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Enrique Iglesias
Background information
Birth name Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler
Born May 8, 1975 (1975-05-08) (age 32)
Flag of Spain Madrid, Spain
Origin Miami, Florida
Genre(s) Pop, Latin
Years active 1995–present
Label(s) Interscope
Website www.enriqueiglesias.com
Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler (born May 8, 1975, in Madrid, Spain) is a
Grammy Award and Latin Grammy Award-winning Spanish-born, Miami-based
singer. He is of primarily Spanish descent, and has some indigenous filipino
blood from his grandmother.
Iglesias is the son of the famous Spanish singer Julio Iglesias and the
Filipina socialite Isabel Preysler.
Iglesias's career started on Indie label Fonovisa who helped turn him into
one of the most popular artists in Latin America and in the Latin market in
the United States selling more Spanish albums than any other artists in that
period of time. Before the turn of the millennium made a crossover into the
mainstream English market and signed a unique multi-album deal with
Universal Music for an unprecedented $48,000,000 with Universal Music Latino
to release his Spanish albums and Interscope to release English albums.
Iglesias has had five Billboard Chart #1s singles in English and holds the
record for most ever Spanish language #1s on Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks
with Seventeen. He is also the best selling Latin act in the United Kingdom
as well the Best Selling International Artist in India
Iglesias' album sales currently total over forty million, making him one of
the best-selling Spanish music artists in the world. Iglesias has yet to
overtake his father's great sales figures, but has outsold Julio in
single-album sales, arguably justifying the label his record company gave
him as 'best selling Spanish artist in the world'. He is the best-selling
Spanish language artist of the last decade. Iglesias has said that if he has
children and they wish to follow in his footsteps, he would naturally expect
them also to be better than he is.
Early life
Iglesias was born in Madrid, Spain. His parents were divorced when he was
three. After the widely publicized kidnapping of his grandfather Julio
Iglesias, Sr. in Spain by Basque ETA (he would be found two weeks later,
unharmed), Iglesias moved to Miami, Florida in 1983, at the age of 8, to
live with his father. However his father was rarely at home and Iglesias was
raised by his nanny, Elvira Olvarez. He used to visit his mother every
summer.
While in Miami, Iglesias enjoyed the luxury of being the son of a
millionaire, but later he developed a taste for simpler things, a fact that
would later surface in his concerts, where he appeared in plain clothes,
including white cotton shirts, and jeans.
While attending the University of Miami studying Business Administation
Iglesias chose to pursue a music career but lacked the funds to record a
demo tape. Choosing to keep his ambitions secret from his family he received
a loan of $2000 from his Nanny Olivares. He was auditioned by his future
manager, Fernan Martinez who was impressed. Using the pseudonym 'Enrique
Martínez', the two promoted his demo across various record labels. Months
later, Iglesias was signed up by Fonovisa, and then he went to Toronto,
Canada, to record his first album in total anonymity. [1]
Choosing to downplay his lineage the first batch of radio spots identified
the young singer only as "Enrique". He would however release his self titled
album under his full name.
Album releases
Enrique Iglesias
In 1995, he released his first album with a subtitle of Spanish. Titled
Enrique Iglesias, this was a collection of light rock ballads, including
such mega-hits as "Si Tú Te Vas", "Experiencia Religiosa", and others. 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.
His song "Por Amarte" was included in Televisa's telenovela Marisol, but
with a twist: instead of Por amarte daria mi vida (To love you, I'd give my
life), the words were Por amarte Marisol, moriría (To love you, Marisol, I'd
die). The CD also yielded Italian and Portuguese editions of the album, with
most of the songs translated into those languages.
Five singles released from this album, such as "Por Amarte", "No Llores Por
Mí", and "Trapecista" topped the Latin charts. The album went on to win
Iglesias a Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Performance.
Vivir
In 1997, Iglesias' star continued to rise with the release of Vivir (To
Live), which put him up with other English language music superstars in
sales for that year. The album also included a cover version of the Yazoo
song "Only You", translated into Spanish as "Solo en Tí".
Insisting on playing large arenas and stadiums, that summer, Enrique, backed
by sidemen for Elton John, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel, played to
sold-out audiences in sixteen countries. Beginning the tour in Odessa, Texas
the tour went on to three consecutive nights in Mexico's Plaza de Toros and
two at the Estadio River Plate in Argentina to over a hundred and thirty
thousand people as well as nineteen arenas in the U.S. The tour is
considered by many to be the biggest tour by a non-English speaking act of
that time.
