The release of “Misión Cumplida,” an album comprised of unreleased material sung by the late Jenni Rivera, had been deeply anticipated ever since it was first announced last year. After all, the Long Beach native, also lovingly recognized as “La Diva de la Banda” (the Diva of Banda), was well on her way to becoming a global star when she died in a plane accident in 2012, leaving millions of fans mourning in the years that followed.
That anticipation only grew as the album was postponed for months after its original release date. Though the Rivera estate, now led by the late Mexican-American singer’s daughter Jacqie Marin Rivera, apologized for the delays, there was “just no way we were going to release it if it we didn’t feel 100% on it,” says Johnny, Jenni’s 22-year-old son, and the project’s executive producer.
Although there are no guidelines for how to release posthumous music, the family was strict on setting their own, and the rollout was well-received the moment all of Jenni’s children — Chiquis, a Latin Grammy-award winner, Mikey, Jacqie, Jenicka and Johnny — were confirmed to be behind the project. Jenni’s longtime favorites, Banda MS’ Pavel Ocampo and Sergio Lizárraga, also assumed roles as producers for 16 tracks comprised of unreleased demos that Jenni had recorded before her death. Her former musicians and vocalists also joined to helm the unfinished arrangements and all three of her daughters fill out the heart-warming single “Pedacitio De Mi.”
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“Little piece of me / What happened is not your fault,” the sisters sing on the song, accompanied by a recording of Jenni. “I live for you, you are my blood / I am your mother / I’m here.”
Before the siblings assumed control of Jenni’s estate last year, the previous holders had publicized their intention to release some of her untouched demos, “but I hadn’t heard any of [the music] and it’s my assumption that they wanted to make singles,” Johnny tells Variety. “I wasn’t on board with that. My mom loved making albums. She was old school and had bold ideas that she stuck to. She reminds me a lot of Prince in that sense… there was always a method to what she was doing, there was a larger message to all of her work and there was enough material there for us to honor that. It didn’t feel like we were working with leftovers — I mean, every song we found had significance, I felt like every song had a side of her. The way I see it, we were just a bridge in all of this… this project feels like it was orchestrated by her.”
Johnny found the early arrangments of what we hear on “Misión” on one of Jenni’s old iPods, where she also kept her most-listened to tracks: her range includes Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day,” “Song Cry” by Jay-Z and “The Reason (Acoustic)” by Hoobastank. He shared some of these findings with Jenni’s devoted online fanbase, crafting a playlist titled “Jenni’s iPod,” but kept the existence of her personal recordings to himself.
“I didn’t even know if she had properly [recorded] those stems… I wasn’t 100% sure of how I was gonna find the recordings, but I dug around her old computers until I did — and it was like a breath of fresh air,” Johnny says. “Everyone who worked on this music was meant to be here doing this with us. Sergio caught my attention one time — I haven’t even talked with him about this, but last December, he posted his Spotify ‘Wrapped’ and one of his top listened-to artists was my mom. And I could tell he had been studying her, and he was really absorbed in her music.”
They vowed to honor Jenni’s cultural roots and her conceptual style: the fierce, honest and blood-boiling banda music that made her one of the few leading ladies of música Mexicana. On the album, Jenni’s sharp and operatic vocals shine on stripped-down covers of ranchera classics, updated material and new singles.
Fresh tracks like the titular song took a lot of time to piece together from long and incomplete recordings, and because Jenni was not a fan of digitally altering her voice, the group declined to do so on the album. You can hear her breaking out in tears on “Aparentemente Bien,” a song about appearing to be fine but hiding a deep pain in the shadows. Other sentiments are less obvious like in “Hablando Claro,” which is dedicated to her mother, a tradition of Jenni’s previous records.
“Motivos” makes reference to her tumultuous and passionate relationship “with the love of her life that she didn’t get to be with,” says Johnny. “He, unfortunately, had struggles with drug addiction, and she had to let him go even though I know she really wanted to be with him. It’s track No. 8 because the number represents love and infinity. That arrangement makes me cry every time.”
The family is confident that Jenni would have released a variation of “Misión” on her own terms if she was still here.
“This was the first musical project I’ve ever worked on, and my goal was to bring Jenni the artist,” Johnny concludes. “I got to know so many new aspects of her in the process. Of course, it was hard,” he says, pausing. “But sitting at the album’s listening parties and hearing everyone react… it’s an energy you feel. I know we did her proud.”
