Rivera Jenni - Jenni Rivera: the incredible life of a warrior butterfly

C. A. PRESS

JENNI RIVERA
THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF A WARRIOR BUTTERFLY

Novelist, pianist and journalist, Leila Cobo is the Executive Director of Latin Content and Programming for Billboard magazine. Under her tenure, Billboard has expanded its coverage of Latin music to unprecedented levels, and now has a complete weekly section dedicated solely to Latin music. Leila also programs the yearly Billboard Latin Music Conference, the largest gathering of the Latin music industry in the United States.

Originally from Cali, Colombia, Leila won a Fulbright scholarship to attend graduate school and earn a Masters Degree in Communications from the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California, after having earned a Masters Degree for concert piano performance from the Manhattan School of Music in New York. She was the pop music critic for The Miami Herald and wrote about culture for The Los Angeles Times. Leila has written album notes for many top-selling artists including Shakira, Ricky Martin, Julio Iglesias and Chayanne. As a musical expert, she has been invited to serve as a judge for many competitions, including the Via del Mar International Song Festival in Chile, and Objectivo Fama Internacional, in Mexico.

In addition to her position at Billboard, Leila is the Executive Producer and host of Estudio Billboard, the acclaimed television show where she has interviewed the greatest artists in Latin music, including Man, Juan Luis Guerra, Jenni Rivera and Gloria Estefan.

Leila is a coauthor of the Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music and contributing writer for Quinceaera, an essay collection published by HarperCollins. As a fiction writer, her first novel, Tell Me Something True, was published in October 2009 to critical acclaim by Grand Central Publishing/Hachette. Her second novel, The Second Time We Met, was published in 2012.

In 2008, the Miami magazine Ocean Drive named her one of its Power Brokers. She also won the Premio Orqudea, which honors exceptional Colombians living abroad, for her work as a journalist. Leila is considered a leading expert on Latin music, and is constantly referenced in music media. She lives in Miami, Florida. For more information, visit her Web site:

www.leilacobo.com

Leila Cobo

C. A. PRESS

Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, USA

USA | Canada | UK | Ireland | Australia | New Zealand | India | South Africa | China
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
For more information about the Penguin Group visit penguin.com

First published in Spanish under the title Jenni Rivera: La increble vida de una mariposa guerrera by C.A. Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 2013
This English-language edition published 2013

Copyright Leila Cobo, 2013
Translation copyright Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this product may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

Translation by Diane Stockwell

ISBN: 978-0-698-13620-5

To the memory of Jenni Rivera and all the
Warrior Butterflies who persevere
no matter what the odds.

El da en que yo me muera
que me entierren con la banda

From the song
Que me entierren con la banda
(Bury Me with the Band)
by Antonio Aguilar,
performed by Jenni Rivera and Lupillo Rivera

O n the morning of her death, Dolores Janney Rivera Saavedra woke up feeling great. The night before, she had performed to a sellout crowd in Colima, Mexico, and she would be at the Monterrey Arena that night.

For Rivera, this was a very important show. With 16,000 seats, the Monterrey Arena is one of the biggest, most prestigious venues in Mexico. Jenni had done a concert there once before, and it had sold out. For this one, she had decided to place the stage in the very center of the arena floorcreating a 360-degree stage, like a bullfight ringto fit more seats, and to have a more intimate atmosphere. Tickets had sold out in less than fifteen days, quite an accomplishment, and Jenni felt that she had a tremendous responsibility to the audience in Monterrey, especially now that she was a judge on La VozMexico, and was seen on television by millions of viewers every week.

She had enthusiastically, painstakingly planned the concerts down to the last detail. Her band and the mariachi group that accompanied her on her ranchero songs would also travel from Colima. She had her carefully chosen wardrobe with her, ranging from a sumptuous pink gown with a diagonal floral pattern, to a super-tight pair of jeans and jacket that hugged every inch of her generous curves. Each wardrobe change corresponded perfectly to the music, which also reflected the many facets of Rivera: party girl, classy lady, grand diva, best friend.

That Saturday afternoon, as she arrived in Monterrey, Rivera was all of those things. Her trusted inner circle was with her, including Arturo Rivera, her long-time publicist and one of the most popular public relations agents in Mexico. Jenni trusted his judgment implicitly, and considered him her right-hand man who helped her go to battle with the media when necessary. And there was her makeup artist, Yacob Yenale, a Mexican living in Los Angeles who worked with all of the greats, from Christina Aguilera to Rihanna, but he was such close pals with Rivera he cleared his whole calendar just so he could travel all over Mexico at her side. Jorge Gonzalez was her stylist, in charge of maintaining the very long, exquisite extensions that had become Jennis trademark. From her management team, on this trip Rivera traveled with her lawyer, Mario Macias.

The mood was festive when they landed. Things could not have been going any better for Rivera. Colima had been a smashing success, and Monterrey should be even bigger. And the next day, on Sunday, they would be on the set of La Voz, for the semifinals of the talent show in search of Mexicos next great voice. Rivera was feeling so good, she had even made plans to go out after her concert. The band M-40 also had a show in Monterrey that night, and she had asked their promoter to reserve a VIP table for her at the club where they were performing. Jenni liked to support up-and-coming actsover the years she had strongly supported artists like Akwid, Larry Hernandez, Espinoza Paz, 3BallMTYand M-40 was starting to make a name for themselves.