Mexican singer Jenni Rivera, died yesterday after the plane she was travelling in crashed in Northern Mexico, the Guardian reports.

Early reports were unclear as to whether Rivera had survived, but after the US National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to assist the Mexican authorities in their investigation, at which point her death was confirmed. Rivera had given a concert in California on Saturday night, and was set to return to Mexico City, a flight that takes around an hour. Ten minutes after departure, however, aviation authorities lost contact with the aircraft. It is unclear as yet how or why the plane crashed. 

Rivera had sold over 15 million records in her 20 year career, as well as growing an empire of businesses that included seeing her foray into cosmetics as well as television. In cruel irony, she gave a candid and emotional press conference after her show on Saturday night, in which she spoke about her attempts to recover after her difficult divorce. "I can't get caught up in the negative because that destroys you. Perhaps trying to move away from my problems and focus on the positive is the best I can do." She said, "I am a woman like any other and ugly things happen to me like any other woman. The number of times I have fallen down is the number of times I have gotten up."