Sunday, October 23, 2011

Biography

Born May 8, 1975 in Madrid, Spain, Enrique Iglesias is a Spanish Pop Music Singer and has followed in his father's large footsteps with even larger footsteps of his own. The hot singer that released his first English language album has had a long history in the music industry and already is the best selling Latin recording artist in the world, though Ricky Martin may claim the same distinction.

His mother is a Filipina and his father is of Spanish ancestry from Galicia. His parents' marriage was annulled in 1979. Iglesias is the third and youngest child of singer Julio Iglesias and socialite and magazine journalist Isabel Preysler was born in Madrid, Spain, and lived there with his mother until 1982.

In 1985, Iglesias' grandfather, Dr. Julio Iglesias Puga, was kidnapped by the terrorist group ETA.
He moved from Spain to Miami when he was only 7, mostly because of terrorism threats in his home country for their safety, his mother sent Enrique and his brother, Julio Iglesias, Jr., were sent to live with their father in Miami, USA. He also lived in Belgrade, Serbia, for one year with his mother.

Although he was the son of a famous musician, Enrique and Julio are not very close, as during his childhood his father was mostly away from home busy with his own music career keeping him on the road, the young Iglesias was raised and counted on the guidance by the family nanny Elvira Olivares, during his childhood in Miami. He attended prestigious Gulliver Preparatory Private School and went on to study business at the University of Miami. During the study, Enrique started his artistic career. He attended the singing lessons in secret from his father. Julio wanted his son to become a businessman, and Enrique entered the University of Miami to study business. However, he left the university in a year, deciding to concentrate on his aspiration for music.

Before you think Enrique used his father to gain acceptance as a musician, think again, as he kept his musical aspirations a secret, saying "I never wanted to tell my parents. It felt funny. I respected it so much, and I wanted it so much. Like, if you're eating dinner with your parents and you tell them, "Dad, I want to be a pilot," he's like, "Shut up and keep on eating." I never wanted to hear that."
In 1995, he started as Enrique Martinez, as he did not want his father to know about his plans for a musical career and did not want his famous surname to help advance his career to reach success. He borrowed money from his family nanny and he recorded a demo cassette tape which consisted of a Spanish song and two English songs.

Enrique told about his choice to his parents only after he got a contract with Mexican label Fonovisa 1995 although secretly had been planning the release since the age of 16. Approaching his father's former publicist, Fernan Martinez, the two promoted the songs under the stage name 'Enrique Martinez' with the backstory of being an unknown singer from Guatemala. Iglesias was signed by a record label called Fonovisa. After dropping out of college, he went to Toronto to record his first album, where nobody knew him. The debut Spanish disc Enrique Iglesias was readyin half a year and caught the attention of the listeners immediately with its light rock ballads and passionate Enrique's vocals. This helped turn him into one of the most popular artists in Latin America and in the Hispanic American market in the United States, and the biggest seller of Spanish language albums of the 1990s.

Before the turn of the millennium, he made a crossover into the mainstream English language market, signing a unique multi-album deal with Universal Music Group for an unprecedented US$48,000,000, with Universal Music Latino to release his Spanish albums and Interscope to release English albums. In 2010, he parted with Interscope and signed with another Universal Music Group label, Universal Republic.

In 1995, he released his first album in 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 first album was a huge success and to date has sold over 6 million copies and his second album, Vivir, has also sold multi-millions. Enrique's talent stretches across several languages, having recorded in Italian, Portugese, English, and his native Spanish. He recently told MTV "Yeah. I just have the best of both worlds. I can do English and I can do Spanish. The second edition Vivir, also fulfilled in Spanish, was released in 1997 and inspired Iglesias for his first world tour with such colleagues as Bruce Springsteen, Elton John and Billy Joel.

The next work Cosas Del Amor of 1998 showed that Enrique became older. It features such singles as Esperanza and Nunca Te Olvidare.

It was soon followed by the artist's first album in English, titled Enrique. This full-length tore the charts with the fiery, passionate song Bailamos, which also entered the soundtrack of the Wild Wild West film, starring Will Smith. Romantic pop duet with Whitney Houston Could I Have This Kiss Forever and unusually sincere Be With You strengthened the astonishing success of Enrique.

Two years later the artist released the Escape album, which continued his fame with such brilliant smash hits as Hero, Escape, Don't Turn Off The Lights and Love To See You Cry.
In 2002, Iglesias refreshed the memory of his Spanish roots with the love ballads collection Quizas, which was especially praised for the composition Para Que La Vida.

