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| Birth Name(s) : Gloria Maria Milagrosa Fajardo |
Date of Birth: September 1, 1957 |
| Status:
Married
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Partner:
Emilio Estefan Jr. |
| Profession:
Musician |
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Full Gloria Estefan Biography
As one of the biggest new stars to emerge during the mid-'80s, singer Gloria Estefan predated the coming Latin pop explosion by a decade, scoring a series of propulsive dance hits rooted in the rhythms of her native Cuba before shifting her focus to softer, more ballad-oriented fare. Born Gloria Fajardo in Havana on September 1, 1957, she was raised primarily in Miami, FL, after her father, a bodyguard in the employ of Cuban president Fulgencio Batista, was forced to flee the island following the 1959 coup helmed by Fidel Castro. In the fall of 1975, Fajardo and her cousin Merci Murciano auditioned for the Miami Latin Boys, a local wedding band headed by keyboardist Emilio Estefan. With their addition, the group was rechristened Miami Sound Machine and four years later, Fajardo and Estefan were wed. As Miami Sound Machine began composing their own original material, their fusion of pop, disco, and salsa earned a devoted local following, and in 1979 the group issued their first Spanish-language LP on CBS International. Despite a growing Hispanic fan base, they did not cross over to non-Latin audiences until "Dr. Beat" topped European dance charts in 1984.
With 1985's Primitive Love, Miami Sound Machine recorded their first English-language effort, scoring three Top Ten pop hits in the U.S. alone with the infectious "Conga," "Bad Boy," and "Words Get in the Way." For 1988's triple-platinum Let It Loose, the group was billed as Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine, reeling off four Top Ten hits -- "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You," "Can't Stay Away From You," the chart-topping "Anything for You," and "1-2-3." 1989's Cuts Both Ways was credited to Estefan alone and generated her second number one hit, "Don't Wanna Lose You"; however, while touring in support of the album, on March 20, 1990, her bus was struck by a tractor-trailer. She suffered a broken vertebrae that required extensive surgery and kept her off the road for over a year. Emilio Estefan and the couple's son were injured in the crash as well, but all three recovered. Estefan resurfaced in 1991 with Into the Light, again topping the charts with "Coming Out of the Dark," a single inspired by her near-fatal accident; two more cuts from the album, "Can't Forget You" and "Live for Loving You," secured her foothold on the adult contemporary charts.
With 1993's Mi Tierra, Estefan returned to her roots, recording her first Spanish-language record in close to a decade and earning a Grammy Award for Best Tropical Latin Album; on the follow-up, 1994's covers collection Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, she also recalled her dance-pop origins with a rendition of the Vicki Sue Robinson disco classic "Turn the Beat Around." Another all-Spanish effort, Abriendo Puertas, earned the Grammy as well, while Destiny featured "Reach," named the official theme of the 1996 Summer Olympics. As Latin pop made new commercial headway thanks to the efforts of acts like Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias, Estefan reigned as the most successful crossover artist in Latin music history, with international record sales close to the 50 million mark. In 1999, she also made her feature film debut alongside Meryl Streep in Music of the Heart, recording the film's title song as a duet with *N Sync and scoring both a massive pop hit and an Oscar nomination in the process. A new Spanish-language album, Alma Caribeńa, followed in the spring of 2000. Several months later, Estefan was awarded a Grammy for Best Music Video for "No Me Dehes De Querer at the first annual Latin Grammy Awards. Her husband, Emilio, won for Producer of the Year. |
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Additional Gloria Estefan Biography
Gloria Estefan (born Gloria MarĂa Fajardo on September 1, 1957 in Havana, Cuba) is a three-time Grammy Award-winning Cuban American singer and songwriter. Her single "Don't Wanna Lose You" (1989) was certified Platinum in the U.S. and reached number-one on the Billboard Hot 100. Gloria also has number one hits on the pop, dance, adult contemporary, latin and salsa charts.
Her appearance was well-received and, a few weeks later, she became the lead singer for Miami Sound Machine, which performed and recorded in Spanish in the early years of its existence. The Miami Sound Machine soon gained a large fan base and released an LP in 1977. It was the first all-Spanish album from CBS International.
