Article From El Paso Newspaper

Julio Iglesias- International phenom, intimate setting
By Mía R. Cortez

Cintya Dominguez, 25, grew up listening to Julio Iglesias. She came to love his music and his style and says she’s still a huge fan. “He has a very elegant presentation – his music is relaxing and passionate,” Dominguez said. “My mother always listened to his music, so I grew up really liking him, too.”Dominguez is one of many El Pasoans who will miss out on Iglesias’ sold-out concert at the Plaza Theatre, but 2,000 lucky others will see the legendary Spanish artist perform live Monday night.“I was surprised that he’s coming to El Paso, and I would have expected a larger venue, but the Plaza is the perfect intimate setting for one of his shows,” Dominguez said.Iglesias is currently on a global tour spanning more than 60 cities around the world. Fifteen of those stops are in the United States; the rest are in South Africa, Turkey, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Croatia and more than five countries in South America.Iglesias, 64, whose record sales have made him as the most successful Latin singer in music history, started his music career in 1968. Growing up, the Spanish artist may not have imagined his fame would reach such heights.He played goalkeeper for the junior Real Madrid soccer team and wanted to be a professional soccer player, but he also studied Law in the Complutense University of Madrid.A car accident at the age of 20 left him semi-paralyzed for more than a year, during which time he learned to play the guitar and wrote romantic poems and lyrics. He continued to write songs after he recovered and one day offered a recording company one of his songs to be recorded by someone else. They heard his demo and asked him to sing it himself. He was signed to Colombia Records in 1968 and has since sold more than 250 million albums and has been the recipient of more than 2,600 platinum and gold records, according to his official website. He has received the Diamond Record Award – the only one 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. He has recorded albums in Spanish, German, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Tagalog, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese and Bahasa Indonesian. “In my travels to Southeast Asia, South and Central America and Europe, I have always seemed to hear at least one of his songs,” said Mary Anne Navidomskis, 24. “People in other countries admire when a well-known performer adapts to their language and culture. I’ve seen him in concert and think he has maintained a very strong voice. Not all singers are able to do that.”

Julio Iglesias- Plaza Theatre, 1 Civic Center Plaza- Monday, April 14 – 8 p.m.

SOLD OUT

(Source: Whats Up Entertainment- El Paso, TX)