Jenni Rivera

While still in school, Jenni Rivera became pregnant with José Trinidad Marin’s child and gave birth to their daughter, Janney Marín Rivera, at the age of fifteen. The couple later married in 1984 and had two more children, Jacqueline and Michael.

Rivera was sexually and physically assaulted by Marin a number of times, and later through a medical examination, it was revealed that their daughter Janney had also suffered abuse at the hands of her father.

The couple ended their marriage in 1992. Rivera eventually filed a case against him and her ex-husband spent nine years as a fugitive before he was apprehended. Upon his apprehension, he was given a 31-year long prison sentence without parole.

Dolores Janney Rivera Saavedra was born in Long Beach, California, on July 2, 1969. Her mother Rosa Saavedra and father Pedro Rivera raised her and her five siblings in a musical environment. Rivera was introduced to the Banda musical genre and Mexican music by her family.

She became pregnant at the age of fifteen but was persuaded by her teachers to continue her studies as they deemed it a complete waste of talent if she were to drop out. She later attended California State University to earn a degree in business administration before working in the real estate industry.

Jenni Rivera had started singing from a very tender age; however, it was on 1992 Father’s Day when she made her first recording which was a tribute to her father.

Rivera found it tough to break into the typically male-dominated Mexican music industry. She once confessed that one radio programmer from Los Angeles threw her music CD into the trash bin in her presence.

She independently released an album ‘Farewell to Selena,’ which was a tribute to the ‘Queen of Tejano music’ Selena Quintanilla-Pérez who was murdered in 1995.

She signed with Sony Music and released her major label debut studio album ‘Si Quieres Verme Llorar’ followed by her second studio album ‘Reyna de Reynas’, both in 1999. The albums failed to become commercially successful, much to the frustration of Rivera.

Her third studio album, ‘Que Me Entierren Con la Banda’, was released in March 2000 under Fonovisa Records. It had songs like ‘Las Malandrinas’ which was a tribute to her hardworking female fans. The album was a big success, and finally, Rivera earned her place in the industry.

‘Mi Vida Loca’, Jenni Rivera’s ninth studio album was released in 2007, under Fonovisa Records. It was her first studio album to take her to newer heights. Allmusic gave it a four-star rating. Rivera won the 2008 Latin Billboard Music Award for Regional Mexican Album of the Year. The album peaked at number two on the Top Latin Albums chart in the United States and also made its debut at the top of the Regional Mexican Albums chart.

Her album ’Jenni’ was the most significant work in her career. It earned her fame, commercial success, as well as critical acclaim. The album reached the number one spot on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart in the United States and reached number 27 on the Top 100 chart in Mexico.

The album earned Rivera another Banda Artist of the Year award at the Lo Nuestro Awards, making her the first female singer to win the award twice; the record still remains to be broken.