Adorable Story #133: Julio Iglesias
The Spanish Crooner Who Serenaded the World
Few voices have traveled the planet with more charm than Julio Iglesias’.
His life, full of melodies, detours, and improbable success, is a reminder that sometimes, the biggest dreams are rewritten by fate itself.
Table of Contents: Early Life / The Accident That Changed Everything / Bound for Stardom / Awards and Recognition/ Awards and Recognition / Family / Life Beyond the Stage
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Early Life
The man who poured romance into microphones across continents was born Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva on September 23rd, 1943, in Madrid, Spain.
Julio grew up in post-civil-war Spain.
His father, Dr. Julio “Papuchi” (“Daddy”) Iglesias Puga, was a respected gynecologist while is mother, María del Rosario de la Cueva y Perignat, came from an Andalusian family.
The name “Iglesias” translates as “churches”. Julio 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”, a reference to Jewish people in hiding) is a common Jewish name.
He has often proclaimed himself Jewish “from the waist up”.
Julio was the elder of two sons: his brother Carlos Iglesias de la Cueva followed a quieter path, though he remained close to Julio through life’s highs and lows.
Julio’s schooling was solidly middle-class. He attended Colegio Nuestra Señora del Pilar, one of Madrid’s prestigious Catholic schools. Clever, tall, and athletic, he seemed destined not for sports. He played youth football (soccer) as a goalkeeper for Real Madrid Castilla, the club’s Segunda División team. He originally hoped to make it big as a professional footballer while studying law at Madrid’s CEU San Pablo University.
The Accident That Changed Everything
Life, however, had other plans.
On September 22nd, 1963, the day before his 20th birthday, Julio’s car collided with a truck on the Madrid highway. The accident left him with serious spinal injuries and a temporary partial paralysis in his legs.
Doctors warned him he might never walk again.
During his long recovery, his nurse Eladio Magdaleno brought him a guitar to help him exercise with finger coordination.
In that hospital room, a career was reborn.
Julio later said:
“I began to feel the music like a medicine, the songs came out while I was learning to walk again.”
He was able to walk again only in 1965.
By 1968, Julio recorded his first single, La Vida Sigue Igual (“Life Goes On”), inspired by his recovery. The song won the Benidorm International Song Festival the same year — Spain’s answer to Eurovision — and launched him into the national spotlight.
From that song, a movie of the same name was made, as it was fairly common at the time (excerpt below).
Bound for Stardom
Shortly after releasing La Vida Sigue Igual, Julio signed with Columbia Records (known in Spain at the time as Discos Columbia) and released his first studio album, titled Yo Canto.
In 1970, he represented Spain at the Eurovision Song Contest in Amsterdam with Gwendolyne, finishing fourth. His easy charm, classic good looks, and rich baritone voice caught attention far beyond his homeland.
Through the 1970s and 1980s, Julio became one of the world’s most successful international singers. His linguistic talent was astounding: he recorded songs not only in Spanish but also in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, and German.
In 1984, he released 1100 Bel Air Place, featuring hits like To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before (with Willie Nelson). It was the first of Iglesias’ albums to be performed largely in English, and sold over five million copies, establishing him firmly in the U.S. market (traditionally difficult for European singers to break into).
To promote 1100 Bel Air Place, Julio Iglesias began a world tour on 15 June 1984 in Puerto Rico: the tour totaled 124 concerts throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, South Africa, Australia and the Orient. The tour was sponsored by Coca-Cola and sold around 1 million tickets worldwide.
Awards and Recognition
Over the decades, Julio sold an estimated 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the top-selling artists in history. He toured relentlessly, winning hearts from Buenos Aires to Beijing.
Julio’s mantle is crowded with honors:
Grammy Award (1988) for Un Hombre Solo, in the Best Latin Pop Performance category.
Latin Grammy Award for Person of the Year (2001) for his influence on Latin music.
A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1985).
Honoured as the most popular international artist in China (2013).
Inclusion in the Guinness World Records (2013) for being the “best-selling male Latin artist” ever.
Family
Julio’s personal life was as headline-worthy as his songs.
In 1971, he married Filipina television presenter Isabel Preysler (a member of the wealthy and aristocratic Pérez de Tagle family).
Together, they had three children:
Chabeli Iglesias (born 1971), a socialite;
Julio Iglesias Jr. (born 1973), a singer;
Enrique Iglesias (born 1975), a songwriter who would later become one of the best-known pop singers of his generation.
The couple divorced in 1979, but the Iglesias family never left the spotlight.
Julio remarried in 2010 to Dutch model Miranda Rijnsburger, 22 years his junior and his longtime partner since the late 1980s.
Together Miranda and Julio have five children: Miguel, Rodrigo, twins Cristina and Victoria, and Guillermo.
Life Beyond the Stage
Julio divides much of his later life between his estates in Miami, Marbella and the Dominican Republic, living partly in semi-retirement.
Away from the limelight, he has been a supporter of children’s medical charities and disaster relief efforts. While he rarely calls himself a philanthropist, his generosity toward hospitals and educational institutions in Spain and Latin America has been noted over the years.
—Alberto @ Adorable Times
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