Enrique Iglesias

After selling 40 million albums in little over a decade and enjoying more Number One Billboard Latin hits than any other artist in history, totaling 16 in all, you would think Enrique Iglesias would take a rest from the music business for a while. Instead, Iglesias has done quite the contrary.

He has just finished a 30-date arena tour through Europe and Latin America and starting September 4, he will be touring with urban/bachata group Aventura on the Kings Tour. A 15-stop tour produced by Live Nation, the Kings Tour will begin in Laredo, Texas and end on October 5 in Rutherford, New Jersey. Not only is this the first United States arena tour for Iglesias in at least two years but it is significant in that it will combine two unique musical sounds: the tropical sounds of Aventura with the pop sounds of Enrique Iglesias. Says Iglesias, "I wanted to so something completely different that went beyond the typical tour."

This non-stop work ethic is not only evident in all of Enrique's recent and upcoming touring, but also in his most recent album appropriately titled Insomniac, which was released on June 12, 2007. "When I make a record, I work at night," said Enrique in a recent interview. "So basically, I've spent three years working at night and sleeping during the day. I've been hyperactive all my life. The word insomniac was the first that came to mind when I was trying to come up with a suitable title for the album." For three years Enrique spent sleepless nights writing, recording and traveling to places such as Miami, Los Angeles and Sweden, making sure his album was perfect before his fans could get their hands on it.

Though his father is another famed Spanish singer, Julio Iglesias, Enrique did not use his father's fame to jump-start his career, rather the opposite happened. His parents had been skeptical of his musical talents so Enrique started writing and recording songs without telling them. For his first demo, he used the pseudonym Enrique Martinez so his father would not find out about his musical career and to avoid getting special treatment due to his famous last name. Once he landed a record contract with the regional Mexican label Fonovisa, he decided to use his real name.

In the first three months after his self-titled debut album was released, it sold more than a million copies and his second album Vivir broke into the United State's Top 40 in 1997 and was promoted with a world tour. Within three years his fame skyrocketed, as he become the biggest selling Spanish-language singer in the world. Enrique's 1999 album was his first English album including such hits as "Bailamos," "Rhythm Divine" and "Be With You." The next album Escape sold ten million copies in Europe with memorable songs like "Hero." After the release of his fourth Spanish-language album Quizas, Enrique became one of the few artists to receive a United States multi-platinum English-language album first for Escape followed by a United States multi-platinum Spanish-language album for Quizas. In 2003 he released a seventh album fittingly named 7.

It seems that Enrique Iglesias has been able to keep up a high quality of work from the very beginning of his career and it does not appear he is going to stop anytime soon. With a recent album and an abundance of tour dates coming up, only time will tell what the future holds for this enterprising artist.

— Lauren Vislocky


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