Johnny Canales, a popular Mexican television host whose program introduced new musical acts to wide audiences — including, in the 1980s, a young Selena Quintanilla — died on Wednesday. He was 81.
His death was announced on Thursday on his show’s Facebook account. His wife, Nora Canales, said on Friday that the cause was not yet known. In a video posted on May 20, she said that he had been ill.
For many rising acts, beginning in the 1980s, an invitation to perform on Mr. Canales’s bilingual variety show, which was watched by millions, was considered a career milestone and a chance to gain new fans.
Some of the acts that performed on his show went on to become household names. Mr. Canales himself became a popular as well, known for introducing performances with his catchphrase: “You got it. Take it away.”
“The Johnny Canales Show” debuted on KRIS in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1983, and was later picked up by Univision, which expanded its reach well beyond South Texas.
Among the many acts that performed on his show over the years were La Mafia, La Sombra, Los Temerarios and Ramon Ayala. But perhaps the one who went on to become the most popular was a teenage Selena Quintanilla, as Selena y Los Dinos, in 1985, in what was one of the singer’s first live TV performances.
“She’s got something,” Mr. Canales said an in a 2015 interview with Univision’s long-running morning show “Despierta América,” recalling the first time Selena performed on his program. “Except I scolded her once because she didn’t know how to speak Spanish.”
Mr. Canales said in the same interview that he was impressed that the young Selena could sing and dance so well, and that every time she returned to his program, her performances improved — and so did her Spanish.
She and her band, los Dinos, initially performed Tejano music, a rich blend of traditional Mexican music influenced by pop in the United States. She later began mixing in R&B into her songs.
“Keep on trucking,” Mr. Canales said he told Ms. Quintanilla as her career progressed.
Ms. Quintanilla, who was often referred to as the Queen of Tejano music, was shot and killed in 1995 at age 23 by the former president of her fan club.
Ramón Hernández, a writer, photographer, historian and musicologist, told The Los Angeles Times in 2020 that Mr. Canales was the “Mexican American equivalent of Dick Clark because he broke everyone in.”
“You didn’t have to be famous, you didn’t have to have a top-selling record,” Mr. Hernández said. “He would just put you on.”
Mr. Canales did not just book musical acts. His show also presented comedians, actors and politicians.
In July 2015, Mr. Canales invited Donald J. Trump on his show, about a month after Mr. Trump had announced his candidacy for president in a speech in which he said some Mexican immigrants were bringing crime.
“We Mexican and Mexican Americans are noble,” Mr. Canales wrote in a public invitation to Mr. Trump. “That’s why I’m offering you an invitation to come to our show and give a simple apology, or at least recognize all Mexican and Mexican American veterans who have served and have died for this country.”
Mr. Canales’s show continued on other networks, including Telemundo, through 2020, with some breaks as he dealt with health issues. Ms. Canales, his wife, said in 2022 that in recent years he had been treated for a stroke and needed a quadruple bypass.
Juan José Canales was born in General Treviño, Nuevo León, on Aug. 23, 1942. When he was less than two months old, his family moved to Robstown, Texas, about 20 miles west of Corpus Christi, where he spent much of his life.
Growing up, he shined shoes for 10 cents and sang songs in bars for 25 cents, he told The Laredo Morning Times. After graduating from Robstown High School, he was drafted and served two and a half years with the Third Infantry Division in Germany. He was honorably discharged.
He then returned to Texas, where he worked as a disc jockey for a Spanish-language radio station and started a band, Johnny Canales y Su Orchestra.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by two daughters, Seleste and Miroslava Canales.
After taking a few years off for health reasons, Mr. Canales said in 2011 that he would return to his program and support new acts again.
“We can come back and really help our people,” he said. “Because this is our music.”
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