Trivia

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6160 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

Vicente Fernandez thought of giving his fingers to his son, Vicente Fernandez Jr. when the amputee (his son) was kidnapped in 2008. But when Vicente consulted an orthopedist, he indicated that the transplant would not be successful.

Has three sons Vicente, Gerardo and Alejandro Fernandez.

He lives in a ranch called "Los Tres Potrillos" which is located 12 miles away from Guadalajara - Chapala in Mexico.

In 2023, Rolling Stone named Fernández the greatest Mexican singer of all time and the 95th greatest overall with their "200 Greatest Singers of All Time" list.

Vicente Fernández was a Mexican mariachi singer, actor and film producer.

At the age of 14 he started singing in restaurants and at weddings, joining several mariachi groups such as Mariachi Amanecer de Pepe Mendoza and Mariachi de José Luis Aguilar. It was then when, in Jalisco, he participated in the radio program Amanecer Tapatío, and began to be recognized locally.

The U.S. press in 1991 was already talking about Fernández as the "Mexican Sinatra" and he released ranchera classics such as Las clásicas de José Alfredo Jiménez (1990), Lástima que seas ajena (1993), Aunque me duela el alma (1995), Mujeres divinas, Acá entre nos, Me voy a quitar de en medio (1998), and La mentira (1998), which all became classics.

In 1987 he launched his first tour outside the United States and Mexico when he traveled to Bolivia and Colombia.

In 1976, with the song Volver Volver, written in 1972 by Fernando Z. Maldonado, his fame was catapulted throughout the country and the American continent based on the sales of this recording. That song came to be covered by more than twenty singers, including Chavela Vargas, Ry Cooder, and Nana Mouskouri.

In the 1980s the style of Fernández's songs changed from bolero ranchero to a ranchera focused on migration. In fact, the song Los Mandados was a reference to those Mexicans migrating to the United States and reproduced macho and patriotic stereotypes. These were the years in which he built his ranch "Los 3 Potrillos", which would end up being his music production center.

In 2016, Fernández retired from performing live,[5] although he continued to record and publish music.

His first contract was with CBS Records of Mexico, the recording label in the Mexican department of CBS Records International, for whom he recorded albums such as Soy de Abajo, Ni en Defensa Propia, and Palabra de rey. Some of Fernández's songs such as "Tu Camino y El Mío" and "Perdóname" were very successful.

In 1984 he gave a concert at the Plaza de Toros México, which was attended by 54,000 people.

Fernández had to wait a decade to consolidate his career. With the death in 1973 of José Alfredo Jiménez, one of the great icons of rancheras, Fernández became a reference point in the music industry. His album "La voz que estabas esperando" and the following albums, titled "El rey, El hijo del pueblo", and "Para recordar", sold millions of copies.

At the age of 21 he appeared on the television show La calandria musical. It was his first paid show.

In 1983 he released his album 15 Grandes con el Numero Uno, which was the first to exceed one million copies sold.

His repertoire consisted of rancheras and other Mexican classics such as waltzes.

Nicknamed "Chente", "El Charro de Huentitán" (The Charro from Huentitán), "El Ídolo de México" (The Idol of Mexico), and "El Rey de la Música Ranchera" (The King of Ranchera Music), Fernández started his career as a busker, and went on to become a cultural icon, having recorded more than 100 albums and contributing to more than 150 films.

Once a teenager, Fernández began working various jobs, including as a bricklayer, painter, and cabinetmaker. During his working day he sang, so many construction companies asked to have him as a worker. After these jobs he was hired to work as a cashier in his uncle's restaurant.

In 1965 he moved to Mexico City to seek a future in the world of music. His first attempts with the record companies were unsuccessful due to the popularity of singer Javier Solís. There he arranged to sing in a program of the radio network XEX-AM, which at that time was the most important in the country. A few days after the premature death of Solís in April 1966, Fernández received his first offers for albums.

When he was between the ages of 6 and 7 years old, he used to go with his mother to see movies starring Pedro Infante and Jorge Negrete and, as he himself once recalled, he told his mother that "when I grow up I'm going to be like them". Thereafter he had a taste for music and at the age of 8 he was given a guitar, which he learned to play at the same time he began to study folk music.

