Thalia is Mexican, and has been in the music biz since her teen years in the late 80's early 90's and has made tons of music. Her 90's music has a definite rock flavor though she's moved to more progressive in the last 12 years or so. She's a superstar in Latin America. So not a flash in the pan type that's here today and gone tomorrow. She's got all the qualities of being popular for a long time.
In spite of all that, I'd never heard of her until coming to Ecuador.
You must like the place ... speak the language ??? (Of course) ... Work ?
Yes, I do like it here. The mountains are always great to see, sunshine many days though most of the year also has a bit stormy weather. Seems we're just coming out of the 2 month dry season which my favorite here. Spring all the time, really. Plenty of food. I don't think Ecuador will have any food crisis in the event of any world economic crisis which I can be thankful for. I try not to take the weather, views, clean air, food etc for granted and I think I'm succeeding.
My Spanish is lousy. My wife speaks English so I don't get much practice with Spanish, but I'm slowly adding to my vocab with each passing month and can carry on simple discussions. My brain isn't built for languages. Never has been, it seems.
I do my work over the net which is what makes my being here possible. Not exactly threatening Bill Gates with what I'm making but cost of living is less here.
I lived in San Diego for 20 plus years. I spent quite a bit of my time in Baja, Mexico because I really liked the adventure of new places and people. Of course, being a tourist and being a full time resident are completely different realities.