Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Despite having a famous father, breaking into the business wasn’t easy, the singer discovered.
mcclatchy newspapers
It’s been nine years since Ricky Martin did that rousing, carnivalesque version of “La Copa de la Vida” at the Grammy Awards, setting off the Latin pop explosion. Since then, Shakira has become the fourth-richest woman in music, J.Lo and Marc Anthony joined forces to produce the Latin pop explosion twins, Maximiliano and Emelina, and Ricky is still ... Ricky.
But what of Enrique Iglesias, the man who came from old-line Latin pop royalty (his father being the legendary Julio)? Enrique, who began his career telling the world that his way of loving was like an “Experencia Religiosa,” has been on the scene for 13 years now, a fact that calls for a retrospective look at his career. This week he’s coming out with “95/08” (Universal), a collection of his No. 1 Spanish-language singles, plus one new single, “Donde Estan Corazon.”
Like his fellow Latin pop megastars, Iglesias began singing mainly for the Spanish-language market, in his case on Fonovisa, an independent label specializing mostly in Mexican regional music.
His early attempts at stardom were met with skepticism — at one late-’90s Madison Square Garden show, he lamented at how his early singles were rejected by several record companies. He did the hard work of becoming larger than life, strapping himself to a Michael Jackson-style flying harness and tirelessly lifting women to the stage for a kiss to climax his most memorable song, “Hero.”
Iglesias’ material runs the gamut between tropical pop and Euro-dance, and he has managed to carve out a distinct identity from his internationally famous father.
“There really is no big secret to having a long career,” he said in an e-mail interview. “It takes a lot of hard work. ... I make smart decisions about the people I let into my life. It helps to keep a good head on your shoulders.”
Many don’t realize that even though Julio was famously Spanish, Enrique spent much of his youth in Miami. “I love Miami because of the beaches and the weather,” he said, further admitting, “My American side is who I am.”
Iglesias also holds an advantage over many of his contemporaries because he actually writes many of his songs.
The new single, produced by Coty Sorokin, author of Julieta Venegas’ smash pop successes, afforded Iglesias “the chance to really get into the writing process.”
“After spending so much time writing [his last, English-language album] ‘Insomniac,’ I was ready to bring the same level of commitment and emotion to a new Spanish track,” he said. The song, which asks rhetorically “where have the years gone,” has a brooding, melancholy feel.
As for his targeting of future collaborators, Iglesias was coyly evasive, preferring to mention his previous duets with French singer Nadiya and rapper Lil Wayne on “Insomniac.”
Remembering those eerie post-9/11 days when Iglesias and his long-term gal pal Anna Kournikova were ubiquitous onscreen presences with the video for “Hero,” he was asked if he still felt the need to be one.
“I don’t think I felt the need to be a hero when the song first came out,” he said. “But I do feel everybody would love to.”