Lupillo Rivera

Some Lesser Known Facts About Lupillo Rivera

• Lupillo Rivera was born into a family of immigrant Mexican singers as his father moved to California after his birth and ran the record company, Cintas Acuario.

  

• He was only 15 years old when he started composing songs.

  

• After completing his formal education, he wanted to become a restaurateur.

• His father later gave him a job as a scout to find singers from local pubs and clubs.

• Once, the singer who had to sing a song didn’t come. So, his father asked him to sing as a backup singer.

• In 1993, he started his music career as a solo singer under the name El Torito (meaning the Little Bull).

• He later changed his name to El Toro del Corrido as a homage to his uncle and boxer, El Toro Rivera, before settling on Lupillo Rivera in 1999.

  

• He later signed deals with many music companies including Capitol Records, Sony Discos (1999), and Univision Records.

• Between 1995 and 2010, he released many albums such as Despreciado (2001) and Con Mis Propias Manos (2004). After his album 24 Horas in 2010, he has not released any album.

  

• In 2002, he became the first Mexican artist to sell out the Los Angeles’ Universal Amphitheatre (renamed Gibson Amphitheatre).

• During his first marriage to Maria Gorola, he had an affair with Luiz Galindo. Later, they welcomed a son named Jose Guadalupe.

• Years later, when Jose was 12 years old, he conducted a paternity test and found out that he was not their son. But he continued taking care of Jose until the age of 18.

• In 2003, while travelling for a concert in the Juarez, Chihuahua, his SUV flipped, leaving him injured.

• In 2004, he sang at the funeral of a marine killed in Iraq and left one of his famous sombreros on the casket.

• He was married to his first wife, with whom he had 4 daughters, but got into an affair with Mayeli Alonso and later married her.

  

• On December 11, 2006, unknown people shot 7 times at his SUV in Guadalajara, Jalisco.

• He has also appeared in many films including One Long Night (2007) as Steve Hernandez.

• After the death of his singer Jenni Rivera in a plane crash in 2012, their family feud intensified and caused many controversies. It reached the level that Lupillo broke contact with all his family members except his father.

  

• In 2019, he was one of the coaches for the first season of the Mexican singing competition show, La Voz, which aired on TV Azteca.

• During the show, he had an affair with the Spanish singer Belinda Peregrín. He even got her face tattooed but later covered it up.

  

• In 2023, his ex-wife Mayeli Alonso claimed that the couple once got intimate with an unknown female supermodel, but he rejected those claims.

  

• In January 2024,  he shared a teaser of a corrido (musical ballad) with his fans showing him giving money to people who hate him or speak ill of him.

• It was taken as a shot at his brother Juan who claimed that he had written many songs for Lupillo while he claimed that he gave money to Juan when he needed it.

• During an episode of La Casa De Los Famosos (LCDLF) season 4 which aired on Telemundo, he got into a fight with Alfredo Adame and said he would take revenge, either in or out of the house.

• During the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards, he wore a black t-shirt with rapper Diddy’s face printed on it, with a red cross over it. Diddy is facing sex trafficking charges.

  

• He claimed that he wore it to give a message to the upcoming artists that not everyone in the entertainment industry was like that.

• In February 2025, he participated in the reality show La Casa De Los Famosos (LCDLF): All-Stars, which aired on Telemundo.

• He smokes and drinks alcoholic beverages such as whiskey or vodka during parties or live shows.

  

• His critics often accuse him of glamorising drugs and alcohol in his songs, but he has always refuted those claims.

• As of 2024, he earns around $500,000 from each concert.

• In February 2025, he requested the 47th US President Donald Trump to legalize migrants and not follow his anti-immigration policy.