BIGSONG:
Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler (Spanish pronunciation: [enˈrike miˈɣel iˈɣlesjas ˈpɾejzleɾ]; born May 8, 1975) is a Spanish singer and songwriter. He started his recording career in the mid-1990s on the Mexican indie label Fonovisa and became the bestselling Spanish-language act of the decade. By the turn of the millennium, he made a successful crossover into the mainstream English-language market. He signed a multi-album deal with Universal Music Group for US$68 million with Universal Music Latino to release his Spanish albums and Interscope Records to release English albums.
In 2010, Iglesias parted with Interscope Records and signed with another Universal Music Group label, Republic Records, to release bilingual albums. In 2015, he parted ways with Universal Music Group after being there for over a decade. He signed with Sony Music and his subsequent albums were to be released by Sony Music Latin in Spanish and RCA Records in English.
Iglesias is one of the best-selling Latin music artists with estimated sales of over 70 million records worldwide. He has had five Billboard Hot 100 top five singles, including two number-ones. As of October 2020, Iglesias holds the number-one position on the Greatest of All-Latin Artists charts. Iglesias holds the record for the most number-one songs on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart with 27 songs and the Latin Pop Airplay chart with 24 songs. Iglesias also has 14 number-ones on Billboard’s Dance charts, more than any other male artist. He has earned the honorific title King of Latin Pop. In December 2016, Billboard magazine named him the 14th most successful and top male dance club artist of all time.
Early life
Iglesias was born in Madrid, Spain, the third and youngest child of Spanish singer Julio Iglesias and Filipina socialite and magazine journalist Isabel Preysler. His father Julio is recognized as the most commercially successful continental European singer in the world. Iglesias was raised with two older siblings, Chábeli and Julio Jr. One of his mother’s aunts is actress Neile Adams, the first wife of American actor Steve McQueen, mother of actor Chad McQueen, and grandmother of actor Steven R. McQueen. His father’s family is from Galicia and Andalusia; his father also claims some Jewish and Puerto Rican ancestry on his mother’s side.
Iglesias found out later in life that he was born with a rare congenital condition known as situs inversus, where some of the body’s major organs, such as the heart, are situated on the opposite side of the body from where they would normally be located.
At first, Iglesias and his two siblings stayed with their mother, but in December 1981, Iglesias’ grandfather, Dr. Julio Iglesias Puga, was kidnapped by the armed Basque group ETA.
For their safety, Enrique and his brother Julio were sent to live with their father and his girlfriend at the time, Venezuelan model Virginia Sipli, in Miami. There, they were brought up mostly by the nanny, Elvira Olivares, to whom Enrique later dedicated his first album.
Education
Iglesias attended Gulliver Preparatory School, a private high school in Miami, where he participated in his first live performance in a school production of Hello Dolly. He then attended the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, where he studied business but dropped out after a year.
After dropping out of the University of Miami, Iglesias traveled to Toronto to record his first album.
Music career
Iglesias did not want his father to know about his plans for a music career and did not want his famous surname to help advance his career. In Toronto, he borrowed money from his family nanny and recorded a demo cassette tape which consisted of a Spanish song and two English songs. Approaching his father’s former publicist, Fernán MartÃnez, the two promoted the songs under the stage name Enrique MartÃnez with the backstory of being a singer from Guatemala. Iglesias was signed on to Fonovisa Records.
1995–1996: Enrique Iglesias
On July 12, 1995, Iglesias released Enrique Iglesias, a collection of light rock ballads, including hits such as “Si Tú Te Vas” and “Experiencia Religiosa”. This album, along with Iglesias’ next two, was released by the Mexican label Fonovisa. The record sold half a million copies in its first week, a rare accomplishment then for an album recorded in a language other than English, going Gold in Portugal within the first week of release, and sold over a million copies in the next three months.
His song “Por Amarte” was included in Televisa’s telenovela Marisol, but with a twist: instead of Por amarte darÃa mi vida (To love you, I’d give my life), the words were Por amarte Marisol, morirÃa (To love you, Marisol, I’d die). The CD also yielded Italian and Portuguese editions, with most of the songs translated into those languages.
Five singles were released from the album, such as “Por Amarte”, “No Llores Por MÔ, and “Trapecista” all of which topped the Billboard’s Latin charts. The album still holds the record for producing the most number one singles on the Billboard’s Hot Latin songs chart. The album went on to win Iglesias the Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Performance.
Songwriting, producing, and acting
Iglesias in 2018
Iglesias has collaborated with songwriter Guy Chambers to write “Un Nuovo Giorno”, the lead single from Andrea Bocelli’s first pop album.The song was later translated into English as “First Day of My Life” and recorded by Spice Girl Melanie C. The song has since gone to become a huge hit throughout Europe, and peaked in the number one spot in numerous countries. Iglesias also co-wrote the single “The Way” for American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken.Four songs co-written by Iglesias appear on the UK band The Hollies’ 2006 album Staying Power. In 2010, Idol Allstars (Swedish Idol Series) released the song “All I Need Is You”, co-written by Iglesias with Andreas Carlsson, Kalle Engström, and Kristian Lundin. He also co-wrote Jennifer Lopez’s song “Dance Again”, which was released in 2012, and reached the number one position in the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs.
In 2000, Iglesias co-produced an off-Broadway musical called Four Guys Named Jose and Una Mujer Named Maria. In the musical, four Americans of Latin heritage possess a common interest in music and meet and decide to put on a show. The show contained many references and allusions to many classic and contemporary Latin and pop songs by the likes of Carmen Miranda, Selena, Ritchie Valens, Chayanne, Ricky Martin, and Iglesias himself.
Iglesias starred alongside Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, and Johnny Depp in the Robert Rodriguez film Once Upon a Time in Mexico, in which he played the well-spoken gun-wielding Lorenzo.In 2007, he had a guest appearance in the TV comedy Two and a Half Men as a carpenter/handyman.
He also guest-starred as Gael, an Argentinean guitar playing/surfer/massage therapist love interest of Robin in season 3 of the TV show How I Met Your Mother.
Iglesias also played the part of an evil Roman emperor in a Pepsi ad in 2004, as well as appearing in commercials for Tommy Hilfiger, Doritos, and Viceroy watches.
Personal life
Anna Kournikova
In late 2001, Iglesias started a relationship with Russian tennis player Anna Kournikova. The couple have a son and daughter, who are fraternal twins born on 16 December 2017. On 30 January 2020, their third child, a daughter, was born.They live in Miami, Florida.
In 2003, Iglesias had surgery to remove a circular mole from the right side of his face, citing concerns that over time it could become cancerous.
Philanthropy
In 2010, Iglesias was included in the project Download to Donate, run by Music for Relief, an organization started by American rock band Linkin Park. He co-produced Download to Donate for Haiti, a charity album for the 2010 Haiti earthquake, with the co-vocalist of the band Mike Shinoda. Both of them promoted the album at various venues, one of them being Larry King Live, where he and Shinoda explained the project.
In 2013, Iglesias urged his followers to donate money through the American Red Cross to help the victims of the deadly Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. The typhoon struck one month after the Philippines was hit by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake which destroyed homes and livelihoods of around 350,000 people.
Iglesias has supported City of Hope, Habitat for Humanity, Help for Heroes, Live Earth, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Special Olympics, Save the Children, The Salvation Army, and charitable causes like Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and hunger relief.
