formed the Cabriolets with whom she recorded three albums. Her first album, Demo, included guests, Marc Ribot and John Medeski. Bimba Bosé was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014. She was 41 when she died from the disease on January 23, 2017.
Joan Sebastian was a Mexican singer-songwriter who counted at least 1000 compositions as his own. Over the years, his songs have been made into hits by the likes of Vicente Fernandez, Rocio Durcal and Pepe Aguilar. Sebastian was just a seven-year-old boy living in rural Guerrero when he first began writing songs. As a teen, his mother sent to live in a monastery where he strongly considered a life as a priest, but after enrolling in a seminary, he decided he wanted a career in music. During the late ’60s, Sebastian met actress and singer Angelica Maria who not only asked him to write songs for her, but encouraged him to write songs for himself to record. By 1974, he was living in Mexico City where he recorded his debut album, Pedro Parrandas to modest local acclaim. During the ’90s, Sebastian landed a role in the popular Mexican soap opera, Tu y Yo, but still worked hard to further his music career. In 2000, he released Secreto de Amor which became a smash in Mexico, the United States, and beyond. In the U.S. alone, it sold over 4 million copies and earned him multiple Grammys. He went on to become the most awarded Mexican performer in Grammy history. In 1999, Joan Sebastian was diagnosed with bone cancer. Although he battled it into remission a handful of times over the next several years, it ultimately took his live on July 13, 2015. He was 64.
Bebo Valdés was a highly regarded Latin jazz musician, composer and bandleader whose name is synonymous with the golden age of Cuban music. Making his name in Havana during the ’40s, Valdés went on to become the pianist and house arranger at the city’s legendary Tropicana Club from 1948 to 1957. It was there during the ’50s that he became a key figure in the development of mambo. In 1960, Valdés defected to Mexico and then moved to the United States and later settled in Sweden. In 2000, he was featured in the acclaimed Latin jazz documentary, Calle 54, which brought his career a well-deserved second chapter in which he was able to entertain a whole new generation of young fans. Throughout his career, he was awarded with seven Grammys, his most recent two in 2010. Bebo Valdés was 94 when he passed away on March 22, 2013.
Jenni Rivera was a highly regarded Mexican American singer who, over a career that began in the early ’90s, earned the moniker of “La Diva de la Banda.” Born into a musical family in Long Beach, California, Rivera began singing at an early age. In 1996, she signed with EMI/Latin Records and went on to sell over 20 million albums worldwide. Popular on both sides of the US/Mexican border, Rivera became the first female Banda artist – a genre strongly dominated by men – to sell out the Staples Center in Los Angeles. She could also easily fill larger theaters for multiple nights throughout many US and Mexican cities. Throughout her career, Rivera was nominated for a Latin Grammy three times – in 2003, 2008, and 2010. In the early morning hours of December 9, 2012, the Learjet which was taking Rivera from Monterrey, Mexico to the Mexico City area for a concert, fell off the radar. The plane vanished about ten minutes into the 3:15 a.m. flight and never reached its destination, so a search was launched at daybreak. The wreckage of the plane, which was carrying two pilots and five passengers was reportedly found several hours later with no survivors. Jenni Rivera was 43.
