"Abrázame Muy Fuerte" () is a song written and performed by Mexican singer-songwriter

Juan Gabriel Alberto Aguilera Valadez (; 7 January 1950 – 28 August 2016), known professionally as Juan Gabriel (), was a Mexican singer-songwriter and actor. Colloquially Honorific nicknames in popular music, nicknamed Juanga () and El Divo de Juárez, ...

. The song was produced by

Bebu Silvetti Juan Fernando Silvetti Adorno (March 27, 1944 – July 5, 2003), professionally known as Bebu Silvetti or simply Silvetti, was an Argentine-Mexican pianist, composer, conductor, arranger, and record producer. In the 1970s he moved to Mexico a ...

and was composed for the Mexican

telenovela A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar Drama (film and television), drama genres around the w ...

of the same name (2000). It was released as the

lead single A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. A similar term, "debut ...

in June 2000 for the compilation album ''El Alma Musical de Juan Gabriel: Sus Éxitos y Sus Intérpretes'' (2000) and later included on his 25th studio also titled '' Abrázame Muy Fuerte'' (2000). A romantic

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

with

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

sounds and backed by an orchestra, it is a confession of love. Gabriel was inspired to write the song due to his sister's coma. "Abrázame Muy Fuerte" has been ranked among Gabriel's best songs by several

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

. The track received several accolades including Hot Latin Song of the Year at the 2002 ''Billboard'' Latin Music Awards. Commercially, the track became Gabriel's seventh number-one single in the ''Billboard'' Hot Latin Songs chart and was the best-performing Latin single of 2001. In 2015 Gabriel re-recorded the song with Italian singer

Laura Pausini Laura Pausini (; born 16 May 1974) is an Italian Pop music, pop singer. She rose to fame in 1993, winning the newcomer artists' section of the Sanremo Music Festival 1993, 43rd Sanremo Music Festival with the song "La solitudine", which becam ...

on his 28th studio album ''

Los Dúo ''Los Dúo'' is the twenty-eighth studio album by Mexican musician Juan Gabriel, released on February 10, 2015. It features artists performing duets with Juan Gabriel. A bonus DVD was included. The album won the award for Album of the Year at the ...

''. It has been covered by several artists including

Marc Anthony Marco Antonio Muñiz (born September 16, 1968), known professionally as Marc Anthony, is an American singer and actor. He is the top selling salsa artist of all time. A four-time Grammy Award, eight-time Latin Grammy Award and twenty-nine-tim ...

, and

Isabel Pantoja María Isabel Pantoja Martín (; born August 2, 1956) is a Spanish singer. She was born in the Triana district of Seville, Spain. She has released more than a dozen albums throughout a career spanning many decades, mostly of '' copla'' genre, ...

. Anthony's version peaked at numbers 21 and four on the ''Billboard'' Hot Latin Songs and

Latin Pop Airplay Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area around Rome, Italy. Through the expansion of ...

charts, respectively.

Background and composition

Since the 1970s,

, one of the best-selling Latin music artists, has sold over 40 million copies and with more than 300 artists who have recorded one or more of his 900 compositions in a career spanning over 25 years. In 1999, he released the studio album ''

Todo Está Bien ''Todo Está Bien'' (English: ''All is Good'') is a studio album by Mexican singer Juan Gabriel Alberto Aguilera Valadez (; 7 January 1950 – 28 August 2016), known professionally as Juan Gabriel (), was a Mexican singer-songwriter and acto ...

'', which was met with mixed reviews. On 29 March 2000, '' El Siglo de Torreon'' reported that a

, then titled ''Pecado mortal'', was being released later in the year and that Gabriel would compose its main theme song. This was corroborated by ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' editor John Lannert on 6 May, stated that Gabriel was set to release the song Mexican radio stations titled "Abrázame" in the upcoming weeks. The telenovela's name was changed to '' Abrázame muy fuerte'' on the insistence of the singer that it match the name of the song. The telenovela, which stars

Victoria Ruffo María Victoria Eugenia Guadalupe Martínez del Río Moreno-Ruffo (born May 31, 1962) better known as Victoria Ruffo is a Mexican actress notable for her roles in telenovelas. Biography 1980s Ruffo began her acting career in 1980, starrin ...

Aracely Arámbula Aracely Arámbula Jáquez (; born March 6, 1975), known professionally as Aracely Arámbula, is a Mexican actress, model, singer, television personality and entrepreneur. Life and career Early life Aracely Arambula Jáquez was born in Chihu ...

Fernando Colunga Fernando Colunga Olivares (; born 3 March 1966) is a Mexican actor known for his work in Mexican telenovelas. Colunga gained international fame for playing Luis Fernando de la Vega in the Mexican soap opera '' Maria la del Barrio''. He is also ...

and

Pablo Montero Pablo Montero (born Óscar Daniel Hernández Rodríguez August 23, 1974) is a Mexican singer and actor. Montero's primary profession is singing, but he also acts regularly in telenovelas produced by Televisa productions in supporting roles. Mont ...

, began broadcast in Mexico on 31 July 2000. It became very successful and won five

TVyNovelas Awards ''TVyNovelas'' is a Mexican magazine published by Editorial Televisa on a monthly basis. Like soap opera publications in the United States such as ''Soap Opera Digest'' and ''Soaps In Depth'', it mainly carries coverage of Mexican and internati ...

in 2001, including Best Telenovela, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. "Abrázame Muy Fuerte" is a romantic

with a

and

sound. It was produced by Argentine musician

. The song is backed by a full orchestra, beginning softly with a piano and violins. The melody builds as the song progresses to a "powerful orchestral event" until it reaches to a "climatic

crescendo In music, the dynamics of a piece are the variation in loudness between notes or phrases. Dynamics are indicated by specific musical notation, often in some detail. However, dynamics markings require interpretation by the performer depending ...

