UPDATED: Rivera’s father and brother have confirmed that the coach for “The Voice Mexico” died in an airplane crash following her concert Saturday at Arena Monterrey.
UPDATE: Jenni Rivera’s father and brother confirmed on Telemundo that the singer died in a plane crash Saturday night, NBC News reported late Sunday.
Mexico’s Secretary of Communications and Transportation,Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, has confirmed that officials found the remains of an airplane that was carrying Mexican-American singerJenni Rivera from Monterrey to Toluca, Mexico.
No official word has been given on the singer’s fate, but Ruiz Esparza said there was no evidence of survivors. Rivera, 43, was traveling on a private plane following a concert at Arena Monterrey on Saturday. She was traveling with publicist Arturo Rivera, stylist Jorge Sanchez, makeup artist Jacobo Llenares and attorney Mario Macias.
Authorities had been searching for the plane since 4:40 a.m. local time, when it lost contact with the airport a few minutes after departing. The plane was found in a ranch in Iturbide in the state of Nuevo León, close to Monterrey.
Rivera was a coach on The Voice Mexico. Tonight’s show, the semifinal, has been postponed and instead, network Televisa is airing a special on the singer.
Mexico’s Civil Aeronautics authority confirmed on its website Sunday that it had “initiated investigations about the alleged fall of a plane owned by Starwood Management with tags N345MC, which took place this morning in the state of Nueva León.”
According to the report, the LearJet left Monterrey left at 3:15 a.m. and lost contact with the radar 61.8 miles outside the city. Search parties were sent out with the help of two helicopters and a plane. The plane was en route to Toluca.
Rivera, an avid user of Twitter, last sent out tweets at about 2 a.m. Pacific time.
The singer, one of the most successful female performers on today’s Latin scene, is signed to Fonovisa/UMLE and is the star of her own reality show, I Love Jenni, on cable network mun2. She recently signed with ABC to star in her own comedy series, Jenni.
She has had 10 top 10 songs on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Airplay chart (including a No. 1); eight top 10 entries on the Regional Mexican Albums chart (including four No. 1s); seven top 10 hits on the Top Latin Albums chart (including one No. 1); and one top 10 hit on the Hot Latin Songs chart. She has sold about 1,158,000 albums in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Born and raised in Long Beach, Calif., Rivera is known for her interpretations of Mexican regional music known as nortena and banda.
Watch Rivera’s interview with Billboard from April below.