Gerardo Ortiz is a musician who writes and produces all of his songs and although he is American, his origins are from Mexico.
Early years
His full name is Gerardro Ortiz Medina and he was born on October 5th in year 1989. He was born in Pasadena in California which is in the United States of America, but his origins tell that he has Mexican blood and this will dictate his genres.
He grew up in Pasadena and, as much as we know, there were no problems during his childhood for his family was always very well connected and they were supportive towards the younger members.
He went to a school in California which was called Blair High school. He wasn’t much into school, but he wasn’t a bad student!
At one point of his childhood, his paretns decideded to move to Sinaloa. This was not particularly hard for Gerardo to get over since all of his siblings were fine with it. He was always very connected to them and therefore if they were okay, he was okay and vice versa.
His family is a classical large Mexcian family. He has four siblings and they grew up to be very connected. The family was always very close and private and therefore he says that it is very hard for him to tour without them and without seeing them for a longer period of time. One of his brothers is called Kevin and he was also interested in music so he became a singer too. One would think that the parents taught them to love music.
Career development
Gerardo loves music and he realized that at an early age. He used to write poems, he even learned how to play some instruments with no help!
His first amateur album that he doesn’t talk a lot about today was made when he was only 8 and it was called Encuentro De Amor. He was pretty small and vulnerable, but he had great stage performances and played music in his local area. This lead to a huge popularity in his city, and later on he had a much bigger chance to become an international star.
He was in a show called Codigo FAMA, a reality show for young people to show off thewir skills in singing. This gothim noticed wider.
However, he started to get actively involved in music in 2009. His debut album that he worked very hard on was called Ni Hoy Ni Manana and it was phenomenal that the very album had got a Grammy nomination!
Sadly, this was still not the kind of attention he wished to get for his first album so he started to work on the next one to make it even better.
Not many young artists can brag with a grammy and not many debut albums are nominated for one so this obviously was a huge thing for Ortiz!
In 2013, he went to an award show called Mexican Billboard Music Awards and he went home with 4 new titles: Best Male Artist in 2013, Norteno Album of the Year, Norteno Artist of the Year and he was also awarded for some songs.
Not only did he get noticed by the Grammy crew again, but he was also nominated for Best Regional Mexican Music Album in the year 2013. It wasn’t thanks to his debut album but the other one he made called El Primer Ministro.
In the summer of 2014 (during July) he was called into a show called Tengo Talento, Mucho Talento. It was a talent show which started out at the very beginning of Autumn in 2014. He sat next to the famous Latino singer and Grammy veteran Ana Barbara. They were the judges of season eleven because the broadcasting TV called Estrella TV thought that they would maybe inspire the contestants.
His studio albums were: Ni Hoy Ni Manana (2010), Entre Dios y El Diablo (2011), El Primer Ministro (2012), Archivos de Mi Vida (2013), Hoy Mas Fuerte (2015), Comere Callado Vol.1 (2017), Comere Callado Vol. 2 (2018). He is to this day still creating great albums.
He also has live albums: En Vivo Las Tundras (2009), Morir y Existir En Vivo (2011) and Sold Out – En Vivo Desde El Nokia Theatre LA Live (2013). His concerts are great to be at, his fans say.
He developed very well in certain genres he can related to and most of them are sort of exotic to say: regional Mexican, banda, narcocorridos and so on. Norteno is however the most popular genre he plays.
He signed to DEL Records, later on to Sony Music Latin.
When he made the video for one of his songs called Fuiste Mia, there were many problems with it. In this video, he has to act as if he is a jealous boyfriend who kills a both his woman and a man she is seeing pretty violently. People think that this was too graphic and that he should not present these things in his videos. However, while being on Telemundo for an interview lead by Jessica Carrillo, he claimed that he meant nothing bad with it and that he was only trying to express himself and the point of the song. However, setting the couple in affair on fire was maybe a bit too much since it did cause some problems on social media.
Nowadays when he is more popular, he likes to incorporate many sounds into his music. Even mariachi and cumbia sounds can be found in his songs today and it is phenomenal how opened up he is about his work and about his origins.
2016 was a big year for him since he started to appear on the TV more often. This was something he had been wishing to do for a long time so he was very happy when he appeared in Como un Sueno in 2015 and Gerardo Ortiz: Sin Censura. These shows were a great chance for the artist to show his regular day-to-day life and share some wise words with his fans.
Personal life
2011 was very stressful for him. His popularity grew and with popularity comes danger. On 20th of March he was almost abducted in Mexico when a man tried to pull over and take him with away. Ortiz thankfully had people around and they started to defend him. However, in this incident happened something that would leave a great mark on the young singer and what happened was that both his manager and his cousin died.
His brothers are called William, Kevin, Anthony and Oscar. These guys are all very well connected and they have high respect for their parents who tried to rasie them in love. The lovely Kevin, also a singer, is a bit younger than his brother Gerardo and isn’t as popular, but that certainly does not mean that he is not as talented! The guy is actually doing great and his brother helps him and teaches him various tips and tricks whenever he isn’t on tour and has time for his little brother. This, sadly, is not to often.
Quick summary
Full name: Gerardo Ortiz Medina
Date of birth: October 5th 1989
Birthplace: Pasadena, California, the United States of America
Age: 29
Profession: singer, songwriter
Height: 187 cm
Weight: NA
Net Worth: $6 million
