As a singer, songwriter and live performer, Juan Gabriel was one of the genre’s greats — and all-time earners
WHEN JUAN GABRIEL DIED from a heart attack on Aug. 28, the Mexican singer-songwriter was enjoying a level of commercial success rare for an artist in the prime of his career, let alone a 66-year-old legend.
His last thee studio albums debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart, with his 2015 release Los Duo moving 138,000 units and becoming the top-selling Latin album of 2015, according to Nielsen Music. An active live performer, he had notched the highest-grossing U.S. Latin tour of 2015 — close to $40 million, according to Billboard Boxscore, plus nearly $10 million more from 12 dates at Mexico City’s Auditorio Nacional alone — all of which brought him to No. 18 on Billboard’s 2015 Money Makers list. At the time of his death, Gabriel had just launched a 30-city U.S. tour; he performed at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on Aug. 26, the night before he suffered a fatal heart attack as he prepared to fly to El Paso, Texas, for the next show.
Yet those numbers only scratch the surface of his worth.
This story is from the September 17, 2016 edition of Billboard.
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This story is from the September 17, 2016 edition of Billboard.
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