Three singles released from Vivir, "Enamorado por Primera Vez", "Solo en Tí"
and "Miente" topped the Latin singles chart as well as those in several
Spanish-speaking countries. Along with his father and Luis Miguel, Iglesias
was nominated for an American Music Award in the first-ever awarded category
of Favorite Latin Artist. It was said beforehand that the elder Iglesias
would walk out if he did not win the award. Iglesias lost out to his father
this time, but did perform the song "Lluvia Cae" at the event.
Cosas del Amor
In 1998, Iglesias released his third album, Cosas del Amor (Things of Love).
Taking a more mature musical direction, the album, aided by the popular
singles "Esperanza" and "Nunca Te Olvidaré", both of which topped the Latin
singles chart, helped cement his status in the Latin music scene.
Iglesias did a short tour of smaller venues to accompany the release of the
album, with one show being televised from Acapulco, Mexico. This was
followed by a larger world tour of over eighty shows in even bigger venues.
The Cosas del Amor Tour was the first ever concert tour sponsored by
McDonald's.
He won an American Music Award in the category of Favourite Latin Artist
against Ricky Martin and Los Tigres del Norte. The song "Nunca te Olvidaré"
was also used as the theme music for a Spanish soap opera of the same name
and he sang the song himself on the last episode of the series.
Enrique
By 1999, Iglesias had begun a successful crossover career into the English
language music market. Thanks to other successful crossover acts, most
notably that of Ricky Martin, Latino artists and music had a great surge in
popularity in mainstream music. Iglesias' contribution to the soundtrack of
Will Smith's movie Wild Wild West, and cover of previous crossover artist
Ricky Martin's single "Bailamos" became a number one hit single.
After the success of "Bailamos", several mainstream record labels were eager
to sign Enrique. Signing a multi-album deal after weeks of negotiations with
Interscope, Iglesias recorded and released his first full CD in English,
Enrique. The pop album, with some Latin influences, took two months to
complete and contained a duet with Whitney Houston called "Could I Have This
Kiss Forever" and a cover of the Bruce Springsteen song "Sad Eyes". The
album's second single, "Be with You", became his second number one.
The final single from the album was the song "You're My #1", re-recorded and
released in selected territories as a duet with local acts - Alsou in
Russia, Sandy & Junior in Brazil and Valen Hsu in Asia.
Escape
Iglesias followed up in 2001 with the album Escape. Where most of the Latin
crossover acts of the previous year experienced some difficulty matching the
record sales of their first English language albums, Iglesias actually went
on to sell even more. The album's first single, "Hero", became a number one
hit in the United Kingdom, and in many other countries. The entire album was
co-written by Iglesias.
Escape is his biggest commercial success to date. The singles "Escape" and
"Don't Turn Off the Lights" became radio staples, fairing well and placing
highly or topping various charts both in North America and elsewhere. A
second edition of the album was released internationally and contained a new
version of one of Enrique's favorite track, "Maybe", as well as a duet with
Lionel Richie called "To Love a Woman".
Iglesias capitalized on the album's success with his "One-Night Stand World
Tour" consisting of 50 sold-out shows in 16 countries. Including Radio City
Music Hall and three consecutive nights in London's Royal Albert Hall, the
tour ended with a big show at Stadium National Lia Manoliu in Bucharest,
Romania. The concert launched MTV Romania, with the video for "Love to See
You Cry" being the first to be shown on the channel.
The second leg of the tour, "Don't Turn Off the Lights", was completed in
the summer of 2002, with two sold-out nights in Madison Square Garden and
another two in Mexico's National Auditorium. The tour finished with a single
show in the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Quizás
Returning to his native language, and hot on the heels of his
biggest-selling album, in 2002, Iglesias chose to release a fourth
Spanish-language album titled Quizás (Perhaps). A more polished musical
production than his previous Spanish albums and containing more
introspective songs, the album's title track is a song about the strained
relationship Iglesias has with his famous father.
The album debuted at number 12 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, the
highest placement of a Spanish language album on the chart at the time.
Quizás sold a million copies in a week, making it the fastest-selling album
in Spanish in five years. The three singles released from the album all
ended up topping the Latin chart, giving Iglesias a total of sixteen number
ones on the chart. He currently holds the record for the most number one
singles on Billboard's Latin Chart. His last single from the album, "Para
Que la Vida", reached a million spins on U.S. radio, the only Spanish
language song to do so.
The video to the song "Quizás" was the first Spanish language music video to
be added to the selection on MTV's popular show Total Request Live. Iglesias
performed the song on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, becoming the first to
sing a Spanish song on the show, and opening doors for other artists such as
Ricky Martin, Juanes and Jorge Drexler to perform their Spanish material.
