/
/
/
Jenni Rivera’s “Joyas Prestadas”
Jenni Rivera’s “Joyas Prestadas”

Jenni Rivera’s “Joyas Prestadas”

Joyas prestadas Jenni RiveraAfter dominating the banda and norteño music industry, and most recently being nominated for a 2011 Latin Grammy in the Best Banda Album category for “La Gran Señora En Vivo”, Jenni Rivera embarks on a new musical venture.

With her latest release, “Joyas Prestadas” (borrowed jewels), Rivera presents a dual album of popular 80s classics but sung in pop and banda form. The 11-track discography includes songs that were made famous by strong female vocalists on the scale of Olga Tañon, Rocío Dúrcal and Yuri, and is the regional singer’s first attempt to target a non-regional Mexican music market.

During a press conference for “Joyas Prestadas”, Rivera answered questions in regard to the genre jump as well as her career. She also presented the Hard Rock Café Hollywood at Universal Citywalk with the dress she wore in the filming of “La Gran Señora En Vivo”, making her the first artist of her musical genre to exhibit in the Hard Rock Café where musical legends such as The Beatles and Madonna, to state a few, have also been honored.

The “Diva of Banda Music” also explained how this new album as well as the new season of “I Love Jenni”, the singer’s reality television series airing on mun2, is all fruit of many years of knocking on doors.

Jenni Rivera

“Joyas Prestadas”
Jenni Rivera: This album brings me a lot of good memories and will be good for fans of mariachi, banda and pop music. It’s a great gift for young girls, older woman and sure why not, even new Jenni fans as well! When I was young, I used to help my parents by working at the swap meet, and I used to play a lot of different types of music, regional music, of course, was one of them. I also played some songs that were not of that genre, but that stuck with me for some reason. And the songs in “Joyas Prestadas” are a few of them. I decided to do the songs in a pop and banda version because it was time to try something new. I’m not the type of woman to reach a goal and say: “There, I did it.” No. I’m always looking for what to do next, and this album was my next venture.

I also did the pop version because to be honest with you, we all know that banda music isn’t too popular in Chile, Argentina or Spain, which are markets that we want to get into. And well, I think that this pop version will be more accepted in those places. It’s mostly for people who want to hear something softer, but of course both albums have the same songs, just in different versions.

Choosing the tracks
The songs I chose were all made famous by very strong personalities. So when it came to singing the songs, and most importantly choosing which ones I wanted to re-do, I had to picture myself actually singing the songs live.  I talked to Olga Tañon before recording and she loved the idea. Yuri also knows that I recorded “Detrás de mi ventana” as a tribute to her, and she’s delighted about that. Marco Antonio Solis did me the favor of listening to a few tracks and said that if he liked it, he would participate in the album. And sure enough, he does vocals on “Basta Ya” and “Como Tu Mujer”. So for the most part, the artists that I honor in this album know that I did it with the best intentions and to let them know that their music has influenced my career.

Jenni Rivera

Turning a new leaf
What surprised me about recording pop music was that it was easy for me to hear the sentiment behind each song. With banda music, you have so many loud instruments and a fast-paced rhythm that sometimes it is difficult to hear the emotion to a song, so that was something very surprising to me. But having released an album of covers does not mean that there is lack of creative writing in this genre. I did this simply because I wanted to, and that’s all.  And it doesn’t mean that I’m leaving banda music, either. If anything, I’m adding to my career by doing something completely new to me.

Setting new goals
The type of woman that I am is always setting different goals. I won't always be on top, and I won’t be singing all my life. So this was another one of those goals that I set myself and achieved. It’s not courageous to stay at the same level and not aspire for bigger things. Looking back now, I made a lot of sacrifices in the beginning of my career in order to be where I wanted to be. And now that I have achieved some level of success, I have the opportunity to choose my jobs.

I’m honored to have one of my dresses at the Hard Rock café and be the first Mexican Regional singer to have a presence here. But all of this: “Joyas Prestadas”, my Latin Grammy nomination and my show “I Love Jenni” which was just signed for another season, is all due to hard work. It didn’t come easy, and it wasn’t handed to me.

Related posts