Marco Antonio Solís

Marco Antonio Solís needs no introduction: his voice, that timbre that oscillates between tenderness and strength, and his lyrics that seem written to measure the pain of others, defined a sound that many tried to imitate but few managed to equal. From the keyboards and timbales in Los Bukis to the acoustic guitar in his solo career, his music always had that balance between the popular and the sophisticated, as if each note carried the weight of a story that everyone already knew. It is no coincidence that artists from different generations, from Enanitos Verdes to Jenni Rivera, have recorded his songs: there is something in his composition that transcends trends, something that sounds like raw truth wrapped in catchy melodies.

The leap to a solo career in 1996 was not a simple change of scenery, but a necessary turn. En pleno vuelo arrived in July of that year and in less than a week it sold over half a million copies, something that at that time was almost a miracle. But the most interesting thing was not the commercial success, but how that album —and those that followed— demonstrated that his talent as a composer did not depend on a group: Trozos de mi alma (1999) was the definitive proof. There he not only sang his own songs, but revived them with an intimacy that was previously only heard in others' versions. Tracks like "Si no te hubieras ido," which ended up on the soundtrack of Y tu mamá también, became anthems because, in the end, we have all experienced that loss.