By: Giselle Rojas
Luis Miguel is an international icon of music, especially in the Latin Music World. His music has impacted many in the Latin World. Known worldwide as “El Sol De México” or “The Sun of Mexico”, he has become a blueprint of what a successful child star and pop ballad singer is and how a person with so many personal struggles has managed to be so successful. Being 51 years old, Luis Miguel has been linked with some of the greats, from dating vocal legend Mariah Carey, to singing with Frank Sinatra and Celine Dion and being friends with the late Tejano Singer Selena Quintanilla. He has done it all in his long career, from acting in movies alongside Lucero, a popular Mexican actress at the short age of 12 to winning multiple Grammys. His personal life has been exploited by the media all his life and his personal struggles have been presented to the world leading with the infamous disappearance of his beloved mother Marcela Basteri at the age of 16, the last time the singer says he saw his mother.
His incredible voice and song hits go hand in hand with the musical icon he has became but his career and achievements are often outshined by the tur,oil of events he lived at a young age due to the obsession his father had with fame, and it shows what how much harm a parent can do to achieve success.
Born Luis Miguel Gallego Basteri on April 18, 1970 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to parents Spanish Musician Luisito Rey and Italian Actress Marcela Basteri and siblings to Sergio and Alejandro Basteri. With hits at the young age of 11 like “Decidete”, “La Incondicional”, “Ahora Te Puedes Marchar” and many more his career has gone on for decades making him a veteran in music who still performing his hits in Las Vegas and all over Latin America.
His personal life has always been a mystery to the media, from a very young age his life and personal struggles have been exposed by the media. Starting his musical career he was catapulted on a small television show at the age of 11 in “The Andres Garcia Show” in Juarez, where his young and powerful voice captivated many while he sang the song “La Malaguena”, where he sang alongside his father on the guitar. With his films and his songs, Luis Miguel became a young heartthrob and that led to a lot of media attention and the success of the young boy created the mystery of “Who is he?” and “Where did he come from?”.
One of the biggest scandals in Luis Miguel’s life that briefly affected his career was the whereabouts of his nationality. Luisito Rey, Luis Miguel’s dad moved his whole family from Spain to Mexico where he knew the Mexican market had more potential for his son and the dreams he had of fame. Luis Miguel was marketed as a Mexican child star, and identified himself as a Mexican native of Veracruz because his father pushed him to say he was Mexican. A son of both European parents claimed that his son was a native Mexican and that the family embraced all Mexican cultures, since Luis MIguel lived and went to school in Mexico and knew all traditional Mexaicn songs like rancheras and boleros. After his career took off he was given the nickname of “The Sun of Mexico” at a young age and many Mexicans embraced him and were proud of the voice and talent Luis Miguel had. Later on in his career around the late 90’s, close sources to the singer and his management knew that Luis Miguel had fired his father as a manager and knew the truth of his nationality. In a movie-like fashion, the media threw a frenzy when the tabloids started to learn Luismi or Mickey (another nickname for the singer) was born in Puerto Rico and their beloved “Mickey was never Mexican. For Mexicans, their national pride is a big thing and they embrace their own singers, artists, boxers and national team players as they claim they have some of the best, so to their disbelief that one of the best vocalists of that era was not Mexican it was heartbreaking. His fans and the press felt betrayed and lied to and Luis Miguel now without his father as a manager was left to deal with the public, offering a media conference where he explained he grew up in Mexico and was immersed in the culture and in his heart always felt Mexican. So as a solution Luis MIguel explained and apologized for his lies never truly explaining why he lied about his nationality or who did which many believe his father was responsible for since he was too young to even have a say at the start of his career and stated he was in the process to nationalize himself in front of his beloved country. During that press conference, he confessed he was working on a Mariachi album with beloved rancheras produced by Armando Manzanero, a nationally beloved Mexican producer. From that collaboration, Romance (1991) became one of Luis Miguel’s most successful albums which led to Grammy wins. The media accepted his apology and his attempt to make amends and he was handed his Mexican birth certificate and citizenship by Mexico’s former President Carlos Salinas de Gatori. Another minor scandal that he faced was that his father Luisito Rey, registered his son on the 19th of April so that shows up on his birth certificate. So Luis Miguel himself states that he celebrates his birthday on the 19th although he knows his birthday is the 18th of April.
