The late, great banda singer Jenni Rivera once said “haters are just confused fans.” So it makes sense that although Jenni’s eldest daughter Chiquis seems to have an equal ratio of the latter to gung-ho cheerleaders, this in no way has deterred her from pursuing her own career in music.
And why should it? At 29, Chiquis has already endured more pain and tragedy than most people could conceive of (including losing her mother in a plane crash on Dec. 9, 2012) and has lived to tell the tale.
Despite being booed quite loudly on social media upon the release of her first single back in early 2014 (“Paloma Blanca” — more on that later), Chiquis dusted herself off and tried again, but not without remastering a few things, literally and figuratively.
Which brings us to this, her commendable debut album, Ahora (Now), the title of which suggests a sense of urgency to live in the moment, go after her dreams and shut out all the noise.
A bilingual banda album that flirts with other genres, it suggests ample room for growth. But that seems to be the intention, according to Chiquis.
“I don’t think that I sing like Celine Dion, but I’m not a horrible singer,” Chiquis tells Billboard. “I was watching a video the other day of my mom when she was first starting. She grew into this monster onstage, she really dominated it, but it wasn’t always like that. People forget that.”