Fernández's work earned him four Grammy Awards,[4] nine Latin Grammy Awards, fourteen Lo Nuestro Awards.

He sold over 50 million copies worldwide, making him one of the best-selling regional Mexican artists of all time.

In 2012, Chicago gave Fernández the key to the city and renamed the Little Village neighborhood's West 26th Street in his honor. In addition, the city celebrates "Vicente Fernandez Week" from 20 to 27 October.

After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Fernández was one of the 50 Latin singers who participated in the charity song "Somos El Mundo 25 Por Haiti", a cover version of "We Are the World".

As a film producer he debuted in 1974 with the film El hijo del pueblo. His last film was Mi querido viejo, in 1991, and thereafter he devoted himself exclusively to music.

On the day of his death, his fortune was valued at $25 million.

With his sons Alejandro and Vicente Jr, both singers, Vicente went on stage to sing with them on several occasions. The last time he went on stage was to sing with his son Alejandro, and to promote the musical career of one of his grandsons, Alex, in 2019.

On 28 November 2013, Fernández presented his book entitled Pero sigo siendo el rey in which he collects anecdotes and more than two hundred unpublished photographs about his professional career.

In his 50-year career he sold more than 65 million records and recorded more than 80 albums and more than 300 songs.

In films such as Por tu maldito amor, La ley del monte, El hijo del pueblo, and Mi querido viejo, he introduced his music, so the title of the film reflected the title of the song introduced.

He has 51 albums listed on the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for gold, platinum, and multiplatinum-selling records.

Fernández has an arena in Guadalajara named in his honor built in 2005 by his company, and a star placed with his hand prints and name at the Paseo de las Luminarias in Mexico City. Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson on 16 July 2008 declared 12 June as Vicente Fernández Day in the state.

On 6 October 2019 in Guadalajara, Fernández unveiled a statue created in his honor at the "Plaza de los Mariachis".

He won a Latin Grammy again in 2008 with the album Para Siempre which was released in 2007. In 2008 he released Primera Fila, which was certified double platinum in Mexico, platinum in Central America, platinum in Colombia, and double platinum plus gold in the United States. The album remained seven consecutive weeks at number one on Billboard, and led him to win another Latin Grammy for Best Ranchero Album.

Despite retiring from the stage, he continued recording albums and songs, such as the album Más romántico que nunca in 2018 and A mis 80s in 2020, which earned him his ninth Latin Grammy Award for best ranchera album in 2021.

In 1998, Fernández was inducted into Billboard's Latin Music Hall of Fame, and on 11 November 1998 his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was unveiled.

In 2002, the Latin Recording Academy recognized Fernández as Person of the Year.[68] That year he celebrated his 35th anniversary in the entertainment industry, a career in which he sold more than 50 million records and was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame.

He recorded, together with Tony Bennett, "Return to me" at his ranch in Guadalajara for Bennett's album Viva Duets, in which Bennett sang in Spanish. In a later interview, Bennett said that Fernández had been "his favorite".

In February 2021, Fernández was accused of sexual assault by a singer named Lupita Castro. Castro alleged that the incident had happened 40 years prior, when she was 17, and that she had kept her silence because of his influence and because of his threats of violence against her. Castro refused to go to court against Fernández.

In October 2011, taking advantage of his U.S. tour, he signed a three-year agreement with Budweiser for the second time to promote scholarships for Hispanic American students through the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

Fernández started off the opening ceremony of the 2011 Pan American Games, hosted by Guadalajara, and sang "México Lindo y Querido" and "Guadalajara"; later in the ceremony he sang the Mexican national anthem before the parade of the athletes' delegations, while his son Alejandro closed the ceremony performing the games' theme song "El Mismo Sol".

The concert he performed at the Zócalo in Mexico City on 14 February 2009 broke attendance records, with almost 220,000 people gathered to hear him.

He is known as "El Rey de Mexico" because of the way he plays music.