It's been seven years since Lucero released an album, and his answer to the question why couldn't be more honest.
“I couldn't find maybe the perfect strategy,” the singer said in a video interview. “Right now the music market is difficult because it is difficult to predict what the public likes, and that sometimes does not allow you to make a decision to do something new.”
That does not mean that Lucero was at home with his arms crossed. Throughout this time he was recording songs for soap operas, duets with friends and songs for the occasional series.
But his case went beyond a personal decision. She realized that many of her colleagues were going through the same situation: not many were recording pop ballad albums, the genre that led the artist to be one of the most recognized Mexican performers inside and outside her country.
“I think they don't want to expose themselves because artists like me already have our successes, our repertoire,” he said. “We are very safe and calm with what we have and sometimes it is true that we are a little reluctant to take risks.”
The truth is that the pop ballad in Spanish is not going through one of its best moments, in addition to the fact that the music market, as Lucero and the artists of his generation knew it, has been transformed in recent years in a dizzying manner. Most new performers record songs constantly to be able to keep up with the algorithms of digital platforms, which reward frequent activity; Only in this way can they remain current in the public's memory.
In the midst of all these doubts and confusion, Lucero received a call from the record company Seitrack, which proposed that she record an album of ranchera music, a genre of which Lucero became one of the main representatives since she released “Con mi Sentiment” in 1990.
Mariachi style
That ace up her sleeve, which perhaps not even the singer knew she had, is what brings her back to the stage, now with “Mexican Connection”, an album —the first with mariachi after more than 20 years—, which will be released in February 2027 and from which she already released “Strong Statements.”
The album includes fourteen cuts that Lucero recorded live—in front of an audience—of which eleven are unreleased; the rest are re-recordings of popular songs, such as “Me gustas”, by Joan Sebastian. The new songs were written by some of today's most renowned composers, including Amanda Coronel and Joss Favela. Aureo Vaqueiro produced the album.
“I said, 'If these composers agree to give me their songs, write songs for me, then this is my chance,'” he says. “Sometimes you have to dare, and suddenly you are late, but I think that when you dare, you risk maybe a little, but when the result is so good […] well, it totally renews me.”
The novelty of this production is that it has “many ingredients and instruments” in addition to the mariachi, which make it more modern and also different from her previous albums, said the artist.
“But, of course, preserving my style, my personality,” he said. “I can't change that, nor do I want to.”
Another of Lucero's prides with this album were the collaborations with Joss Favela, Majo Aguilar and Los Ángeles Azules. For her it was a gift to share with young artists, in the case of Favela and Aguilar, because they are kids who "are now contributing to the music and the legacy, especially regional and ranchera music, and I love them."
Some of Vaqueiro's contributions were the most contemporary arrangements, such as the inclusion of the accordion, the double bass, and subtle Sierreño sounds thanks to the docerola —a twelve-string acoustic guitar—, which Lucero defines as a “tumbado fine” style.
“I defend the classic mariachi a lot, I defend the classic charro suit, which is what I wear,” he said. “But I do think that it is very nice to be able to give small, beautiful ingredients [to the album], that give it modernity.”
“Strong declarations” is the song that Lucero chose as the spearhead of the album.
“It seems to me to be a song with a lot of strength, like [with] a lot of feminine power, that although I am not like the fashionable lady who talks about feminism, because it is not the train that I get on […] I do believe that now [to] women, since they are in a situation that is more equal than men, they like to sing these types of songs,” she explains.
It is a heartbreak song that “without insulting” expresses to the couple that the relationship has already come to an end, he said. But, he clarifies, he does not have a dedication to someone in his life. In this regard, it is not known that Lucero has a romantic partner, only that she is focused on the flight that is resuming her career.
“Love is part of everyone's life,” he said. “You have to live it and you have to enjoy it, because love can be strange at times, beautiful at times, but you have to live it.”
