Lupita D’Alessio Essentials

Telenovela legend Lupita D’Alessio’s musical career is just as dramatic and emotional. After all, La Leona Dormida is known for her power ballads. In the ’70s, she drew from mariachi and bolero as much as Italian and French influences. On soundtrack cuts such as “Mudanzas” and “Mentiras” from Mentiras—a 1986 film which she also starred in—she uses strong vocals to embody the emerging feminism of Mexico’s middle-class women. But even a lioness can be tamed: on “Leona Dormida”, she sings about being a “prisoner of love.”