She’s a Spice Girl of Mexico--Sort Of

Fey’s not talking just yet, because there are only 20 minutes until she takes the stage and she’s protecting her voice.

Her manager, Mauricio Stern, asked that she not talk, because, as her best friend and significant other, he knows, he says with a smile, that she likes to talk a lot.

For the same reason, the temperature in the white limo that is about to turn into the arena parking lot, is stuffy and hot. Air conditioning, you know, is bad for vocal chords.

All this protective behavior is not without reason. Fey is Mexico’s reigning queen of dance and pop, the only female artist to match Luis Miguel’s ticket sales at Mexico City’s 10,000-capacity National Auditorium, where she holds the record (10) for most consecutive sold-out shows.

Fey’s success seems to herald a new era for women in Latin pop music, namely because even though she is petite and pretty, she has never chosen to accentuate her femininity or sexiness, preferring to focus on an energetic performance full of athletic dance moves.

As Stern pats her back firmly, a singer’s exercise in phlegm management, Fey tries her best to follow his advice about not talking. But she’s so effervescent, and the joke is so tempting, that it’s a struggle.

“Put in the headline that they beat me before every show,” she says finally, laughing.

As soon as Fey steps out of the limo at Anaheim’s Arrowhead Pond, two security guards who have been stationed to keep fans away from her approach for an autograph. By the time she gets to the dressing room four minutes later, this has happened with two other arena employees.

Once in her dressing room, Fey wastes no time. With just 10 minutes before stepping on stage, Fey and her troop of 10 dancers practice their moves. At home in Mexico City or Miami, where Fey has homes, she and her dancers rehearse eight or nine hours a day.

When they take the stage here as part of KSSE’s (97.5 FM) Reventon Super Estrella concert, which featured 10 Latin pop acts, it is right after MDO, a popular guy group.

The Audience as One Big Aerobics Class

The crowd seems initially skeptical, perhaps because of Fey’s image as a children’s singer. But the skepticism disappears the moment the pounding, energetic dance music begins. Before long, the audience has turned into a 14,000-member aerobics class, jumping and clapping and singing along.

While the crowd responds warmly to all of the night’s acts, including Elvis Crespo, Nek and the Chris Perez Band, they respond most to Fey. Twice she is charged by fans who break past security. One sobbing young woman refuses to let go of Fey, who comforts her kindly.

After the show, in her dressing room, Fey says she is used to this kind of attention and does not let it frighten her. “I respect people, and they have always treated me with respect in return,” she says.

Though she says she knew she wanted to be a performer from a very early age, her first album was released in 1995, when she was 19, according to her label. Since then she has released two others, all of which have sold into the millions worldwide; she is especially popular in Latin America, Europe and Japan.

Though she says she did not set out to make music for children, Fey is most popular among kids, sort of a Mexican Spice Girl. “I thought I was making music for nightclubs,” she says, “and suddenly all these children started coming to my shows.”

She credits her Argentine mother with giving her a love of life, and “all living things,” and both her mother and her Spanish father with giving her a love of singing. Her parents settled in Mexico, where Fey was born. She often travels to Italy, where much of her last record was produced.

As a symbol of Fey’s unconventional approach to being a Mexican superstar, she has turned down numerous offers to star in telenovelas, even though most female singers in Mexico seek roles in the soap operas. Though some at her label, Sony Discos, have suggested she go for a sexier image, Fey has refused, choosing loose jeans and T-shirts over short-shorts and halter tops.

“I don’t want people looking at me as a particular body part,” Fey says. “I want them to see me as a person. If they focus on a body part, I want it to be my eyes . . . In 20 years I want to be seen as an intelligent woman who made important contributions to music.”

A vegetarian, Fey is talking with Greenpeace about a future fund-raiser for them and she mentions UNICEF as a charity she supports. She is not religious, but says she is very spiritual, drawing energy from the natural world.

For the future, Fey says she plans to continue with music, creating even more elaborate shows with elements of comedy and theater. She hopes to act in a film soon and says her favorite movie of all time is Roberto Benigni’s “Life Is Beautiful.”

In many ways, Fey resembles the lead character of that movie, who always chooses to show a positive side, even in the face of great adversity.

In Mexico City, Fey says, she sees poverty and suffering everyday, especially among children, and says she chooses to show a happy face in hopes that it will bring some light into people’s lives.

“People really only see one side of me,” she says. “Even though I smile a lot and I’m happy, I’m also an intense person. I feel everything in the extreme.”

Fey speaks English during her interview; she’s practicing, she says. For what? She smiles. “I love what Ricky Martin has done,” she says. “I’d like to do an English album soon.”