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Friday, May 27, 2011

Enrique Iglesias – sticking to his Spanish roots

Spanish superstar Enrique Iglesias has steadily become one of music world’s top-selling artists, and has gained a reputation not just for his extraordinary musical ability, but also for his consistent incorporation of the Spanish language into his lyrics.

Born in Madrid, Spain as the youngest child of well-known Latin singer Julio Iglesias, Enrique was essentially raised in the United States, and educated in English. However, unlike many young immigrants who often unconsciously replace one mother tongue language for another, Enrique maintained a strong link to his Spanish ancestry.

Using the language often within his early musical work, this decision paid off in more ways than one. His debut album, entitled ‘Enrique Iglesias’, performed exceptionally well, and record sales were astronomically high for an album recorded in a language other than English. This success has followed the singer throughout his career, and Enrique Iglesias is now one of the biggest sellers of Spanish language albums in history of music. He has also maintained a fiercely loyal Spanish fan-base that has allowed him to hold the record on Billboard’s ‘Hot Latin Tracks’ for producing the most number one singles (Spanish-language). In addition, he is the recipient of 11 Billboard Latin Music Awards, essentially positioning him as the king of Latin pop music.