Luisito Rey, a singer in his native country of Spain was a star in the sixties who sang with his guitar only. As a singer himself, he took upon the role of prepping his young child to become a young star at an early age. Obsessed with the idea to make his son a huge star he made his son rehearse and practice singing at a young age and exposed his son to reading music, vocal lessons and the art of stage performance all before the age of 10. Elvis Presely was a huge influence on Luisito Rey and Luis Miguel as Miguel was forced to watch, perform and rehearse Elvis Presley old movies, songs and stage presence to take inspiration from. Luis Miguel is known for his stage presence where it’s usually him on stage with a microphone and his band, nothing else. He always has a dapper suit on and while he is on stage he lets his voice speak for itself. Luis Miguel is considered a crooner, which is typically a male voice who sings sentimental songs in a soft voice. His voice can span three octaves and six notes, which is pretty impressive. He has a great control and strength to his voice where often in concert he removes his microphone away from his face when he is belting a note because the note he sings is often too loud. Producer Gustavo Santaolalla has named him “One of the greatest singers of all time, not just a singer, an artist”. Even Frank Sinatra, one of the best and most admired singers of all time has recognized Luis Miguel’s voice and asked him to sing his iconic song “Come Fly With Me” with him and record the classic duet. To pick a performance or song where Miguel’s stage presence is superior would be incredibly hard as he rarely has a bad performance, but one of the most known performances was in Chile at El Festival de Vina del Mar in 1994.
The relationship between him and his father was very rocky and often known by the media as an exploitative relationship between a manager and an artist instead of a father and son. Luis Miguel eventually ended up firing his father as a manager right when his career was at its peak due to the horrible mistreatment Luis Miguel received from his father and the financial problems his father gave him. It is alleged that his father stole a lot of money from him while he would play concerts and tour and failed to pay musicians. It is also said by close sources that Luis Miguel’s godfather, a close source to the relationship they had growing up, was that Luisito Rey was a stage dad, hungry and eager for his child’s success and went to extremes to make sure his son was prepared. Working on multiple albums, singing at concerts and working on movie sets, Miguel often suffered from exhaustion and was given drugs from his father to withstand the long hours of work he had to complete. His father even removed Miguel from school after his early success to work against his mothers will and began to tour with him, keeping Miguel away from home and away from mom.
The most devastating and traumatic scandal in Luis Miguel’s life was the arrupt disappearance of his mother’s Marcela Basteri. It is a topic Luis Miguel has remained extremely private about and unfortunately the media was never too sensitive about the topic. He gained a reputation of being difficult in the media because he eventually refused to answer questions about his private life, especially his mother and his relationship with his father. No one quite knows what happened to his mother, many even state Luis Miguel himself never got closure on what occurred. Miguel hired investigators but all leads led nowhere and many say Miguel has never been the same again. Conspiracies state that the obsession that his father had to make his son a star and the breadwinner of his family caused him to kill off the only obstacle in the way of his career and that was Marcela. Basteri always wanted her sons to go to school and supported her son’s career as long as he wasn’t overworked and far away from home. Luisito Rey did the complete opposite and overworked his son and created much tension between Marcela and him which led to a despite Miguel’s career, since Miguel’s career was taking off and all labels wanted to sign with him Miguel was still a minor and needed both consents. It is said that the last time Miguel saw his mother was at 16 at one of his concerts. No one really knows the truth of where she is or what happened to her, many say Luisito Rey had her killed, others say she’s away in Italy hiding but after Luisito Rey’s death in 1992 all hope to her whereabouts were gone.
Luis Miguel is now known to be incredibly secretive and rarely show off any of his children and girlfriends due to fear of media attention who still follow and speculate about his life. Miguel has stated in interviews that he still holds on to hope to find his mother or find closure on where she may be because he deeply misses her and throughout the years, he still states that there is a void he is missing and that is his mother. Luis Miguel is also often asked if he would allow his children to follow his footsteps as a singer or entertainer and he always says “no”, he states that he will wait until his child can choose what kind of career they wanna pursue.
Luis Miguel is a clear example of a child star whose career flourished and made him the legendary singer he is now, but it also shows the hardships of fame and how harmful those around you can be to you in order to reach success and fame. At barely 51, Miguel has reached a status many singers have not reached and he still has a long way to go in his career. A major move he did to reveal his life and his struggles has been to approve a Netflix Series based on his life starring Diego Boneta called Luis Miguel, The Series, which surprisingly has become a major hit and a new empathic light to his life.
Bibliography:
https://peopleenespanol.com/article/gustavo-santaolalla-luis-miguel-no-es-un-cantante-es-un-artista/
https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/espectaculos/musica/el-dia-que-salinas-hizo-mexicano-luis-miguel
https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/luis-miguel/13087
https://www.archyde.com/how-were-the-last-days-of-luis-miguels-mother-marcela-basteri-before-disappearing/ https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/espectaculos/musica/el-dia-que-salinas-hizo-mexicano-luis-miguel
Got A Million Rhymes 
Aw, this was an incredibly good post. Spending some time and actual effort to generate a top notch article but what can I say I procrastinate a lot and don’t manage to get nearly anything done.🤗 ⚡ 2021-06-29 08h 27min 00sec