Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias has vowed never to slow down as he marks the 40th anniversary of a polyglot career that has made him one of the biggest selling Latino singers in history.
His romantic ballads, along with the signature dark mane, perpetual tan and flashing smile, propelled this Madrid native from a reluctant contender in a seaside song contest to an international heartthrob with more than 250 million albums sold worldwide.
“I love my profession and I owe everything to it. As long as I have strength, I will be here, Iglesias, who turns 65 next month, said in an interview published Tuesday ahead of his latest concert in a summer tour.
“How time flies. You don’t realize it, but that is life. It has been 40 intense but very happy years.
“I am grateful to life, which is very beautiful, he told the regional Spanish daily La Voz de Cadiz.
Iglesias started out in July 1968 by taking part in a songwriters’ contest in the popular Mediterranean resort of Benidorm. Five years earlier at the age of 20, a serious car accident put a brutal end to his dream of playing football, as a goalkeeper for Real Madrid.
He was semi-paralyzed for two years afterwards and started writing songs to pass the time.
“I was convalescent and very nervous, a friend pushed me and I stepped on the stage with my hands in my pocket, he recalled Saturday at a concert back in Benidorm before some 4,000 people.
Iglesias won with his tune “La Vida Sigue Igual and went on to sign a contract with Discos Columbia, the Latin music label of Columbia Records.
“It seems like it was only yesterday, in this very square, and during this time so much has happened, he told the Benidorm fans.
Since that first timid appearance, Iglesias has gone on to perform with major names like Diana Ross, Sting, Paul Anka and Stevie Wonder to Placido Domingo and Frank Sinatra. He has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and won a Grammy for the best Latin pop album in 1988.
The suave Latino cracked the tough US music market in 1984 with “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before, a duet with Willy Nelson, but he did not stop with English.
One of the biggest crossover artists in the world of pop, he has also recorded albums in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Tagalog, among others. In 1983 he received the first and only Diamond Record Award ever given to a singer by the Guinness Book of World Records for selling more records in more languages than any other musical artist in history, according to his website.
While his peak came in the 1980s and he says he will not think about quitting, there are signs his popularity has waned in recent years.
About half of the people who attended Saturday’s concert in Benidorm were given free tickets by local officials, top-selling daily newspaper El Pais said Monday.
Organizers cut prices for some of the top seats for the concert Tuesday night in El Puerto de Santa Maria, in Cadiz province where Iglesias has a home, from ?120 ($175) to ?75 in recent days.
In June Iglesias canceled a concert in Yekaterinburg, Russia after completing just two songs because he felt ill.
He told the audience, according to Russian media reports, it was “the first time I have had to stop my own concert, saying, “I don’t feel good, I don’t look good and I’m having some problems with my voice. A father of eight, he is regular fodder for gossip magazines in the Spanish-speaking world. One of his brood, 33-year-old son Enrique – one of three children from his marriage to Isabel Preysler of the Philippines – has made a big impact on US and European music charts with his own Latino brand of pop. He has had five other children, aged from 12 months to 11 years, with his companion, Miranda Rijnsburger of the Netherlands. -AFP
