Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva (Spanish:[ˈxuljojˈɣlesjas]; born 23 September 1943) is a Spanish singer, songwriter and former professional footballer. Iglesias is recognized as the most commercially successful Spanish singer in the world and one of the toprecord sellers in music history, having sold more than 300 million records worldwide[1] in 14 languages.[2] It is estimated that during his career he has performed in more than 5,000 concerts, for over 60 million people in five continents. In April 2013, Iglesias was inducted into theLatin Songwriters Hall of Fame.
In 1983, Iglesias was credited as having recorded songs in the most languages in the world, and in 2013 for being thebest-selling male Latin artist of all-time.[3] In April 2013 in Beijing, he was honoured as the most popular international artist in China. In Brazil, France, Italy and elsewhere, Iglesias is the most successful foreign record seller, while in his home country, Spain, he has sold the most records in history, with 23 million records.
Iglesias was born inMadrid toJulio Iglesias Sr., amedical doctor fromOurense who became one of the youngestgynecologists in the country, and María del Rosario de la Cueva y Perignat. His paternal grandparents, Manuela Puga Noguerol and Ulpiano Iglesias Sarria, were ofGalician ancestry.[4] His maternal grandparents were José de la Cueva y Orejuela (1887–1955)[5] and Dolores de Perignat y Ruiz de Benavides,[6] who was a native ofGuayama,Puerto Rico.[7]
The name "Iglesias" translates as "churches". Iglesias says that he is of Jewish ancestry on his maternal side, and that his mother's family name, "de la Cueva", meaning literally "of the cave" and referring to Jewish people in hiding, is a common Jewish name.[8] He has proclaimed himself Jewish "from the waist up".[9]
He alternated playing professional football with studying law at theCEU San Pablo University in Madrid. In his youth, he was a goalkeeper forReal Madrid Castilla in theSegunda División. His professional football career was ruined when he was involved in a serious automobile accident in 1963 that left him unable to walk for two years.[10] The accident smashed his lower spine and left his legs permanently weakened and requiring therapy for several years. He has said of those years, "I had more courage and attitude than talent". While he was in hospital after the accident, a nurse named Eladio Magdaleno gave him a guitar so that he could recover the dexterity of his hands.[11] In learning to play, he discovered his musical talent.[12][13] After his rehabilitation, Iglesias studied for three months atBell Educational Trust's Language School inCambridge, England. After that, he returned to obtain his law degree atComplutense University of Madrid.[14]
In 1968, he won theBenidorm International Song Festival with the song "La vida sigue igual" (meaning "Life Goes On The Same") which was used in the 1969 filmLa vida sigue igual in which he played a fictionalized version of his own life. He then signed a deal with Discos Columbia, the Spanish branch of theColumbia Records company, and released his first studio album, titledYo Canto. The album spent 15 weeks in the Spanish charts and peaked at No. 3.[13] Herepresented Spain in theEurovision Song Contest 1970 with the song "Gwendolyne", finishing in fourth place.[15] Shortly after, he had a number one hit in many European countries with "Un canto a Galicia", sung inGalician, in honour of his father, who hailed fromGalicia. That single sold one million copies in Germany. In 1975, he found success in the Italian market by recording a song exclusively in Italian, called "Se mi lasci non vale". Notable albums from this decade areA flor de piel (1974, with the European hit "Manuela"),El amor (1975), andSoy (1973). He also sang in French: one of his popular songs in this language became "Je n'ai pas changé".
In 1979, he moved toMiami, in the United States, signed a deal withCBS International, and started singing in different languages such as French, Italian, Portuguese, and German. Two years later, he released the albumDe niña a mujer in five languages, which he dedicated to his daughterChabeli, who appeared on the cover with him. From it came the first English-language hit of his career, a cover of "Begin the Beguine" which became number 1 in the United Kingdom; he also released a collection,Julio (1983).
In 1984, he released1100 Bel Air Place, the hit album which established him as a star in the English-speaking entertainment industry. It sold over three million albums in the United States alone.[12] The first single, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", a duet withWillie Nelson, hit No. 1 on the Country charts and went Top Five in theBillboard Hot 100.[16] It also featured "All of You", in vocal duet withDiana Ross, a Top Twenty Pop hit, that climbed to No. 2 on the Adult Contemporary Chart with the help of a popular video.[17] He also covered "The Air That I Breathe," written by Albert Hammond and popularized by The Hollies, on this album; Iglesias's version featured vocals fromThe Beach Boys.
In 2003, Iglesias released his albumDivorcio ("Divorce"). In its first day of sales,Divorcio sold a record 350,000 albums in Spain, and reached the number 1 spot on the charts in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, and Russia. In 2003 and 2004, aided by the success of hisDivorcio album, Iglesias went on a ten-month world tour which took him from Europe to Asia and then on to North America, South America and Africa. More than half the shows on that tour sold out within days of going on sale. In December 2004, his Dutch girlfriend Miranda Rijnsburger and Iglesias himself recorded a duet of the Christmas song "Silent Night". The song, which was not officially released, also included a voice message from Iglesias, Rijnsburger, and their four young children. The song was released online through the singer's official website and a CD was included on their Christmas card as a holiday gift from the Iglesias family to their friends and fans around the world.
