Julio Iglesias - Biography
By J Poet
Grammy winning Spanish crooner, songwriter, and heartthrob Julio Iglesias holds the record for the most successful single artist of all time with over 100 million albums sold as of 1984 including 2,000 gold records and 100 platinum albums, an impressive record. He records in 14 languages including Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Japanese, and English, and has made 77 original albums as of 2008. A well-known ladies man, he claims he’s bedded over 3,000 women.
Julio Jose Iglesias de la Cueva was born in Madrid, Spain. He went to private schools but was a poor student and failed an audition for his high school choir. He was an athlete, however, and made the junior squad of Real Madrid Club de Futbol. He studied law, but was set on being a soccer player. When was 20, he had auto accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down, ending his dreams of a sports career.
Intensive physical therapy followed, and to pass the time he started playing guitar, singing and writing songs. In 1967 he went to England to study English at the Bell Educational Trust's Language School in Cambridge where he wrote an early hit, "La vida sigue igual." He started singing in pubs doing covers of Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck and The Beatles. After meeting his then girlfriend Gwendolyne Bollore he wrote “Gwendolyne,” his first international hit. He entered, and won, the 1968 Benidorm Song Festival on the Spanish Mediterranean coast with “Gwendolyne.” Part of the prize was a contract with Sony Discos. His first album, Yo Canto (1969 Sony Discos) was moderately successful. His second, Gwendolyne (1970 Sony Discos) included the title track, winner of 1970's Eurovision Festival, and was a hit. He quit law school to concentrate his energy on his singing career and did a small tour of Europe and the United States.
His early albums include Por una mujer (1972 Sony Discos), Soy (1973 Sony Discos), El Amor (1975 Sony Discos) and A mis 33 años (1977 Sony Discos.) he also made albums in French, Italian, Portuguese, and German. In 1978, Iglesias signed with CBS International for De Niña a Mujer (1981 CBS International), which included his first English hit "Begin the Beguine,” which went to #1 on the British pop charts. He also released his first best of compilation, Julio (1983 CBS International).
1100 Bel Air Place (1984 Columbia US), with vocal arrangements by Brian Wilson, included duets with American singers like Diana Ross, the Beach Boys and Willie Nelson. The Nelson duet “To All the Girls I've Loved Before” was a #5 pop hit, and the album went 3X platinum. He got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and on the Walk of Latin Stars on Miami's 8th Street in 1985. Un Hombre Solo (1987 Sony Discos) won him a Best Latin Pop Album Grammy and Non Stop (1988 Columbia) included a duet with Stevie Wonder on "My Love."
As his American sales fell off in the early 90s, Iglesias returned his attention to the international market, particularly the Spanish world. He continued to record at an amazing pace, making up to eight albums a year in various languages including Starry Night (1990 Columbia), an English language collection of pop standards, Calor (1992 Sony Discos), Anche senza di te (1992 Sony Discos), Crazy (1994 Columbia), a country flavored album with guest vocals by Dolly Parton, La carretera (1995 Sony Discos), and Tango (1996 Sony Discos, 2005 Columbia Legacy), a collection of classic Argentinean tunes from the 20s and 30s. A greatest hits album was released in both English My Life: The Greatest Hits (1998 Columbia) and Spanish Mi Vida - Grandes Exitos (1998 Sony Discos.)
Iglesias kicked off the millennium with one of his biggest albums, Divorcio (2003 CBS International.) It went gold in Spain on the day of its release selling 350,000 copies and in the next week went to #1 in Portugal, France, Italy, and Russia. He supported the album with a sold out 10 month world tour of Europe, Asia, the US, South America, and Africa. He returned to record stores with Love Songs (2003 Columbia), En français (2004 CBS International), and Romantic Classics (2006 Columbia), songs from the '60s, '70s and 80s including songs by Fred Neil, “Everybody’s Talking,” the Bee Gees, “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?,” and Foreigner “I Want to Know What Love Is.” He also made Indonesian and Filipino versions of the album. In 2008 he recorded a duet of the Charles Aznavour song “Que c'est triste Venise” with Aznavour. Iglesias will spend most of 2009 on the road singing in the USA, Canada, South America and the Middle East. He owns homes in the Dominican Republic, Miami, and Marbella, Spain.
