Julio Iglesias
(born September 23, 1943 in Madrid) is a Spanish singer who has sold over 300 million albums [1] in 14 languages and released 77 albums. According to Sony Music he is one of the top 10 best selling music artists ever. While Iglesias rose to international prominence in the 1970s and 1980s as a performer of romantic ballads and his success has continued as he entered new musical endeavors. Thus far, he has performed approximately 5,000 concerts [2].
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JULIO IGLESIAS TICKETS
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Background
Julio Iglesias is the eldest son of Dr.
Julio Iglesias Puga (from
Galicia) and Maria del Rosario de la Cueva y Perignat; Carlos is his younger brother. When the singer was 61 years old, his 89-year-old father sired more children: half brother Jaime (18 May 2004), half-sister Ruth (26 July 2006). Julio's siblings were born of Dr. Iglesias's second marriage to Ronna Keitt.
In the early sixties, when he was a law student in Madrid, he briefly was goalkeeper for one of
Real Madrid's youth soccer teams; however, a 22 September 1963 car crash truncated his footballer's career:
I had a car accident; [a] very, very strange car accident
. . .
I lost control of the car, and rolled it, resulting in what they call 'paraparexia', which is not a paraplegi[a]. It's a compression in the [spinal] cord, in the sense of the neck . . . my spinal cord; and I was very, very ill for three years.
His doctors thought he would never walk again, but slowly, he began recovering his health. To develop and increase the dexterity of his hands, he began playing guitar. When recovered of health, he resumed academic studies, and travelled to England to study the English language, first in Ramsgate, then at
Bell Educational Trust's Language School in
Cambridge.
[3]
Musical career
Early career to 1978
In 1968, he won the
Benidorm International Song Festival, a songwriter's contest in Spain, and signed a contract with
Discos Columbia, the Latin music label of the
Columbia Records company. He represented Spain in the 1970
Eurovision Song Contest, earning fourth place, after
Northern Irish singer
Dana Scallon, and the Welsh singer
Mary Hopkin. His entry was the song 'Gwendolyne', his first recording. Notable albums from this decade are
A Flor de Piel
(1974, with the European hit 'Manuela'),
El Amor
(1975), and
Soy
(1978). He also sang in French. One of his popular songs is
Je n'ai pas changé
.
The Peak, 1978 – 1990
In 1978, he signed a contract for
CBS International, adding English, French, Portuguese, and German to his languages repertoire. Iglesias released the album
De Niña a Mujer
(1981), from it came the first English-language hit, a Spanish cover of "
Begin the Beguine" (N. 1 in the U.K.); he also released a collection,
Julio
(1983).
In 1984, he released
1100 Bel Air Place
, the hit album which gave him great fame in English-speaking markets. It sold three million copies in the U.S., with the first single "
To All the Girls I've Loved Before", a duet with
Willie Nelson, earning fifth place in the
Billboard Hot 100; it also featured "All of You", with
Diana Ross.
In 1985, Julio Iglesias, Sr, was kidnapped, but found alive two weeks later, prompting Julio (divorced from Isabel Preysler) to move his family to Miami, Florida. That year he recorded duets with Diana Ross and Willie Nelson. In 1986, it was rumoured that Julio, seeking a day's solace from fame, was found walking the streets of
Cayey,
Puerto Rico, after a seven-days'-disappearance. After visiting the
Dominican Republic, he became a citizen of that country in 2005.
Iglesias won a
Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album in the
1988 Grammy Awards for the album
Un Hombre Solo
("A Man Alone"). He recorded a duet with
Stevie Wonder on "My Love", in his
Non Stop
album, a crossover success in 1988.
The 1990s
In the 1990s, Julio Iglesias returned to his original Spanish melody in
Tango
(1996), nominated for
Best Latin Pop Album at the 1998 Grammy Awards, losing to the
Romances
album by
Luis Miguel [4]. Also that year, his youngest son,
Enrique Iglesias, also was nominated for the
Vivir
album.
Julio went on to win the World Music Award for
Tango
in Monoco later that year where he was up against Luis Miguel and son Enrique again. Julio performed two "Tangos" to the delight of the audience.
With him continually touring and recording, to ensure his music reaches the world, Julio Iglesias has said, that singing, as an admirable activity, is something he can't picture not in his life. He is thrilled being a singer, and always wants to be a singer, loving the life so much, he would rather die on stage than in bed. He is proud of his achievements, and proud of Enrique's achievements, and of how much his music has enhanced peoples' lives. Julio Iglesias is amenable to signing
autographs, though he can be difficult to reach, because of the security guards they have hired since 1985, after the kidnapping.
Since 2000
Iglesias returned to the headlines in October, 2003, when he went to
Argentina and kissed show host
Susana Giménez three times during a live telecast of her show.
2003 saw the release of the Spanish album "Divorcio." (Divorce) In its first day of sales, "Divorcio" sold a record 350,000 copies in Spain; and quickly reached the #1 spot on the charts in
Spain,
Portugal,
France,
Italy, and
Russia.
The remainder of 2003 and early 2004 featured a mega 10 month world tour; which took Iglesias, fueled with the success of "Divorcio" from
Europe and
Asia to
The United States,
South America, and
Africa. More than half the shows on the tour sold out within days of going on sale.
In December 2004, Miranda and Iglesias recorded a duet of the Christmas song
Silent Night
. The song, which was not officially released, also included a voice message from Julio, Miranda, and their 4 young children. The song was released online through the singer's web page, and a CD was included in their Christmas card as a holiday gift from the Iglesias family to their friends and fans around the world.
In 2008, Iglesias and Family recorded another song as a gift for their fans. The family recorded "The Little Drummer Boy" in Spanish and English and included it in the family's Christmas card.
Iglesias has made important investments in the
Dominican Republic's eastern town of
Punta Cana, a major tourist destination, where he spends most of the year when he is not on tour.
The singer's south Florida mansion on the exclusive, security obsessed, private
Indian Creek Island was placed on the market in 2006 for a quoted $28 million dollars, making it one of "Ten Most Expensive Homes in the South" in 2006 according to
Forbes Magazine.
In September 2006 a new English album titled "Romantic Classics" was released. "I've chosen songs from the '60s, '70s and 80s that I believe will come to be regarded as the new standards," Iglesias says in the album's sleeve notes. The album features the hits "I Want To Know What Love Is", "Careless Whisper", and "Right Here Waiting".
Romantic Classics was Iglesias's highest debut on the BILLBOARD charts entering at number 31 in the USA, 21 in Canada, 10 in Australia, and top spots across Europe and Asia.
In late September, Iglesias returned to the studio to record songs in
Filipino and
Indonesian for the Asian releases of "Romantic Classics"- which helped propel sales in the Asian Markets. He featured a duet with
Anggun on Indonesian-English song entitled "All of You".
Iglesias promoted "Romantic Classics" very heavily in the remainder of 2006, and was seen all over the world on popular TV shows, and in the USA, he appeared on
Dancing With The Stars where he sang his hit "I Want To know what Love Is," "Good Morning America," "The View," "Fox and Friends," and "Martha Stewart."
2008 saw Iglesias promoting his "Romantic Classics" album in Europe, Africa and South America.
In 2009, Iglesias plans to tour the USA, Canada, South America and Lebanon. The tour is designed to be a celebration of Iglesias' 40 years in the music industry and stops include Beirut, Seattle, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego and Vancouver... Just to name a few.
On the 10th April 2009 was featured as a guest artist on the Middle Eastern Version of "
Star Academy" and sang with two of the contestants.
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