In 2008, Iglesias recorded another song as a gift to his fans. The family recorded "The Little Drummer Boy" in Spanish and English and included it in the family's Christmas card. Iglesias also made investments in the Dominican Republic's eastern town ofPunta Cana, a major tourist destination, where he took to spending most of the year. He became a Dominican citizen in 2005.[21]
In September 2006, Iglesias released a new English-language album, which he titledRomantic Classics. "I've chosen songs from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s that I believe will come to be regarded as the new standards," Iglesias stated in the album's sleeve notes. The album featured his interpretations ofForeigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is", theGeorge Michael selection "Careless Whisper", andRichard Marx's "Right Here Waiting".Romantic Classics was Iglesias's highest debut on the Billboard charts, entering at number 31 in the United States, 21 in Canada, 10 in Australia, and top spots across Europe and Asia. He returned to the studio to record songs inFilipino andIndonesian for his Asian releases ofRomantic Classics, which helped propel record sales in the Asian entertainment industry. Iglesias promotedRomantic Classics in 2006; it was seen all over the world on television shows. In the United States, for example, he appeared onDancing With The Stars, where he sang his version of "I Want To Know What Love Is",Good Morning America,The View,Fox and Friends andMartha Stewart.
Iglesias's performance of the song "La Mer" ("The Sea") is featured in the soundtrack of the 2011 filmTinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The performance comes from a live album that he recorded live at theOlympia in 1976.
On 1 April 2013, in Beijing, he received two historic awards: First & Most Popular International Artist of All Time inChina, an award given by Sony Music China and which was presented to Iglesias by the world-renowned Chinese artistLang Lang, and theGuinness World Records for the Best-selling Male Latin Artist.[3] As Iglesias is a composer and lyricist, some of his songs[which?] being of his own authorship and composition, on 23 April 2013, he was inducted into theLatin Songwriters Hall of Fame, alongsideArmando Manzanero andJosé Feliciano.[23][24]
Berklee College of Music awarded Iglesias an Honorary Doctorate in May 2015 in recognition of his achievements and influence in music and for his enduring contribution to American and international culture.[26]
Julio Iglesias in the Museo de la Música Etnica in 2020
On 29 January 1971, Iglesias marriedIsabel Preysler, aFilipinatelevision host. Preysler, aFilipina of Spanish ancestry, was also a member of the wealthy and aristocratic Pérez de Tagle family. The couple had three children:Chábeli (born 3 September 1971), a socialite;Julio Jr. (born 25 February 1973), a singer; andEnrique (born 8 May 1975), an internationally successful singer-songwriter, actor, and record producer. In the 1970s, Iglesias and his family were extensively depicted on the front pages of international newspapers and magazines. The marriage ended in divorce in 1979. The couple also applied for marriage annulment by the Catholic Church which was granted in 1980.[27]
Whenever Iglesias was not on tour, he spent his time at his Miami residence, purchased in 1978 for $650,000. The mansion on the privateIndian Creek Island, whose interior design was made by Virginia Sipl, was placed on the market in 2006 for a quoted $28 million, making it one of the "Ten Most Expensive Homes in the South" in 2006 according toForbes magazine.[28]
A bust dedicated to Julio Iglesias, in Benidorm, Spain
After his divorce, Iglesias lived with Dutch model Miranda Rijnsburger, 22 years his junior, whom he married on 26 August 2010 in a small church inMarbella, Spain. They had five children: Miguel Alejandro Iglesias (born 7 September 1997), Rodrigo Iglesias (born 3 April 1999), twins Cristina and Victoria Iglesias (born 1 May 2001), and Guillermo Iglesias (born 5 May 2007). They took up residence in the Dominican Republic, where Iglesias had acquired several hotel complexes, as well as thePunta Cana International Airport, which he acquired jointly with other investors, including fashion designerOscar de la Renta.[10][29]
On 19 December 2005, Iglesias's father died of aheart attack at the age of 90. A week before his father's death, it became known that Ronna Keitt, his father's 42-year-old wife, was pregnant with their second child. Their first child, Jaime, had been born on 18 May 2004. The second child, Ruth, was born on 26 July 2006.
In 2008, after his house in Indian Creek did not sell at his asking price, he ordered it razed and said he planned to build another on the lot.[30] In 2012, he purchased the property next door for $15 million and announced that he planned to build a new home on the combined properties.[31][32] In 2020, he agreed to sell it toJared Kushner and his wifeIvanka Trump, a daughter of then-U.S. PresidentDonald Trump.[33]
In 2019, a court inValencia ruled that Iglesias is the father of Javier Sánchez, son of Portuguese former dancer Maria Edite Santos. Sánchez had been pursuing hispaternity suit in court since 1992, arguing that he was conceived when his mother allegedly had an affair with Iglesias in theCatalonia region in July 1975. The singer, who rejected all those claims, had refused on several occasions to undergo apaternity test. The Sánchez legal team argued that DNA evidence obtained in the US by an investigator proved their case; however, the DNA sample did not come directly from the singer but was collected from "a bottle of water" used by his son, Julio Iglesias Jr, which he left on aMiami beach. The presiding judge, José Miguel Bort, rejected this DNA claim but ruled in favor of Sánchez. Delivering the verdict, Judge Bort said his decision was reached in part because of the "resemblance between the two men" and on the basis of Edite's testimony.[34] Iglesias appealed the verdict and the Provincial Court of Valencia reversed Judge Bort's ruling, declaring it cannot be proven that Sánchez is the son of Iglesias. The matter was taken to theSupreme Court of the country, and, in April 2021, the Court dismissed the claims made by Sánchez, imposing also the costs of the process on him.[35]
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