Passion: Julio Iglesias

Julio’s passion will shine
By Charlie Holding
Posted On » February 29 - March 6, 2012 (Volume:10 / Issue 61)

With a career spanning over four decades Latin crooner Julio Iglesias has performed in 600 cities around the world and in front of more than 60 million people … and now it is Bahrain’s turn to see the ‘Spanish Frank Sinatra’ on stage.

The Godfather of Latin pop said he was excited to be performing in Bahrain for the first time and is looking forward to entertaining his fans here in the kingdom during the Spring of Culture Festival in March.

“I’ve played in almost every country in the world but I’ve never been to Bahrain before. It will be nice to visit somewhere different because I love seeing new places and meeting new people,” he said.

Mr Iglesias has sold more than 300 million copies of his 80 albums released worldwide, including original versions in various languages, compilations and live albums, which make him the best-selling Spanish-speaking artist in history.

Language is no barrier for Mr Iglesias and he attests that people can still enjoy his music even if they don’t understand the words.

He said: “I think it just comes down to my passion and it’s a universal passion for music. When I performed in China and sang in French, it didn’t matter for the Chinese because it was about the emotion – they may not have understood the words but they understood the feeling behind them.”

Mr Iglesias discovered his love for music late in life. Throughout school, he enjoyed playing football but his dreams of playing professionally were shattered after a car crash in 1963 which left him with a devastating spinal cord injury.

Over the next year he worked hard in physiotherapy to regain his mobility. To help pass the time and increase the dexterity of his hands, he began playing guitar and his musical talent began to shine.

In 1968 he won the Festival de Benidorm song contest with the song La Vida Sigue Igual and signed a contract with Spain’s Columbia Records company ... the rest, as they say, is history.

He has since performed and recorded with some of music’s biggest stars including duets with Willie Nelson (To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before), Diana Ross (All of You) and Stevie Wonder (My Love).

In 1971, he married Spanish-Filipino journalist Isabel Preysler and had three children, Chabeli Iglesias, Julio Iglesias Jr. and Enrique Iglesias. Their marriage was annulled in 1979. On August 24, 2010, Julio and Miranda Rijnsburger got married after a 20-year relationship. The religious ceremony was celebrated in the Parish of the Virgen del Carmen of Marbella. The couple has three sons and twin daughters – Miguel, Rodrigo, Victoria and Cristina and Guillermo.

Enrique has become as famous as his father. Within five years of beginning his musical career in the 1990s, he became the biggest seller of Spanish-language albums of that decade. He made his crossover into the mainstream English language market before the turn of the millennium and has since sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling Spanish language artists of all time, earning the title of The King of Latin Pop.

Enrique 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.

Although there have been many reports in celebrity magazines claiming that their relationship is strained Julio has been quoted as describing his son as ‘a lovely, wonderful guy and a great artist’.

Now in his 68th year he shows no signs of slowing down and aims to keep perfecting his craft and performing for as long as he can. He said: “I will continue to perform until the day I die, hopefully. My life is about music and I don’t know what I would do without it.

“It’s that simple, my passion has always been music and when I’m on stage I feel alive. It’s not like I need the money anymore, I just do it because it’s what I love to do and as long as people still want to see me do it, I’m going to continue to perform.”

His last album Julio Iglesias Numero 1 is a greatest hits package with a difference. The CD contains re-recordings of some of the biggest hits of his 43-year career, and also new versions of songs, such as Eu Nunca Te Esqueci (Always On My Mind).

According to the artist, his new CD is ‘an album that emerged from the desire to sing better the most representative songs of my career’.

He said: “As I have gotten older I think my voice has become stronger and more powerful and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to re-record my songs for the album.

“Even if you listen to Frank Sinatra as a young man, and then again later on in life, you can hear the difference in his voice, it’s a muscle that gets stronger over time.”

Although every artist likes houseful stadiums, having performed for millions of people during his illustrious career, Mr Iglesias says the size of his audience doesn’t make a difference to him.

“It could be a crowd of 500 or 50,000, I still perform the same way with the exact same passion ... and besides, I sing with my eyes closed so I wouldn’t know how many people are there anyway!

“For me, the important thing is being on stage because it makes me feel alive, I may have gotten a little older but my passion for music is as young as ever.”

Mr Iglesias says fans in the kingdom can expect an impassioned performance from him, adding: “Everyone who comes to the show can expect a lot of love and a lot of appreciation from me. It will be a show to remember, I hope people walk away feeling entertained.

“They can expect me to love them and to be grateful for letting me perform for them. I hope they let me sing for them again and again.”

Mr Iglesias will be performing as part of the Spring of Culture 2012 festival which starts on March 1 with a tribute to Umm Kulthum, performed by Egyptian singer Riham Abdul Hakim at the Bahrain National Museum.

Tickets for Julio Iglesias’ performances at Arad Fort on March 3-4 cost between BD20-BD40.

For further details, call the festival’s hotline 39900630, or visit www.springofculture.org

(Source: http://www.gulfweeklyworldwide.com/Articles.aspx?articleid=28357)