Julieta Venegas

Julieta Venegas did something that looked difficult: she took Latin pop —a genre sometimes accused of being easy or disposable— and made it personal, sophisticated and deep, without ceasing to be catchy.

With her accordion out front, her warm, slightly broken voice, and lyrics that talk about love and heartbreak with the honesty of a grown woman rather than a formula, she became one of the best-loved songwriters in Spanish-language music.

She is one of ours, and one of the greats.

A girl between two countries

To understand her music you have to understand where she comes from.

She was born in Long Beach, California, in 1970, but within a month she was already in Tijuana, that border city pressed up against the United States, crossing all the time between one country and the other, between two languages and two cultures. That constant crossing is in her sound.

And from the age of eight she studied classical piano, and later cello, singing and music theory, between Tijuana and San Diego. A serious, conservatory training, uncommon in pop. Which means that behind her seemingly simple songs there are many years of study.

Before going solo she passed briefly through Tijuana No!, the ska and punk band from her city, where she sang and played acoustic guitar, accordion and keyboards. It was a few months, and Ceci Bastida replaced her, but they served to toughen her up in the raw and the political.

Out of that mix —the border, classical music, garage ska— came an artist impossible to pigeonhole.

The accordion and the leap

Her first records, "Aquí" and "Bueninvento", were more rock-oriented and experimental, cult items.

But the leap came in 2003 with "Sí", and with a decision that became her trademark: putting the accordion —an instrument of Mexican popular music, humble, from small-town bands— at the centre of a modern, luminous pop.

With "Andar conmigo" and "Lento", that record made her a star across Latin America and Spain.

And in 2006, "Limón y Sal" sealed it. "Me voy" —a song of romantic farewell told with a very rare dignity, without bitterness, almost with tenderness towards the one being left— spent twelve consecutive weeks at number one in Mexico, and also went to the top in Colombia, in Italy and on Spanish radio. Almost twenty years later, Rolling Stone placed it thirty-fourth among the best Spanish-language songs of the century.

That record also earned her the American Grammy for best Latin pop album, which sits alongside eight Latin Grammys.

A woman telling her own truth

And here is what makes her important, beyond the hits.

In a Latin pop often dominated by men and by lyrics made from a template, Julieta Venegas wrote her own songs, played her own instruments, produced her own music, and told love from the gaze of a grown woman, thinking, in charge of herself.

Her heartbreak songs are not those of a victim or of spite. They are those of someone who knows herself, who decides, who leaves or stays with her eyes open.

She gave Spanish-language pop a female, authorial, intelligent voice that opened the way for many who came after. It is no accident that she worked with other powerful artists from the region, such as the Chilean Anita Tijoux, with whom she recorded "Eres para mí".

Julieta did not sing what she was handed: she sang what was hers. And that, in her genre and in her time, was almost revolutionary.

A marriage with Chile in the middle

And there is a chapter of her life that touches us closely, because it tied her to Chile.

In 1998, with her career taking off, Julieta Venegas married Álvaro Henríquez, the singer and leader of Los Tres, one of the great bands of Chilean rock. They had met through music. The Chilean press says they married in the United States and celebrated afterwards in Concepción, his city.

But the marriage had a problem at the root that she now tells with laughter: she lived in Mexico, he lived in Chile, and they married thinking they would sort out where to live later. They never sorted it out. Neither of them moved to the other's country.

On top of that distance came a turn worthy of a soap opera, which she told publicly in an interview in 2023. According to her account, he wrote her a very beautiful love song, and in the video for that same song he fell in love with the lead actress and left her for her.

It is worth saying it carefully and in her terms: this is Julieta's version, and she never named the actress. He has never publicly referred to the episode.

What is lovely is how she tells it today, without bitterness. "I adore him", she said in that same interview.

And the story had an epilogue. In March 2025, the two crossed paths at the REC festival in Concepción. He dedicated a song to her from the stage and said he still loved her. She replied the next day by dedicating "Lento" to him, and saying that Álvaro is someone very important in her life, someone she adores enormously. They were photographed in an embrace.

A failed love story, told with the same tenderness and the same dignity with which Julieta sings heartbreak in her songs. Life imitating the work.

What to remember

Julieta Venegas is proof that pop can be popular and profound at once, catchy and intelligent, mass and personal.

If you put on "Me voy", "Andar conmigo", "Limón y sal" or "Lento", you will hear melodies that stay stuck to you forever, with that unmistakable accordion, sung by a woman who put precise, honest words to what we all feel when we love and when we stop loving.

A girl from the border, with classical piano and the soul of ska, who ended up as one of the best-loved songwriters in Spanish-language music, and who taught a continent that a woman could write, play and be the boss of her own music.

When "Me voy" plays anywhere, half of Latin America sings the whole thing.

Few things are more ours.

Sources

Julieta Venegas Percevault (Long Beach, California, 24 November 1970), Mexican singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, raised in Tijuana from her first month of life. She studied classical piano from the age of eight, as well as cello, singing and music theory, at the Escuela de Música del Noroeste in Tijuana and at Southwestern College in San Diego. In the early nineties she passed briefly through the Tijuana ska and punk band Tijuana No!, where she was a vocalist and played acoustic guitar, accordion and keyboards; several sources place her spell there at around eight months, after which she was replaced by Ceci Bastida. She debuted with "Aquí" (1997) and "Bueninvento" (2000, of a more experimental sound), and reached mass success with "Sí" (2003, with "Andar conmigo" and "Lento") and "Limón y Sal" (2006). "Me voy" was number one for twelve consecutive weeks in Mexico, and also number one in Colombia, Italy and on the Latin Pop Airplay chart in the United States; in Spain it topped the radio chart. In 2025, Rolling Stone en Español placed it at number 34 of the 100 best Spanish-language songs of the 21st century. She won the American Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album for "Limón y Sal" at the 49th ceremony (2007), in addition to eight Latin Grammys. The global sales figures in circulation vary widely between sources and none is certified; one verifiable fact is that she was the first Mexican female singer to pass one billion streams on Spotify. She collaborated with the Chilean Anita Tijoux on "Eres para mí" (2007). Between 1998 and 2000 she was married to the Chilean musician Álvaro Henríquez, singer and leader of Los Tres; the Chilean press places the wedding in the United States with a later celebration in Concepción, a detail that does not come from statements by her. Venegas has recounted that the couple never resolved which country to live in, and told an interview with Yordi Rosado, in January 2023, that the break-up was precipitated when Henríquez, the author of a song he dedicated to her, became involved with the lead actress of the video for that song; Venegas did not name the actress, and Henríquez has never publicly referred to the episode, so this text records only her version. In that same interview she said "I adore him". The two crossed paths at the REC festival in Concepción on 15 and 16 March 2025: Henríquez dedicated a song to her from the stage and declared that he still loved her, and Venegas replied the next day by dedicating "Lento" to him and describing him as someone very important in her life. She has lived in Buenos Aires since 2017. Externally authored text, edited and verified for Rebobinados. Interpretations of the meaning of her work are offered as the author's reading. No song lyrics are reproduced, for copyright reasons. Data gathered from Wikipedia, grammy.com, Rolling Stone en Español, La Tercera, Emol, Cooperativa and other press coverage.