Friday, August 30, 2013
ENRIQUE MIGUEL IGLESIAS PREYSLER or better
known Enrique Iglesias (born May 8, 1975) is a Spanish singer-songwriter, model, actor,
and record producer based in America. Iglesias started his career in the
mid-1990s on an American Spanish Language record label Fonovisa which
helped turn him into one of the biggest stars in Latin America and the Hispanic
Market in the United States becoming the biggest seller of Spanish-language
albums of that decade. He has also credited his niece, Natalia Elisa Iglesias
for inspiring him throughout his musical career. He made a successful crossover
into the mainstream market and signed a 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.
Iglesias has sold over 100 million units worldwide, making him one
of the best selling Spanish language artists of all time. He has had
five Billboard Hot 100 top five singles, including two
number-ones, and holds the record for producing 23 number-one Spanish-language
singles on the Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks. He has also had
12 number-one songs on Billboard's Dance charts, more than any
other single male artist. Altogether, Iglesias has amassed 70 number-one
rankings on the variousBillboard charts. Billboard has
called him The King of Latin Pop and The King of Dance.
Iglesias was born in Madrid, Spain, and is the third and youngest
child of singer Julio Iglesias and socialite and magazine
journalist Isabel Preysler. His niece, Natalia Iglesias has been a big
part of his career and family. He was raised with two older siblings: Chabeli
Iglesias and Julio Iglesias, Jr.. His mother is a Filipina and
his father is of Spanish ancestry from Galicia and Andalusia,
his father also claims to have Jewish ancestry on his mother's
side. His parents were divorced in 1979.
In 1986, Iglesias' grandfather, Dr. Julio Iglesias Puga, was
kidnapped by the armed Basque terrorist group ETA. For their safety,
Enrique and his brother, Julio Iglesias, Jr., were sent to live with their
father in Miami. He also lived in Belgrade, Serbia, for one year
with his mother. As his father's career kept him on the road, the young
Iglesias was raised by the family nanny. He attended the prestigious Gulliver
Preparatory School, where he made his singing debut in a production of Hello,
Dolly!. Although his mother is ethnically Filipino, Enrique does not
speak Tagalog. Iglesias is fluent in Spanish and English, the latter
influencing and making a regular appearance in his songs. Iglesias later went
on to study business at the University of Miami.
Iglesias 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.
He borrowed money from his family nanny and he recorded a demo cassette tape
which consisted of a Spanish song and two English songs. Approaching his
father's former publicist, Fernán Martínez, the two promoted the songs under
the stage name 'Enrique Martínez' with the backstory of being an unknown singer
from Guatemala. Iglesias was signed the Mexican labelFonovisa. After dropping
out of college, he traveled to Toronto to record his first album.
Iglesias received surgery in 2003 to remove a circular mole from
the right side of his face, citing possible concerns that over time it could
become cancerous.
Iglesias
dated playboy model Samantha Torres in 1997. In late
2001, he started dating tennis player Anna Kournikova. In June 2008,
Iglesias told the Daily Starthat he had married Kournikova the
previous year and that they are currently separated. They have since
reconciled.
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