Early life & family
Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler, was born on May 8, 1975 in
Madrid,
Spain. He was the third and final child of singer
Julio Iglesias and
Filipina Isabel Preysler. He has a sister
Chabeli Iglesias, and a brother
Julio Iglesias Jr., Julio and Isabel divorced in 1978 and the following year Julio moved to Miami Florida to further his musical career.
In 1983 Enrique along with his brother were sent by their mother to live with their father in the US following the kidnapping of their grandfather,
Dr. Julio Iglesias Puga because Isabel feared her sons might suffer a similar as her father-in-law. Enrique graduated from the Gulliver Preparatory School in 1993. He went on to the University of Miami where he studied business but he dropped out in order to pursue a career in music. Enrique did not want his father to know about his plans for a musical career, so when he was shopping around his demo to the record companies he went by the name of Enrique Martinez using his first name and the last name of his manager Fernan Martinez. He also did not want his famous surname to help advance his career he wanted to do it on his own merit. Enrique was signed by a then small Indy record label called Fonavisa. He went to Toronto, Canada for six months while recording his first album.
Isabel has remarried twice and has two daughters one from each marriage (Tamara Falcó and Ana Boyer). Julio has lived with Miranda Rijnsburger for almost twenty years their union has produced five children, Miguel Alejandro, Rodrigo, Cristina, Victoria and Guillermo Iglesias.
"Enrique Iglesias" (1995)
In July 12,1995, he released his first album titled
Enrique Iglesias, 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" (1997)
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, two consecutive nights at
Monterrey's Auditorio Coca Cola 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", "
Sólo en Ti" 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" (1998)
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 Favorite 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" (1999)
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. The song's success was helped by it's having two videos, one based around the film and the other set in a nightclub defining Enrique's image for years to come clad in tight shirt and black leather trousers.
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 third 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" (2001)
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" (2002)
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.
[
edit] "7" (2003)
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 repertoire 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 Insomniac 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.
The single "
Do You Know? (The Ping Pong Song)" was featured in an episode of
Rob and Big where Rob started singing the song in a car wash. This was the first episode of season 3.
Enrique also filmed a music video for his single "
Tired of Being Sorry" on an episode of "
America's Next Top Model, Cycle 9".
"Insomniac" (2007)
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. It was #1 for 11 nonconsecutive weeks. 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".
On July 4, Enrique Iglesias became the first Western artist to play a concert in
Syria in three decades when he performed his steamy Latin-inflected pop for a sold-out crowd of 10,000 in the capital city of
Damascus.
Enrique Iglesias fully launched his Insomniac promo tour in Los Angeles with a signing at the
Virgin Megastore.
Enrique recently shot his new video for "
Tired of Being Sorry" which was 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
Univisión prior to his appearance at
Premios Juventud. It is expected that he will launch "
Somebody's Me" simultaneously with "Alguien Soy Yo", a Spanish version which bears little resemblance to the English aside from the music and the title, a direct 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. Enrique made a rare appearance on UK chat show, The Paul O'Grady Show singing one of his tracks from the new album and chatting with the host. He came across very well and made an impression on the audience with his good looks and heart melting voice.
The single "
Tired of Being Sorry" was released in Europe, and is doing well. It has reached the UK and Swedish Top 20 and #1 in Finland. The video for "Tired of Being Sorry" features the cast of America's Next Top Model. The video for the US single "
Somebody's Me" premiered on TRL on
August 14. It has since been charting on the Canadian charts, and has reached the Billboard "bubbling under" list, and the Spanish version has entered the Billboard Latin Top 5. The video for "Amigo Vulnerable" (Spanish version of "Tired of Being Sorry") is now being played on MTV TR3's in the US.
Enrique has been nominated for three 2008 Premios Lo Nuestro Awards and four Latin Billboard awards
Enrique announced on a radio show that Push will be the next single in the US and he filmed the video for it in LA. The song will be included in the soundtrack of the movie
Step Up 2 the Streets (soundtrack) which will be released on February 14, 2008.
The new single "
Push" premiered on the Ryan Seacrest Show On Kiss Fm (L.A.) which will be on the soon to be released "Step Up 2" Soundtrack limited release and also on the new Enrique Iglesias album. A video was also shot for this version of "Push" featuring the stars of the movie.
"Spanish Greatest Hits Album: 95/08 Exitos" (2008)
Enrique will release a Spanish Greatest Hits album in March 25th, 2008, which will include his seventeen #1 songs on Hot Latin songs chart plus two new songs. The first single will be the song "Dónde Están Corazón" which is written by Argentinean star
Coti. the other song is called "Lloro Por Ti". "¿Dónde Están Corazón?" debuted at #4 on the Hot Shot debut of the week on Billboard's Hot Latin songs on 2/14/08. On 2/21/08, Dónde Están Corazón became Enrique's 18th #1 single on Billbooards Hot Latin Songs. The album debuted at #1 on Billboard's Latin Album Charts and #18 on Billboards top 200 Album chart. It was Enrique's second Spanish Album (Quisás at 12 in 2002) to debut in the top 20 Billboards Top 200 Albums.
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 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 also played Gael, 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
In June 2000, radio personality
Howard Stern received a tape of a supposedly off-key (
MP3 of Iglesias singing,
[1] 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.
[2]Iglesias confirmed that his trademark facial mole was surgically removed in August of 2003.
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