Seducción de Jennifer Peña

Jennifer Peña seduces us with her music and sensuality.
PHOTOGRAPHY Jim Creighton

There’s more than one reason to be a fan of Jennifer Peña. Yes, there’s her sex appeal, her beautiful voice, and her charisma. But we particularly admire Jennifer’s ability to push the envelope by experimenting with her talents. This creative spirit has made her into one of the most successful artists of the Latin music world. With her latest release, Seducción, Jennifer ventures into new musical territory. With Open Your Eyes, her experimental nature resulted in perhaps the spiciest photo shoot Jennifer has ever done. Either way, we think you’ll agree experimentation can be a wonderful thing.

Your new album is called Seducción. Why did you choose this name?
I like to think of the CD itself as actually being a musical seduction. If I am going to seduce people, I want to seduce with my voice, my talent, and the music—the songs that I pick for the album. All the songs are romantic. They are all about love. I think Seducción is my best work yet. It was also a big risk, because I wanted to try different styles and experiment with the music a lot. In Libre it was pretty much just regional Mexican cumbias and pop ballads. In this one I also have up-tempo pop. I have hip-hop. I have ballenato, salsa…There’s always a risk that people aren’t going to accept it. But I think evolution is good, and I think this is definitely an evolution for me. I’m really excited that everybody is enjoying it.

Speaking of seduction, do you think it’s better to be the seducer or the seducee?
I think the seducer, especially when it comes down to the way I want to seduce. I mean I love music, and I’m seduced by so many people’s voices and albums and music—everything like that. But it feels so much better and it feels more of an accomplishment to know that I’m seducing people with my voice and talent.

What are your personal seduction tactics?
[laughs] Oh, I don’t know…I sing with all my heart on stage. I chose the best songs that I thought I could pick for this album, and I hope that that’s enough. I think it’s so much better to seduce without trying to seduce.

You were a little hesitant to put on some of the sexy outfits we picked out for your photo shoot. Wouldn’t showcasing your sexy body just increase the number of fans you have?
I just don’t want people to get the wrong idea. If I’m going to get people’s attention through my sex appeal, I want them to know I can back it up with my talent and my music. With magazines I am kind of more hesitant, because I don’t want them to think, Oh my God. She’s just willing to show whatever she can show to get us to go buy her album. I do want that. I do want them to go buy my album, but I don’t want them to do it because they think I have a hot bod. I want them to do it because they think I can sing.

Well we can certainly respect that. So what do we tell all of the Open Your Eyes readers who write in demanding more skin?
I feel comfortable with my body. I think I show a pretty good amount of skin, because I like to show a pretty good amount of skin. But I like to do it with good taste, and sometimes I have to be comfortable. It’s all about my comfort level. I know a lot of people want to see more skin. But if I’m not comfortable, I don’t think they’ll like the pictures, because I won’t have a good look on my face.

How do you unwind after a long day of work?
I sleep. It’s hard to catch up with the sleep thing. I kind of have two different schedules. My gigs are at night and my interviews start at five in the morning. So when I’m not working, I’m sleeping. Otherwise I’ll pass the time with my family and my pets.

You seem like a very fan-friendly celebrity. How much of your fan mail do you read?
I actually read it all. When I have an opportunity, I actually take a day to sit down and read all my letters. It’s impossible to find the time to write each person back, and I feel kind of bad…There was a time that I used to write every single person back, and it just became impossible. Every person would write back, and I just felt the obligation to write back again. It would take hours and hours to write even just a line to each person. Even though I no longer write back to everyone, their letters mean a lot to me. Reading their messages definitely gives me an extra boost to keep going and keep giving my all.

What is the silliest fan letter you’ve gotten?
I’ve gotten plenty of letters that say “Marry me.” But I can’t say it’s silly because I wrote a letter like that to Enrique Iglesias.

Sounds like you have a lot of Jennifer Peña groupies out there.
I really don’t call them groupies at all because the people that everybody else calls my groupies have actually been people that have supported me from the day that I started my career. They are not groupies because they have seriously formed a relationship with me. They share their important events with me, and of course I share the important events with them about my career. So the people that follow me around are people that I really do consider really good friends.

So what is this typical groupie…excuse me…fan like?
A typical fan of mine is probably somebody that has supported me for at least five years. And I have a lot of these fans. It’s somebody who spends their days on the Internet looking for information, pictures, anything they can, about Jennifer Peña. You know, people that drive hours and hours out of state to see me. People that constantly send me e-mails, cards and letters. Of course they know every detail about everything I do, every single day of my life. So if they hear something special they’re sending me something just to say, “I love you,” or to say, “Congratulations on your interview with OYE.”

Wow, not even my mom cares about me that much. So on a different note, did you always dream of growing up to become a famous singer?
I’ve always loved music. Since I was a little girl, I was always singing in front of cameras. When I was five, I saw the movie Beaches and was really inspired by the little girl in the movie. Soon after that, my sister and I decided to enter a local beauty pageant. We needed a talent, so I just learned that song from the movie. I sang it a cappella, with no music. Really what inspired me to keep going was the way it felt to hear people clap for me after I sang that song. I thought, Hey, this is really cool. I really liked the feeling and I knew I wanted to do it forever.

What is your biggest musical inspiration?
Inspiration for me comes from seeing artists perfect their craft, from seeing artists grow as singers. And my dreams are really what inspire me—the dream of one day writing my own songs and producing and being involved in any way that I can. That really inspires me. My fans also really inspire me to keep going and try to give the best of me, to try to learn more about everything, so that I can be more prepared and more intelligent for them.

Do you ever see your career taking a drastically different direction?
I am really happy with the direction that it’s going in. I pretty much just leave everything in God’s hands. As far as my career drastically changing, if it does, I hope it’s for the better. I don’t think it would change drastically. I am happy to be at the level that I am. I know that I lack a whole lot more. And I think once I perfect my art and learn more, then my career will be better. But it won’t change drastically.
Are you involved in any Latino community type of organizations?
At the moment I’ve been really focused on this album, but I have done plenty of things. I got involved in a movement to fight hepatitis in the Latin community. I went on a five-city tour to spread the word about the importance of vaccinations and things like that.

What advice do you have for Latino men?
Treat your women like princesses. Value the people that you have around you. Thank God for all the blessings that you’re given every day. You just have to look for the good in everything. We need more love in this world. To see a man who’s truly in love is just the best thing in the world. To see a man who respects a woman and treats a woman like a goddess is what I think this world needs more of.