(CNN) -- Before the interview for Talk Asia, all I knew about Julio Iglesias was that he sings love songs -- and that the ladies seem to love him.
What I didn't know, was
this is a man who was born to be famous and not even a life-threatening
injury from a car accident would stop him.
His story is one made for
the silver screen. It has all the elements that tug at your heart
strings: family drama, near-death experience, triumph over adversity,
ultimate success, and a plot that just keeps on going.
Iglesias' renowned voice
has made him a superstar worldwide but his first foray into the
spotlight wasn't through his voice, it was his feet.
The football pitch was where he got his first taste of what it feels like to be adored by the crowds.
Real deal
From a young age,
Iglesias showed his fancy footwork in Real Madrid's junior league.
Rising through the ranks, he would eventually become goalkeeper for
Real's reserve team.
Iglesias humbly admits he
was never a real football talent but he had the discipline which would
see him play with the biggest names of that generation.
While his dream to play
for the Primera Division would never be realized, just being in close
proximity to the players and playing in the same stadium was enough to
feel the call of something big.
"You feel 50,000 people
in the stadium and you go on the grass and the magic starts. You feel
like are something else. All the dreams that you have for years come
back in a reality and you are in front of so many people playing a match
and you win, you lose. It's passion, it's courage," he said.
Accident
Perhaps it's that
courage that saw him through one of the most challenging times of his
life. When he was 19, a drive home after a party with two friends ended
in tragedy.
While taking a curve in
the road, the car he was driving crashed, leaving him clinging on to
life. What would come would crush his dreams of ever playing football
again. The crash compressed a nerve in his spine leaving him paralyzed
from the chest down; a paralysis that would see him bed-ridden for two
years.
"All I felt at that time was 'Why? Why has this happened to me?'
"I'm someone who
believes there's a reason for everything. Sometimes that belief is
challenged but more often than not, I believe events take place that
force you to think, feel, and act in ways you may never have before. I
believe people come into your life for a reason."
For Iglesias, that belief was crystallized in that devastating moment, and those challenging two years changed his life.
What he did not realize at the time was that it would all change for the better.
Musical discovery
A nurse who was treating
him brought Julio a guitar. The gesture was two-fold: a distraction
from the depression of what kind of a life would lie ahead, and a means
to exercise the dexterity and strength in his fingers and hands.
He discovered a passion for music that he didn't know he had. And perhaps more than anything, a renewed purpose in life.
"I started to move my
toes. I started to get up, I started to walk albeit painfully, and I
started to realize that I could survive ... I started to think that I
could be alive again ... So from that day I took chances. I disciplined
my life. Without discipline I would not be here. I would not be talking
to you, I would not be a singer, and I would be nothing. Discipline woke
up my life again."
The rest as they say is history.
Devoted following
Eighty albums released
in 14 languages, over 300 million records sold worldwide, and a devoted
following of women who hear that something in his voice that knows no
boundaries of language. Despite claiming to be "not that great" of a
singer, Iglesias' ability to connect to a global audience has served him
well. He says it's his passion for music and for people.
Perhaps, though, what
they see is his vulnerability, a quality he himself says "is the most
attractive thing that an artist can have."
"Since that time I
understood that music, and the passion for music, was my life ... I was
not a good singer, I didn't even know how to write a song ... but I
realized what an incredible opportunity I had. The life came back to my
eyes and I became a singer."
VIDEO HERE: http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/24/world/asia/talk-asia-iglesias/
No comments:
Post a Comment