MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican ballad singer and composer Armando Manzanero has died at the age of 85. Manzanero was hospitalized in recent weeks with COVID-19 and at one point was on a ventilator. But manager Laura Blum said he died at a Mexico City hospital of complications from a kidney problem.

Manzanero was a crooner best known for songs like “Somos Novios," better known in its English version, “It's Impossible.”

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Monday praised the Yucatan native as “a great composer, and the country's best.”

The president appeared so overcome that he cut short his daily news conference Monday.