Mexican Singer Dies after Denying His Death

[Tomspy77]

news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100629/od_nm/us_mexico
MEXICO CITY, June 28 (Reuter) – Mexican singer Sergio Vega was murdered while on a national tour at the weekend, just hours after denying reports of his death, local media reported.

The 40-year-old singer, known as El Shaka, was driving his red Cadillac to a concert in the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa on Saturday when his car was intercepted by unidentified shooters in a truck, reports said.

His murder came just hours after he told entertainment website La Oreja that online reports of his death were wrong.

"It's happened to me for years now, someone tells a radio station or a newspaper I've been killed, or suffered an accident," said Vega.

"And then I have to call my dear mum, who has heart trouble, to reassure her."

Fans posted condolences on Twitter after they learned of the death of the singer, who recently boosted his security following the killing of several Mexican musicians.

Musicians performing narcocorridos, or songs celebrating the lives of drug barons, have become the targets of rival drug gangs in Mexico with Mexican media reporting several such deaths in recent years.

The drug wars in Mexico are getting out of control, but this is a weird coincidence none the less.

[Tomspy77]

An extra article on the singer's death and these kinds of songs...

blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/06/29/sergio-el-shaka-vega-music-mexico-and-murder/?mod=rss_WSJBlog
When warlords are fighting, being a court musician can become dangerous work. On Saturday evening a popular Mexican singer, Sergio Vega, nicknamed “El Shaka,” was shot to death on the highway in southern Sonora, north of Los Mochis, Sinaloa. No one has been arrested for the killing, and it is unlikely that anyone will be, but already there is speculation that his murder may be related to his music.

Mexican ranchera singers don’t sound like gangsta rappers: their songs are typically in waltz or polka rhythms, and backed by perky accordions or oompahing brass bands. But like rap, much of modern ranchera comes out of the same areas that produce the most violent gangs and drug cartels. The mountains of Sinaloa, on Mexico’s west coast, have been the heartland of the drug business for almost a century thanks to plentiful crops of opium and marijuana, and Sinaloan singers have been the most popular performers of narcocorridos, or drug ballads.

Several have also been killed. Chalino Sánchez, the most influential corrido composer and singer of the last 20 years, was shot to death in the state capital of Culiacán in 1992, and in 2006 a singer named Valentín Elizalde was killed as he left a concert in Reynosa, on the Texas border. One of Elizalde’s songs had been used to accompany a YouTube video threatening a border drug lord, and his murder sparked a wave of speculation that musicians might be targeted because of their songs.

The reality is more complicated. The next well-known singer to be killed, Sergio Gómez, led a pop band that played no drug songs, but his death was equally linked to the incredible surge of drug-related murders that has plagued Mexico in recent years. According to UPI, Mexican officials estimate that there have been more than 18,000 drug-related killings in the country since 2006. Considering those numbers, it may be that the deaths of a few well-known musicians are just a statistical accident—as in Prohibition-era Chicago, musicians often play in clubs or at concerts or parties sponsored by underworld figures. Indeed, songwriters are often hired by traffickers to write corridos on commission, telling about heroic gun battles or wily smuggling tricks. So the fact that they are occasionally killed may have more to do with the company they keep than with anything they are singing.

Rayo

Sergio Vega’s biggest hits were mostly romantic songs, but he was well aware of the dangers. In an ironic twist, just hours before his death he contacted a Mexican website to deny rumors that he had been murdered. ”Of course we are somewhat frightened, all of us who play norteño and banda music,” he said. “I have sung some very strong lyrics, many corridos, and one does think about it and feel a little fear… you just have to trust in God.”

Within hours of Vega’s death, YouTube was flooded with videos of his crashed car, showing the bullet holes in the windshield, soon followed by photos of his funeral. The most heartfelt tribute, though, was one of his own recordings, “Fiesta en el Cielo” (“Party in Heaven”) a song that places recently murdered musicians in the company of revolutionary heroes like Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata: “This is a tribute to Sergio Vega, another guest of honor at the party in heaven” a fan has written beneath it. “Today he is singing together with Chalino, ‘El Gallo’ Elizalde, Pedro Infante…and so many other Mexican greats.”