Vicente Fernández, Famed Mexican Singer, Dies at 81

Mexican singer Vicente Fernández has died. He was 81 years old.

Fernández, who NPR writes was seen as the “last living legend of the Mexican ranchera,” passed away on Sunday morning. While his family didn’t reveal the circumstances behind his death, he had been in the hospital since August, following a fall at his Mexico ranch and emergency spinal surgery.

During that time, he discovered he had an autoimmune disease called Guillain–Barré syndrome. Though his health was on the up-and-up for a while, he relapsed. According to TMZ, he had a number of health issues in the past: in 2012, he had surgery to take out a cancerous growth on his liver, and the next year he endured pulmonary thrombosis.

As a Mexican ranchera singer, Fernández sang songs about honor, love, heartbreak, and courtship, and even cockfights and rodeos. He also dressed in a charro ensemble—the Mexican cowboy—and performed with a mariachi band. He wore a sombrero and a pistol, a black mustache, and black bushy eyebrows–-even after his hair went white.

Before he became “King of Rancheras,” Fernández was born in 1940 and grew up in a small town in the state of Jalisco. Later, his family moved to Tijuana where he made money working odd jobs, like washing cars, shining shoes, and digging ditches. He began singing in bars and restaurants in 1959, and later recorded his first hit record, the love ballad “Tu Camino y El Mío” in 1969.

His albums sold millions of copies, and he went on to win three Grammy Awards and eight Latin Grammys. He was later named Person of the Year by the Latin Recording Academy in 2002. He also starred in 35 movies and got his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1998.

RIP.