Estefan’s next album, 1987’s Let It Loose, went multi-platinum, with six million copies sold in the US. It featured the following hits: “Anything For You” (#1 Pop), “1,2,3” (#3 Pop), “Betcha Say That” (#36 Pop), “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” (#5 Pop), and “Can’t Stay Away From You” (#6 Pop). “Can’t Stay Away From You,” “Anything For You” and “1-2-3” were all #1 Adult Contemporary hits as well.
In 1989, after the worldwide chart success of single Anything For You, their Let It Loose album was repackaged as Anything For You. It became the band's first UK #1 album, selling over a million copies. It was the biggest selling album of the year in The Netherlands, staying at #1 for 22 weeks. The album also took top honors in Australia and Canada, launching Estefan to superstar status.
In late 1989, she released her best-selling album to date, Cuts Both Ways. The album included the hit singles "Don't Wanna Lose You" (a Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit), "Oye mi Canto (Hear my Voice)", "Here We Are", "Cuts Both Ways" (#1 on the U.S. Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart) and "Get on Your Feet." Cuts Both Ways went platinum within its first month of release in the U.S. Success followed in the UK where it debuted at #1, with Gloria being the first act in 10 years to have two # 1 albums on the UK albums chart in one year. Cuts Both Ways then shot to #1 in Australia, The Netherlands, Belgium, Japan, and other countries, selling over ten million copies worldwide.
The platinum selling album Destiny released in 1996, featured "Reach", the official theme of the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. Estefan performed in the closing ceremony, in front of an audience of two billion people worldwide. Televised ceremonies included Estefan singing both "Reach" and "You'll Be Mine (Party Time)" from the Destiny album.
In late 2005, after being absent from the UK charts for five years, Estefan had her biggest hit single there when the popular club mash-up Dr. Pressure (combining Mylo’s Number 19 hit “Drop The Pressure” with the Miami Sound Machine’s “Dr. Beat”) reached #3 on the UK singles chart. In Australia the single peaked at #1 on the dance chart, providing Gloria with her first top 40 hit and commercial radio airplay since 1996.
Gloria's new Spanish-language album, 90 Millas featuring original songs inspired by her native Cuba and was released on September 18, 2007 on Sony BMG Music Entertainment's Burgundy Records. On this upcoming album she collaborates with many Latin music greats, such as Jose Feliciano, Carlos Santana, Arturo Sandoval, Andy Garcia, Chocolate, La India, Cachao and other prominent Cuban musicians. Her inclusion of Carlos Santana as one of the artists contributing to 90 Millas stirred a controversy among a tiny minority of the Cuban exile community in the U.S., who alleged Mr. Santana was sympathetic to the Fidel Castro regime and Che Guevara.
To promote the album, Gloria will do a new international tour and made special performances at Europe such as her free-performance at Las Ventas, Spain. Gloria also appeared in Rotterdam, The Netherlands on September 8, 2007. Her performance included new songs, along with a collection of old hits. The performance was free and open to members of the public, and was part of the "Wereld Havens Dagen" (World Harbour Days), commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Port of Rotterdam.
In addition to her five Grammys, Estefan has received a number of other awards. In May 1993, she received the Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor, which is the highest award that can be given to a naturalized U.S. citizen. She has won the Hispanic Heritage Award, an MTV Video Music Award, two cable television ACE Awards and the 1993 National Music Foundation’s Humanitarian of the Year award. The singer is the recipient of the American Music Award for Lifetime Achievement. She also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her husband, Emilio, a world-renowned music impresario, received a star adjacent to his wife’s on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005.
Estefan holds an honorary doctoral degree in music from the University of Miami, awarded in 1993. In 2002, Barry University in Miami bestowed upon her an honorary law degree. Along with her husband, Emilio, Estefan received an honorary doctoral degree in music from the Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2007. She also delivered the commencement address to the 2007 graduating class.
Studio albums: Cuts Both Ways | Into the Light | Mi Tierra | Hold me, Thrill me, Kiss me | Abriendo Puertas | Destiny | Gloria! | Alma Caribeña | Unwrapped | 90 Millas |
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Gloria Estefan Quote(s)
| As an artist, you dream about accumulating enough successful music to someday do just one greatest-hits album, but to reach the point where you're releasing your second collection of hits is beyond belief. |
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