Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler (born on May 8, 1975, in
Madrid, Spain) is a singer/songwriter of Asian and European ancestry.
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 he 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 in English and holds the record for
producing seventeen number 1 Spanish language hits singles on the Billboard's Hot Latin
Tracks. His album sales currently total over forty million, making him one of the biggest-selling Spanish musical artists
in the world.
Early life
Iglesias is the son of a famous Spanish singer Julio Iglesias and Filipina journalist
Isabel Preysler. He was born in Madrid and 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, United States, 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".
Career
"Enrique Iglesias" album
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" album
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" album
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" album
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, "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" album
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 tracks, "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" album
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" album
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.
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.
Celebrity status
He has made a number of guest 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 12 was premiered on Ryan
Seacrest's radio show on KIIS-FM on Tuesday, April 10,
2007. 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" album
Iglesias released his new album Insomniac on
June 12, 2007. The first single was "Do You Know? (The Ping Pong
Song)". It reached number 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 number 33 (eventually peaking at number 21 - his
biggest hit on the Hot 100 for quite some time), and the song also made a 48-position leap jump from number 49 to number 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 Bells", 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 has recently shot his new video for "Tired of Being Sorry" which is being released in Europe. Enrique had stated on an
appearance 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 choose which would be the more popular choice. In spite of many positive
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, as was hinted in an interview which he gave to Univision prior
to his appearance at Premios Juventud. It is expected that he will launch "Somebody's Me" simultaneously with "Alguien Soy Yo", which is the same song, but in Spanish, and with some
minor edits to improve the translation.
In July 2007, a humble and encouraging Iglesias visited Canadian Idol in Toronto, Ontario,
Canada: his first appearance on the show was to coach the Top Eight contestants July 30, 2007 from Canadian Idol
(Season 5) followed by his second appearance July 31, 2007
to perform "Somebody's Me" from Insomniac and his 90's hit "Be With You." His performance
was enthusiastically received by both the audience and judges who all gave Enrique a standing ovation.
The single Tired of Being Sorry is stated for release in Europe. The video for
the US single Somebody's Me premiered on TRL on August
14.
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.
He will also play a guitar playing/surfer/massage therapist and Enrique Iglesias lookalike on the tv show How I Met Your Mother.
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 Iglesias Jr., 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 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]
Discography
-
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
- ACE Award: Performer 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
- 2005
- Premio Lo Nuestro : Not in Love/No Es Amor Club Remixes
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