Rocío Dúrcal´s life is like a fairy tale. María de los Angeles de las Heras Ortiz, aka Rocío Dúrcal, was born on October 4, 1944 in Madrid, Spain.  When she was still a kid, at age 10, she decided to participate in a popular radio program supported by her grandfather, who loved her sweet voice, and surprised everybody because of her beauty, voice, and personality.

María de los Angeles took her final step into TV on the show "Primer Aplauso" (First Applause) where she used her artistic name "Rocío Dúrcal" for the first time. The name "Rocío" was chosen by her grandfather, who thought her voice was as fresh as the morning dew (in spanish "rocío"). The surname Dúrcal was chosen by luck when, blinded, María pointed at the town of Dúrcal, Granada on a map of Spain.

Later on, the famous film producer Luis Sanz discovered a lot of talent in Rocío and suggested her family to let her do some tests. The tests gave better results that expected and Rocío got the main role in "Canción de Juventud" (Song of youth). After "Canción de Juventud", came several movies that quickly became hits. Some of them are "La Chica del Trébol" (The girl of the clobber), "Rocío de la Mancha" (Rocío of La Mancha*), "Tengo 17 años" (I am 17), "Más bonita que ninguna" (Prettier than anyone else) and "Acompáñame" (Come with me).

At age 17 in 1962 she traveled to America for the first time and had a spectacular welcome, particularly in Mexico. After several appearances on TV she became known and loved throughout the country. When she returned to Spain she decided to give up the movies for what she best liked, music.

For a while, Rocío traded the glamour of showbiz for a family. She gave all her attention to her husband, Junior and her children Carmen, Antonio and Shaila. Later on, she decides to go back to showbiz.

It was in Mexico where destiny had the greatest surprise for her. In 1977 at a dinner event hosted by her recording company she met a very good mexican composer who´s name is Juan Gabriel. After several conversations the company got her to record 10 new songs written by the young composer.  Harmonized by Mariachi América directed by Jesús Rodríguez de Hijar, came her first recording of ranchera (regional mexican) music, which refreshed and gave a different touch to mexican popular music. Rocío recorded five albums that helped set her place as one of the best voices.

Later on she went back to ballads and for this, she counted on Rafael Pérez Botija´s creativity, resulting in the hit "La gata bajo la lluvia" (The cat under the rain). After great hits such as "La guirnalda" and "Quédate conmigo esta noche" (Stay with me tonight) and wanting to innovate, she teamed with Marco Antonio Solís "El Buki" and recorded two very succesful albums: "Como tu mujer" (As your woman) and "Si te pudiera mentir" (If I could lie to you).

In 1991 Rocío Dúrcal gave a very succesful concert in them just remodeled National Auditorium of Mexico City, which later became a double CD album. Later on, in 1993 Rocío decides to go back to rancheras (songs harmonized by a mariachi group) with a very succesful album composed this time by mexican composer Joan Sebastian.

In 1995 Rocío´s album "Hay amores y amores" including 10 songs written by Roberto Livi was released, marking her return to ballads once again. The song "Como han pasado los años", included in this album quickly became a top hit. Shortly after that, in 1997, Rocío joins Juan Gabriel once again after several years in a double album called "Juntos otra vez" (Together again) including regional mexican songs performed by Rocío and some duets with Juan Gabriel. The single "El destino" (The destiny), a duet of Rocío and Juan Gabriel is still a great hit.

After the success of Juntos Otra Vez, Rocío decided to switch back to pop ballads, and teamed with Roberto Livi for the second time. Her latest album, "Para toda la vida" (For the rest of life) was released on February 23, 1999. With this latest work, she wanted to attract thre attention of the public in her native Spain, where she has not appeared live for almost 10 years and is planning to do so this summer (1999).

In the year 2000 Rocío celebrated 40 years of singing, which she did by recording a CD featuring once again mariachi style songs, titled "Caricias" directed by Bebu Silvetti.

In 2001, Rocio reappears on stage with a new album under the title "Between Tangos and Mariachi", featuring 10 of the most popular argentinian tangos with mariachi arrangements and directed by Bebu Silvetti. Highlights of this album include "Sombras...nada mas", "En esta tarde gris", both made popular by mexican singer Javier Solis and "Madreselva" a tribute to the late argentinian actress Libertad Lamarque. In the summer of 2001, Rocío goes on a tour through her native Spain, a succesful return to her homeland after 13 years without ever performing there. By October 2001 a CD with the title "Mujer" is reloeased by BMG Spain as part of a campaign against breast cancer. In this album, Rocío sings "Dama Dama" (lady lady), a song witten by Cecilia, a spanish songwriter from the 1970s. It is also at this time that things began to look a bit bad for Rocío. In early October, she had to undergo surgery and therefore canceled a tour through Latin America and the USA. In addition, she had to face two lawsuits in Mexico. One for allegedly plagiarizing somebody else's work in the song "Como han pasado los años" and the other one from some of her musicians previously fired.

In November 2001 Rocio announced that she will be back on stage in early 2002, a return that many people can hardly wait for.
 
 

*La Mancha is a region of Spain where the famous "Don Quijote" was born. This title is an allusion (reference) to a spanish novel -Don Quijote- written by Miguel de Cervantes.