Iglesias included songs from Quizás in his "Don't Turn Off the Lights Tour",
and the album went on to win a Latin Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album.
7
In 2003, Iglesias released his seventh album, which he called 7, the second
to be co-written by Iglesias. Among its more 1980s-inspired material, it
features the song "Roamer", which he wrote with his friend and longtime
guitarist, Tony Bruno. The CD also contained the song "Be Yourself", a song
about independence (the chorus talks about how Iglesias' own parents didn't
believe he'd ever succeed in his singing career). The first single was the
song "Addicted", and was followed closely by a remix of the song "Not in
Love", featuring Kelis. The latter became a dance hit, but the album was
considered to be a commercial failure in the United States, not even selling
a fraction of his previous, highly-successful English album Escape.
With this album, Iglesias went on his biggest world tour to date. The highly
publicised tour started with twelve shows in the United States and continued
on to several countries, most of which he'd never previously visited playing
to sold-out arenas and stadiums in Australia, India, Egypt and Singapore
before ending his tour in South Africa.
Post Seven activities
Between albums, Iglesias usually forgoes public appearances, but more
recently he has made a number of appearances in the media. He has been a
guest on Oprah Winfrey's talk show, surprising one of his fans and spending
the day with her. He also appeared at the Premios Juventud and was a musical
guest on the final broadcast of Diego Maradona's television show in
Argentina.
Iglesias has also attended various promotional events for the Tommy Hilfiger
fragrance called True Star Men, which he is endorsing. Enrique stars in the
commercial for the fragrance itself with the theme song "Ring My Bell" which
is a track on his latest album. Iglesias has also appeared on the season
finale of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition singing a song called "Somebody's
Me", also from his latest album.
More recently, Iglesias has also performed live in one-off concerts in
Italy, Uruguay and Israel, as well as performing at a festival for MTV in
Malaga alongside Paulina Rubio and has completed a series of concerts in the
States. The "For the Fans Tour" featured much of his older repetoir as well
as new songs in both English and Spanish. Iglesias appeared on the May 7,
2007 episode of CBS' Two and a Half Men as 'Fernando' the Handyman.
The first single, "Do You Know? (The Ping Pong Song)" from his new album
Insomiac released on June 12th was premiered on Ryan Seacrest's radio show
on KIIS-FM on Tuesday, April 10th. He also played at the German leg of Live
Earth in Hamburg. On May 15, 2007, Enrique performed "Do You Know?" as well
as "Hero" for a live taping of the U.S. series of Dancing with the Stars.
Insomniac
Iglesias released his new album Insomniac on June 12, 2007. The first single
is "Do You Know? (The Ping Pong Song)". Airplay for the song is picking up
as it has been recently added to Z100's playlist. It reached #2 on the
Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart (the Bubbling Under chart is generally
seen as an extension of the Billboard Hot 100) before making its 'Hot Shot'
debut on the official singles chart at #33, and the song also made a
48-position leap jump from #49 to #1 on the Hot Latin Tracks. Some of the
record's highlights include "Push", a hip-hop-flavored collaboration with
rapper Lil' Wayne, as well as "Ring My Bell", a moody track that Enrique
wrote in Los Angeles together with two of his favorite songwriting partners,
Swedish composer Kristian Lundin as well as Savan Kotecha. The album also
contains a cover of Ringside's "Tired of Being Sorry".
Enrique Iglesias fully launched his Insomniac promo tour in Los Angeles with
a signing at the Virgin Megastore.
Enrique is currently shooting for his new video "Tired of Being Sorry" which
is being released in Europe. Enrique stated on an apearance on MTV's show
TRL that either "Push" or "Somebody's Me" would be the next single for the
US and that he and his management would be looking throughout the Internet
to to gaage which would be the more popular choice. In spite of many postive
write ups from people on music forums, music Blogs, Youtube posts and many
on his official message board stating they'd rather have "Push" it seems
that Iglesias' management have chosen to ignore this and instead "Somebody's
Me" is being released.
Songwriting, producing, and acting
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
former 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 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'
current album. Many times Iglesias has said that should he ever retire, he
wants to write and produce songs for other artists.
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,
Richie Valens, Santana, Ricky Martin and Iglesias himself.
Iglesias also developed an interest in acting, starring alongside Antonio
Banderas, Salma Hayek and Johnny Depp in the Robert Rodriguez film Once Upon
a Time in Mexico, in which he played the foul-mouthed gun-wielding Lorenzo.
In 2007, he had a cameo role in the TV comedy Two and a Half Men, starring
Charlie Sheen. He says that he would act again if given small roles that he
could fit in between his musical commitments.