7, released in 2003, saw moderate success.

However, Iglesias managed to come back to his superstardom with his Insomniac in 2007. The album celebrated several significant changes in Enrique's life. Firstly, it became his triumph in the role of songwriter. Secondly, he finished the long-time relations with Russian sportswoman Anna Kournikova - they dated for about six years! There is no doubt that listeners could not overhear the fresh R&B flavor that Enrique added to his music.

Moreover, in 2003, Iglesias surgically moved his famous facial mole. After parting with Kournikova, Enrique became the boyfriend of Erin M., also known as La Gringa.

In March 2008, the singer released the compilation of his best compositions 95/08 Exitos, featuring not only 17 of his well-known hits, but also a couple of new songs.

His song "Por Amarte" was included in Televisa's telenovela Marisol, but with a twist: instead of Por amarte yo moriría (To love you, I'd die), 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 as Best Latin Artist.

What I used to do in Spanish was mainstream, mainstream pop music. That's what I wanted to do in English. When I was doing this album, that's what I wanted to create: a mainstream pop album. Because that was mainly my influence growing up, as a little kid. That kind of music." But don't label Enrique a crossover artist, as he says "Everyone is talking about this whole Latino movement and this "crossover." I hate that word, "crossover." I don't know if it's because it puts too much pressure... not really, in a way,
but I just don't like that word." Before the dreaded crossover, Enrique enjoyed his greatest success as in 1996 Enrique won a Grammy for Best Latin Performer, and in 1997 Billboard awarded him Album of the Year. He did recently get awarded as the Favorite Latino Artist at the Sixth Annual Blockbuster Awards as well.

Enrique's career is not without controversy though, as in 1999 two executives from his label Fonovisa, pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles to charges related to illegally paying radio stations to play songs by their artists, which included Enrique. It also is known that Enrique and Ricky Martin are very competitive rivals, much in the same way as Jennifer Lopez and Salma Hayek are on the big screen. In fact, Enrique was recently dumped by model Adriana Beiga supposedly in favor of Martin.

Although Adriana says in a recent interview that she is seeing neither since both do not have time for relationships because of the workload involved in their careers. It also was reported that Enrique's longtime lover Sofia Vergara also ended her relationship with him. Most recently he was seen grinding on the dance floor with Christina Aguilera after their performance in VH1's Men Strike Back.

It is interesting to note though that Enrique has claimed to many to be a virgin, though interviews with Beiga and Vergara seem to dispute that. If it is the case, likely it is due to the messy divorce between his parents when Enrique was growing up. That being said, don't feel too bad for Enrique, as he is one of the most desired men on the planet, even being awarded People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People distinction in 1998.

He reponded to MTV's questioning about women on Miami chasing him all the time by saying "That's a good side of my job." His video, Be With You, features a kissing scene with hot young actress Shannon Elizabeth, although its unclear what if any the two's relations are off the camera (it should be noted though that Shannon is engaged and says the two are only friends).

Enrique also played the part of an evil Roman emperor in an ambitous TV commercial for Pepsi, which sponsored his last world tour. He starred alongside Britney Spears, Beyonce and Pink, who turn the tables on him in the commercial.

Enrique has been linked to a number of women, from former Miss Universe Alicia Machado to teen queen Christina Aguilera. He currently dates Russian tennis star and model Anna Kournikova.

More recently, Enrique has been a guest on Oprah Winfrey's talk show, surprising one of his fans and spending the day with her. Enrique will soon appear in a commercial for the Tommy Hilfiger fragrance called "True Star Men", which Enrique is endorsing.

As the son of a singing legend, Enrique Iglesias has some mighty big shoes to fill. But he has walked his own path admirably. Born into incredible privilege, he has not let it consume him. Instead, he has pursued his dreams with the same hard work that made his father a star. Of course, as is the case with his handsome dad, Enrique's natural good looks haven't gone unnoticed; in 1998, he was named one of the world's sexiest men by People magazine. It is this winning combination of good luck and talent that has helped Enrique sell over 40 million albums to date, and turned him into a Latin music superstar.

Iglesias has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best selling Latin artists of all time.

Iglesias has had five Billboard Hot 100 top five singles, including two #1s, and holds the record for producing 22 number 1 Spanish-language singles on the Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks. He has also had nine #1 songs on Billboard's Dance charts, more than any other single male artist. Altogether, Iglesias has amassed 53 #1 hits on the various Billboard charts. He has honorably been named as The King of Latin Pop and The King of Dance according to Billboard.

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