Julio Iglesias
Who is Julio Iglesias?
Julio Iglesias de la Cueva (Madrid, September 23, 1943) is a singer and songwriter widely regarded as the best-selling Latin artist in history, with more than 300 million records sold across Europe, Latin America, the United States and Asia, recorded in more than a dozen languages. He is the son of gynecologist Julio Iglesias Puga and the brother of the also well-known Carlos Iglesias.
Before turning to music he was a goalkeeper in Real Madrid’s youth ranks. A car accident in the late 1960s left him partially paralyzed and cut that sporting career short; it was during his long recovery in a clinic that he began writing songs on a guitar given to him by a nurse, almost as therapy.
Career
He won the Benidorm Festival in 1968 with “La vida sigue igual,” his first major hit, which later inspired a biographical film of the same name. Two years later he represented Spain at Eurovision with “Gwendolyne.” From there he built an international career unusual for a Spanish artist of his generation, recording in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, English, German and Japanese, among other languages, and reaching markets few Spanish-language artists had entered before him.
Through the 1970s and 80s he became one of the most recognizable figures in Spanish-language music on both sides of the Atlantic, touring constantly and appearing on thousands of magazine covers. In the 1990s he made his definitive crossover into the English-language and US Latin market, around the same time his son Enrique Iglesias was rising to fame — the two would later cross paths on the charts.
Notable discography
His catalogue includes classics such as “Un canto a Galicia,” “Hey,” “De niña a mujer” and “Y quiero olvidarte,” alongside the global hit “Un hombre solo.” Among his most memorable collaborations are the duet “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before” with Willie Nelson and several tracks with his son Enrique Iglesias.
Recognition
Julio Iglesias holds two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, along with countless gold and platinum records across dozens of countries. Decades after his first hits, he remains a defining reference point for Spanish ballad music and one of the few artists to have built a truly global career from Spain.