Born in 1991 in the town of Guasave, Sinaloa, his birth name is Remigio Alejandro Valenzuela Buelna. He began playing guitar and drums at the age of 12 -- drums are especially significant because of the often-shifting time signatures in his own songs.

Valenzuela began playing the kit with other youngsters in a band called Los Estudents, in which he was the youngest member. It was with this group that he began to establish a name for himself as a vocalist as well as a drummer. Astonished that he could get paid for doing what he loved, he photocopied the first check he received as a musician.

At age 13, Valenzuela began teaching music in the city school he attended. He sat in with older musicians and began working with his own groups.

After relocating to Los Mochis, he also took up the accordion. Still in school, he and some classmates independently recorded the single "Amandotes," which received local radio airplay and was eventually heard throughout the region. After appearing in dozens of local song competitions and talent shows sponsored by radio and television, he established a reputation across Mexico that reached into the Southwestern region of the United States.

His accordion playing reached the level of virtuoso before he was 20. As a songwriter, his clever knack of combining street-savvy, romantic themes, fashion sensibilities, party themes, and humor combined with his playing and unusual manner of mixing banda, norteño, and cumbia made him a favorite. He cut his debut album, 15 Corridos de Alto Novel in 2008; it was issued independently and followed by a pair of live albums. His next studio offering, Fondo Profundo, was issued in 2011, followed by La Fiesta del Tamarindo, and Mi Vida en Vida in 2012. His title video for the lead single for 2013's Te Olvidare became a hit single in Mexico, and received significant attention in the United States as well as Central and South America. He was signed to Fonovisa later that year.

In early 2014, his first single for the label, "Te Tocó Perder," cracked the Billboard Mexican Regional Songs and Airplay charts. It was followed by the album Alumno a Maestro in June, which hit the top spot on Billboard's Mexican Regional Albums chart within two weeks of release. Just three months later, his label released Mi Vida en Vida, a compilation of his romantic hits that also hit the top spot. ~ Thom Jurek