Gloria Trevi News

Mexican pop star Gloria Trevi , recently released from prison after being acquitted of kidnapping, rape and corruption of minors charges, says both she and her music have evolved since her fans last saw her perform nine years ago — and she'll prove it to them on tour.

Trevi, who is billing herself as a woman of the people, wronged by society, said her "Trevolution" tour, which begins Friday night in her hometown of Monterrey, will demonstrate her progress as an artist.

Yet many wonder whether Trevi will regain the popularity she enjoyed at the height of her career in the 1990s.

In December, just three months after she left prison, Trevi released a new album titled "How the Universe Was Born" — to a lukewarm reception in Mexico, where none of her new songs have made Top 10 lists.

Fans who planned to see the concert, however, said they had high hopes for Trevi.

"I hope to see a spectacular show because this will be the rebirth of a star and a chance to relive memories," said department store saleswoman Cecilia Martinez, 27, who said she has been a Trevi fan since she was 13.

"After all these years, no one has taken her place and I'm sure she'll shine again."

In the United States, Trevi sold more than 100,000 copies of the album in the first weeks after its release — and earned a nomination at the Latin Billboard Awards for best album. Her U.S. tour opens in Reno, Nevada, on April 1, and will go to twice as many cities in the United States as it will in Mexico.

Jackie Madrigal, an editor for Radio and Records magazine in Los Angeles, said Trevi is likely to appeal to Mexican migrants in the United States who see her as a connection to the lives they left behind.

"A lot of us go through that longing for the place we left and the music we listened to when we were teenagers," Madrigal said. "I think that is helping Trevi."

Always surrounded by controversy, Trevi, who is nicknamed "Mexico's Madonna ," rose to stardom in the 1990s when her songs about sexual independence and wild antics on stage won over thousands of teenage fans, making her one of Latin America's biggest stars.

Then the bottom fell out: Four years ago, the singer, along with her manager Sergio Andrade, and backup singer Maria Raquenel Portillo, were arrested and charged with luring young girls into their entourage and then sexually abusing them.

The three were detained in Brazil, where all had fled to avoid prosecution. They eventually were extradited to Mexico, where a second backup singer was already being held.

The scandal began when officials discovered that a girl in the troupe gave birth to, then abandoned, a baby in Spain. The father turned out to be Andrade, who had a record of well-publicized romances with girls barely into their teens.

DNA tests also proved that Andrade was the father of a baby boy Trevi gave birth to while jailed in Brazil. Andrade remains jailed on rape, kidnapping and corruption of minors charges.

In September, however, Trevi was acquitted after spending almost five years in Brazilian and Mexican prisons.

In a recent appearance in Los Angeles, she showed up dressed in a leather body suit with a whip in hand, prompting critics to say she is going back to the wild image Andrade had manufactured for her.

"The exterior is like a candy I give my fans," Trevi said. "Mine, it's an interior evolution, and if there are people who can't see it then they need to look closer."