Iglesias also played the part of an evil Roman emperor in an ambitious TV
commercial for Pepsi, which sponsored his last world tour. He starred
alongside Britney Spears, Beyoncé and Pink, who turn the tables on him in
the commercial.
Personal life
Iglesias is the brother of Chabeli Iglesias and Julio José Iglesias, the
half-brother of Tamara Falcó and Ana Boyer (from his mother's side); and
Miguel Alejandro, Rodrigo, Cristina, Victoria and Guillermo Iglesias (from
his father's side).
In June of 2000, radio personality Howard Stern received a tape of a
supposedly off-key (MP3 of Iglesias singing, Video of Iglesias singing)
along to the track "Rhythm Divine". Stern played this humorous clip
throughout the week on his radio show insinuating that Iglesias lip synched
and couldn't sing well outside the studio, even suggesting that Iglesias
himself did not sing on his albums, comparing him to Milli Vanilli. Iglesias
flew straight in to New York to appear on Stern's show, singing acoustic
versions of "Rhythm Divine" and "Be with You", after which Stern told
Iglesias he had silenced his critics. Iglesias would go on to say that
controversy and his appearance on the show was the best promotion he could
have.
Iglesias has confirmed that his trademark facial mole was surgically removed
in August of 2003.[1] He was once a hit in the sport 'ping pong', which
formed the basis of his latest song 'The Ping Pong Song'.
Discography
Albums
* 1995 Enrique Iglesias - #148 U.S. (Platinum), #1 Top Latin Albums - WW
sales: 7 million
* 1997 Vivir - #33 U.S. (Platinum), #1 Top Latin Albums - WW sales: 5
million
* 1998 Cosas del Amor - #64 U.S. (Gold), #1 Top Latin Albums - WW sales: 4
million
* 1999 Enrique #33 U.S. (2x Platinum), #11 Australia (Platinum), #1 Poland
(4x Platinum) - WW sales: 6.5 million
* 2001 Escape - #2 U.S. (3x Platinum), #1 Australia (5x Platinum), #1 UK (4x
Platinum), #1 Poland (Platinum) - WW sales: 9 million
* 2002 Quizas - #12 U.S. (2x Platinum), #1 Top Latin Albums - WW sales: 3
million
* 2003 7 - #31 U.S., #13 UK, #15 Australia (Platinum) - WW sales: 3.5
million
* 2007 Insomniac = #17 U.S., #3 UK, #18 Poland, #8 Spain - WW sales:
Miscellaneous
* 1998 Bailamos Greatest Hits - #65 U.S. (Gold)*, #1 Top Latin Albums
* 1999 The Best Hits - #175 U.S. (Gold)*, #2 Top Latin Albums
*: All albums listed here were released by Fonovisa after Enrique had left
them.
Awards and achievements
1996
* Premio Lo Nuestro: Best Interpretation (Si Tú Te Vas)
* Premio Lo Nuestro: Best Composer (Si Tú Te Vas)
* Premio Lo Nuestro: Best New Artist
* Premios Eres: Best Song
* Premios Eres: Best Video
* Premios Eres: Best Launch
* Ace Award: Vocalist of the Year
* Premio TV Novelas: Best Male Vocalist
* Billboard Award: Album of the Year - New Artist
* World Music Award: Hispanic Artist of the Year
* World Music Award: Revelación of the Year
1997
* Grammy: Best Latin Performer
* ASCAP Award: Si Tu Te Vas
* ASCAP Award: No llores Por Mi
* ASCAP Award: Por Amarte
* Billboard Music Award: Album of the Year (Vivir)
* ACE Award: Performer of the Year
* Billboard Music Award: Artist of the Year
* Radio Music Awards : Best Artist Contemporary Format
1998
* Billboard Award: Best Latin Pop Artist
1999
* American Music Award: American Music Award: Favorite Latin Artist
2001
* World Music Award: Best Selling Pop Male Artist
* World Music Award: Best Selling European Pop Artist
* World Music Award: Best Latin Artist
* American Music Award: Favorite Latin Artist
2002
* Premio Onda: Most Successful Spanish Artist of the Last Decade
* American Music Award: Favorite Latin Artist
* National Music Award: Favorite Album (Escape)
2003
* Latin Grammy: Best Male Pop Album (Quizás)
2004
* MTV India Award: Best Male Pop Act International
Footnotes
1. ^ http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/enrique.s%20missing%20mole%20mystifies%20mates
"Enrique's Missing Mole Mystifies Mates," ContactMusic.com, December 12,
2003.
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