Enrique Iglesias

Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler , born May 8, 1975, simply known as Enrique Iglesias, is a Spanish singer-songwriter, actor, and record producer. 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. By the turn of the millennium 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 Records, however in late 2012, Republic Records was revived after eleven years of being dormant, shuttering Universal Republic Records taking all the artists from that label to Republic Records including Iglesias.

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 24 number-one Spanish-language singles on the Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks. He has also had 13 number-one songs on Billboard's Dance charts, more than any other single male artist. Altogether, Iglesias has amassed more than 70 number-one rankings on the various Billboard charts.Billboard has called him The King of Latin Pop and The King of Dance.


Early life

Iglesias was born in Madrid, Spain, and is the third and youngest child of singer Julio Iglesias and socialite and magazine journalist Isabel Preysler. Isabel Preysler's aunt is Neile Adams, first wife of Steve McQueen, making Iglesias second cousins with Steven R. McQueen.He was raised with two older siblings: Chabeli Iglesias and Julio Iglesias, Jr.. His mother is Filipina and his father is of Spanish ancestry from Galicia and Andalusia. His father also claims to have Jewish and Puerto Rican ancestry on his mother's side. His parents were divorced in 1979.

At first, Iglesias and his two siblings stayed with their mother, but 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.There, they were brought up mostly by the nanny, Elvira Olivares, to whom he later dedicated his first album. 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 on to the Mexican label Fonovisa. After dropping out of college, he traveled to Toronto to record his first album

Enrique Iglesias