". Lyrically, it is an "emotional confession of love". In the song, he chants: "Embrace me, for time passes and never forgives" and " g me, because time is evil and a cruel friend". Gabriel was inspired to compose the track after his sister Virginia Aguilera Valadez, who took care of him after their mother died, fell into a coma for seven years.

Promotion and covers

"Abrázame Muy Fuerte" was released as the

for Gabriel's compilation album, ''El Alma Musical de Juan Gabriel: Sus Éxitos y Sus Intérpretes'' (2000), on late June 2000 to radio stations. The compilation album commemorates the artist's 50 years of living. It was later included on his 25th studio album of the same name as the song released later in the year. In addition, it is featured on the telenovela's

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

released a year later. A dance remix was included on his greatest hits album '' Mis Favoritas'' (2010). In 2013, Gabriel performed the song live at the

Palacio de Bellas Artes The Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) is a prominent cultural center in Mexico City. It hosts performing arts events, literature events and plastic arts galleries and exhibitions (including important permanent Mexican murals). "Bella ...

in Mexico City where he was celebrating his 40th anniversary of his music career. Juan Gabriel's presentation was later released as a live album titled '' Mis 40 en Bellas Artes'' (2014). Gabriel re-recorded "Abrázame Muy Fuerte" as a duet with Italian singer

on his 28th studio album ''

'' (2015). A

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

for the duet was included on the DVD deluxe edition of '' Los Dúo, Vol. 2'' (2015). The song has been covered by several artists including

and

. Anthony released it on 2 August 2010 as the second single from his tenth studio album '' Iconos'' (2010). Anthony listened to six hundred records to select songs for the album. Anthony covered three of Gabriel's songs "Abrázame Muy Fuerte", "Ya lo Sé Que Tu Te Vas", and "Te Lo Pido por Favor" since the songs were "related to his taste in music and who he was." Anthony's version peaked at numbers 21 and four on the ''Billboard''

Hot Latin Songs The ''Billboard'' Hot Latin Songs (formerly Hot Latin Tracks and Hot Latin 50) is a record chart in the United States for Latin music, Latin songs, published weekly by Billboard (magazine), ''Billboard'' magazine. Since October 2012, chart ranki ...

and

charts. Pantoja's rendition was produced by Gabriel before she was sentenced to prison in 2014 and released after Gabriel's death in 2016.

Reception

Writing a positive review of the album, Sandra Barrera of the ''

Los Angeles Daily News The ''Los Angeles Daily News'' is the second-largest-circulating paid daily newspaper of Los Angeles, California, after the unrelated ''Los Angeles Times'', and the flagship newspaper of the Southern California News Group, a branch of Colorado ...

'' called the title track a "must listen". "Abrázame Muy Fuerte" has been listed among Gabriel's best songs, placing number eight and seven on Classic Rock History and Singers Room's lists, respectively. ''Billboard'' ranked the track number four on the 50 Best Latin Pop Songs From 2000 to 2023 and number 90 on The 100 Greatest Songs of 2001. In 2016,

BBC Mundo BBC Mundo (Spanish for ''BBC World''), previously known as the BBC Latin American Service, is part of the BBC World Service's foreign language output, one of 40 languages it provides. History The first BBC broadcast in Spanish took place o ...

listed the track as one of the 11 Songs That Led Juan Gabriel to Become a Success in Latin America. Two years later,

CNN en Español Cable News Network en Español (CNN en Español, stylized as CN͠N) is a Pan-American Spanish-language news channel, owned by CNN Worldwide, a news division for Warner Bros. Discovery. It was launched on pay television, on March 17, 1997. Hi ...

included "Abrázame Muy Fuerte" on their 10 Most Memorable Songs list by Juan Gabriel. On the duet,

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

's Thom Jurek felt, with its "shimmering synths, grand piano, and strings", that it was a "fantastic match that juxtaposes" both Gabriel and Pausini. For the song, Gabriel won two ''Billboard'' Latin Music Awards in

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

for Hot Latin Track of the Year and Latin Pop Airplay Track of the Year; he also received the Songwriter of the Year award. "Abrázame Muy Fuerte" was also awarded Pop Song of the Year at the 2002 Lo Nuestro Awards. In addition, it awarded Song of the Year at the 2001 El Premio de la Gente. It was nominated Best Theme Song at the TVyNovelas Awards in 2001, but ultimately lost to "Enloqueceme" by OV7. Commercially, the song debuted in the Hot Latin Songs chart at number 38 in the week of 2 December 2000, climbing to the top ten three weeks later, peaking at number-one on 27 January 2001, holding this position for four weeks, being replaced by MDO's " Te Quisé Olvidar". "Abrázame Muy Fuerte" returned to the top of the chart the following week. The track was succeeded at number-one by " Sólo Quiero Amarte" performed by Puerto Rican singer

Ricky Martin Enrique Martin Morales (born December 24, 1971), known professionally as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican singer, songwriter and actor. He is known for his musical versatility, with his Ricky Martin albums discography, discography incorporati ...

five weeks later. The song spent nine non-consecutive weeks at the top spot of the chart, and ended the year as the best performing Latin single of 2001. It also topped the

subchart and ranked number one on its year-end chart.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2000 singles 2000 songs 2000s ballads 2010 singles Juan Gabriel songs Marc Anthony songs Laura Pausini songs Isabel Pantoja songs Male–female vocal duets Songs written by Juan Gabriel Song recordings produced by Bebu Silvetti Telenovela theme songs Sony BMG singles Songs in Spanish