Alexander Acha

Alexander Acha is an award-winning Mexican pop singer, composer, musician, and producer. His work includes not only writing for himself and other artists but also composing for film and television. Acha's sound threads his silky tenor through an original brand of cinematically oriented pop, rock, and dance music that filters aspects of popular music from all over the world in intricate, hooky melodies, silky dynamics, pronounced beats, and anthemic choruses, often arranged with choral and orchestral backings. He has been a regular chart presence since releasing his 2008 debut album, Voy. Its first single, "Te Amo," is considered a Mexican pop standard and has registered millions of streams, while his many videos have garnered hundreds of millions of views. La Vida Es..., his sophomore long-player, featured a guest spot by his father, singer Emmanuel Acha, on the title track. 2014's Claroscuro included two charting bilingual dancefloor hits in "Dame Tu Amor (Gimme Your Love)" and "El Amor Te Va a Encontrar (Love Is Gonna Find You)." 2018's Luz reached an entirely new generation of fans. His singles "Invencible," and "Y Tú" both charted in mid-2020, and he and singer Buxxi issued the collaborative single "Cierra Tus Ojos" later that year. Born Raúl Alexander Acha Alemán in 1985 to singer Emmanuel Acha and Mercedes Alemán in Mexico City, Alexander Acha asked for a drum set at age three, and learned to play the piano at five. He was tutored in musical theory and rhythm by his father until he began formal musical training at Artene Institute in Mexico City. Two years later, he entered the Center for Research and Musical Studies, where he studied piano and composition. In 1999, at 14 years old, Acha was accepted for study in the United States at the Summer Piano Institute in Kansas. He attended the Berger Institute of Music in the Netherlands in 2003, and a year later he studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. After graduating with a degree in music composition, he enrolled in the Fermatta Music Academy in Mexico City, where he studied advanced composition, guitar, and voice. In 2007, he joined his father in adapting the popular theme song from the film Guadalupe. Acha signed to Warner Music Mexico and released his debut single, "Te Amo," in early 2008. It hit and remained at top of the Mexican charts for 16 consecutive weeks, preparing the way for the long-player Voy. The album showcased an intriguing meld of global pop and homegrown styles and quickly registered at the top of the charts in Mexico before reaching the play lists of radio stations in Spain and Argentina. The LP was certified with gold and platinum sales. Acha was awarded a Latin Grammy in 2009 for Best New Artist. He also received the Mexican music industry's Oye and Luna awards for Revelation Artist of the Year, while "Te Amo" won an ASCAP Award as one the year's most popular singles (it has since become a standard in the romantic ballads canon). Instead of touring the conventional way, Acha promoted his work in front of large concert audiences as a nightly guest on his father's "Retro" tour; he appeared in more than 80 shows to hundreds of thousands of fans. In 2010, his music was used in the annual national Teletón to benefit rehabilitation centers for disabled children. Acha released La Vida Es... in 2011; produced by Scott Erickson, it included the charting singles "Amiga," "Gracias," and "Eres Tanto." (The latter was chosen as the title theme for the internationally broadcast telenovela Mucho Corazón.) A year later, Warner Music re-released it as La Vída Es... Amor Sincero in 2012 with five bonus tracks. Among them was a duet version of the track "Amor Sincero" performed with singer and actress Zuria Vega. It was chosen as the theme for the Mexican telenovela Un Refugio Para el Amor ("A Refuge for Love"); the song's video went viral and the single hit number one. Acha returned to the recording studio with producer Loris Ceroni. 2014's Claroscuro made a bold leap into electronic rhythms, futurist arrangements, even innovative charts that crossed genre lines. Its first two singles, "Gimme Your Love" and "Love Is Gonna Find You," were bilingual and not only charted at home but were spun across the globe by forward-thinking DJs. In addition to the uptempo jams, the set included some of Acha's most poignantly rendered ballads, including "Vas a Ver" and "Más Que Demisado," and concert favorites "Báilalo Conmigo," "Killing Me," and the soaring, cinematic "Déjate Querer." Critical reception cited the album as his finest. The ensuing tour included a sold-out appearance at Metropolitan Theater in Mexico City. In 2016, Acha was invited by the Mexican Consulate in Boston and the Berklee College of Music to give a recital at the Berklee Performance Center during the Reimagine Mexico Festival. The same year, he revived the dinner theater concept in Mexico City with the show Alexander Acha en Resumen. Acha left Warner Music for an independent career in 2017, kicking it off with the acoustic single "Perdón." The track spent ten consecutive weeks in the Top Ten. He also accepted an invitation from his father to perform on the older man's MTV Unplugged episode. They performed a duet of one of Emmanuel's greatest hits, "Es Mi Mujer." In 2018, Acha collaborated with Campeche's Los Socios del Ritmo in a redo of their classic cumbia "Llorar." Its video registered some 87 million views while the song spent eight weeks in the Top Three. Film producer Jorge Aragón invited Acha to adapt and re-record the hit "Non Ci Sono Anime" by Antonello Vendetti for the main theme of the film El Hubiera Si Existe. At year's end, Acha surprised fans with his independently released fourth album, Luz. Co-produced with Julio Reyes Copello, Juan Carlos Moguel, Diego and "Zurdo" Ortega, and Joan Romagosa, the set was regaled by critics for the exceptional diversity of its ten tracks. In addition, Mexico's cross-networked Red Familia organization invited Acha and singer/actress Dulce María to record a cover of Omar Geles' pro-life cumbia "Los Caminos del Vida" for their massive La Vida por Delante anti-abortion campaign. (Both artists are devout Catholics.) The track garnered millions of views and streams across digital platforms. In 2019, Acha was chosen as part of the critics panel at the Mexican reality show La Academia, sharing the jury table with actress and singer Danna Paola; journalist, actor, and playwright Horacio Villalobos; and producer/manager Arturo López Gavito. Acha was also selected to be the public image for Casio Music Gear nationwide. In April 2020, in direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Acha wrote and recorded the single "Sequimos de Pi" ("We Are Still Standing") to assist those Mexican families and individuals most affected by the economic crisis caused by the pandemic in Mexico. The video, made in conjunction with Alacran Entertainment, enlisted the participation of more than 50 artists and public figures including Mijares, Dulce María, Alex Lora, Paty Cantú, Kalimba, María León, his father Emmanuel, and dozens of others. One hundred percent of Acha's royalties and all proceeds from streaming and video were donated to needy families through the Un Kilo de Ayuda Foundation. (The campaign continued well into 2021 in association with the Discovery Channel.) Acha and singer/songwriter Eduardo Verástegui followed by writing and recording "Quiero Vivir" ("I Want to Live"), another pro-life anthem that has since been adopted as a theme song for several Mexico-based anti-abortion organizations. In June 2020, Acha issued the urban pop single "Invencible," followed by the single and video for "Y Tú" in August. The latter racked up more than 650,000 views during its first week of release. In October, he issued the singles "Por el Mundo" and "Un Poco Más," and in November, a collaboration with singer Buxxi on the single "Cierra Tus Ojos." Acha also composed and produced the score for the animated film Tepeyac, starring Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo