More than a decade ago, Jacqie Rivera sang alongside her mother, Jenni Rivera, the song “If I Ain’t Got You”, by Alicia Keys, during one of the concerts of the deceased artist. They had to spend many years before Jacqie decided to record this song to include it on one of their albums.
“I really don’t know why I waited so long,” she said, “I think I had to be emotionally ready and be able to believe and understand what this means, not only for me, but also for his fans [my mother].”
More than anything, she added, she wanted to feel that she no longer had the doubt of whether she should devote herself to singing.
“I feel that I finally accepted that this is what I should do and maybe it feels like I’ve taken a long time,” she said.
To honour that moment, Jacqie released a new version of that song in which she joins her current voice with Jenni’s original performance of that live presentation. And although she is now a 36-year-old woman, Jacqie doesn’t stop having feelings found for having revived the song she sang with her mother and that will be included in her album “Corazón desnudo”, which will be released in the coming months.
“The feeling of being able to get the chance to re-record this again is something pretty sweet,” she said. “Because I’m already an adult and I can understand what my mom was doing for me at that time.”
What Jenni was doing was to lend her daughter her platform so that the girl could start flying as a singer. It’s no secret that Jacqie’s voice is more like Jenni’s, something she’s listened to with insistence.
“Yes, there have been comments that I’m the best singer in the family, but really I don’t feel there’s any competition, because I’m just focused on improving myself,” she said. “Not in anyone else, but in improving the Jacqie of 5 years ago, of 10 years ago, to the Jacqie of yesterday. I am focusing on that.”
That time Jacqie went up to the stage, he made several mistakes, despite having rehearsed for that night. Jenni, however, used that experience to encourage the girl more; she told her that she had to try again, and that regretting becoming a singer was no longer an option.
“My mom always told me, ‘You can’t scratch, you have to keep going; you have to keep practising, you have to keep going up the stage and there will be failures, but failures don’t mean you’re not in the right place,” she recalled. “These failures are the ones that help us grow.”
Jenni herself has a similar story, Jacqie said, when she made a mistake the first time she got on stage.
“I can’t say I don’t have the feelings I had when I was 15, I just don’t let them stop me anymore.”
“Nude Heart” is Jacqie’s second album, and she chose and wrote the songs, which express some of what she’s experienced, “and it’s about really learning to love myself.”
