Typically a celebratory occasion, the Billboard Latin Music Awards took on a somber tone last night, honoring the life and tragic death of Jenni Rivera. The singer died in a December plane crash . Posthumously, however, Rivera took home six trophies at the ceremony, including Regional Mexican Album of the Year (for “La Gran Señora”) and Artist of the Year. “You are my diva,” Rivera’s father, Pedro Rivera, said in accepting the awards. “May God bless you, my daughter.” The awards also paid tribute to Rivera via a montage of clips from her live performances and her reality-TV show, I Love Jenni . Her brother Juan Rivera even sang “No Llega el Olvido,” accompanied by a mariachi band. Don Omar, meanwhile, led the field with 18 nominations and an incredible 10 wins.
Mexican authorities have confirmed that the remains of the late singer Jenni Rivera have been identified and turned over to her family, CNN confirms. A Mexican-American superstar, Rivera died in a plane crash Sunday. Shortly after taking off from the northern city of Monterrey on her way to Toluca, the Learjet 25 carrying Rivera and six members of her team crashed. Officials wouldn’t confirm her death until they found remains, but feared the worst. Rivera’s mother Rosa Saavedra had held out hope she would be alive. Lupillo, Juan and Gustavo, Jenni’s three brothers, had traveled to Monterrey to identify their sister’s body and are in the airport about to take a flight to L.A. There, the rest of the family is waiting for them. R.I.P. [Photo: WENN.com]
Mexican-American superstar, Jenni Rivera , died Sunday , when her plane crashed en route to Mexico City, after the twin-engine Learjet she was a passenger on lost contact and went down near Monterrey, Mexico. Rivera, the chart-topping “diva de la banda,” was a judge on Mexico’s reality TV singing competition, La Voz , and was set to make her feature film debut in the hip-hop drama, Filly Brown , a darling out of Sundance last year, opposite Lou Diamond Phillips and Edward James Olmos. It was Olmos who urged Rivera to make the leap into acting, she revealed earlier this year while doing press rounds for Filly Brown . “Sometimes people have a bigger vision than you have yourself,” she told Celebs.com’s Elliot Kotek. Rivera was tapped to play against type in Filly Brown , portraying the incarcerated mother of Gina Rodriguez’s aspiring rapper in a stripped-down role that ran counter to her glamorous public image, a la Mariah Carey in Precious .”When I go onstage and I do about 40 songs a night, each song I’m acting out as if I’m really living it,” she said of the transition from music to acting (watch the full Sundance interview below). Filly Brown is set to be distributed by Indomina Pictures, although a release date has not been announced. (Follow the film’s Twitter and Facebook pages for updates.) Until then, watch Rivera and Rodriguez in a brief clip from the film: Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Jenni Rivera, a native of Long Beach, was 43. Mexico#39;s ministry of transportation did not confirm her death outright, but it said that she had been aboard the plane and that no one had survived the crash. Six others, including two pilots, also were on board. Mexico#39;s Secretary of Communications and Transports, confirm that the remains of the private jet carrying Jenni Rivera have been found, with no survivors. Rivera, 43, was one of seven passengers. “We are landing in Monterrey land,”
