Gloria Estefan Whatever taste in music an individual may have, there can hardly be anyone who cannot name a Gloria Estefan song as a ‘memory’ song from somewhere in their life. From her upbeat times of Latin pop and Salsa with The Miami Sound Machine to her solo career of romantic ballads, Gloria has been making ‘memory’ music for more than three decades. Gloria Estefan was born in Havana, Cuba on September 1st 1957 to Jose Fajardo and Gloria, her mother. The family had lived happily in Cuba where her father was a personal bodyguard to the Cuban president, Fukgencio Batista’s wife until the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Gloria was just sixteen months old when her father was taken prisoner in the Bay of Pigs invasion that attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro during his bid for leadership of Cuba. Gloria’s father was part of an exchange arranged by President John F Kennedy to release prisoners captured in Cuba. The family, along with Gloria’s younger sister, Becky, moved to Miami, Florida. As a proud anti communist Gloria’s father served in the US Army for multiple tours in Vietnam where he was exposed to Agent Orange. In later life he contracted multiple sclerosis and died in 1980. Gloria’s mother remained in Miami.
During her childhood Gloria lived on several army bases but spent most of her school years in Miami where she attended the Catholic high school and later the University of Miami. While at university she also had a job working as a translator of Spanish and French at Miami International Airport. She graduated with a degree in communications and psychology. In 1976 Gloria met the Miami Sound Machine band leader, Emilio Estefan and became romantically involved with him and in 1978 they were married. It was during her time watching him in the band that she made her first public appearance when Emilio asked her to come up on stage and sing with the band. Her performance was so well received that she became the lead singer with the band. While with the band she was the singer on their album which was released in 1977 which was an all Spanish LP. With Gloria in the lead vocals the band had their first English language hit with “Dr Beat”. In 1984 and 1985 the group released several singles from their albums, one of which, “Hot Summer Nights” was to feature in the movie Top Gun which starred Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer. Gloria’s success with the group was such that the group name was changed to Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine and later the Sound Machine was dropped altogether and Gloria was seen as a solo artist with the band as her backing group. The success of Gloria and her backing group was to be phenomenal as she gained recognition both in the USA, Europe and in the United Kingdom. The single “Cuts Both Ways’ which was taken from her album of the same name sold over 10 million copies and went platinum within its first month of release in the U.S. The success followed in the UK, where it debuted at number one, with Gloria being the first act in 10 years to have two number one albums on the UK albums chart in one calendar year.
In 1990 while touring in Pennsylvania, Gloria was critically injured when her tour bus crashed into a tractor trailer. Her injuries included a fractured spine which took Gloria a year to recover from after intensive physical therapy and specialized operations to place titanium rods into her spinal column. She returned to the tour within ten months of the accident. I n 1980 Gloria and Emilio had their first child, a boy, Nayib and in 1994 they had a daughter, Emily Marie. Once again Gloria had two cover versions of her album tracks which took on hit status, “Turn the Beat Around” featured in the Sharon Stone movie, The Specialist and “Its Too Late” originally by Carole King did well in the Contemporary radio. Gloria Estefan is anti-communist and as such she was invited to sing at the 50th anniversary of Pope John Paul II and was the first pop star to do so. From her 1996 album “Destiny” the single “Reach” was taken and used as the theme of the 1996 Atlantic Summer Olympics’ where she performed the song in the closing ceremony. Gloria Estefan appeared in the movie Music of the Heat and she duetted with *NSYNC* on the Billboard number two “Music of my Heart”. She has also sung with other all time greats such as Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick and Luciano Pavarotti. In 2004 in a press conference hosted by Donald Trump, Gloria announced that her then-upcoming tour would be her final one. In 2004 and 2006 Gloria appeared on the UK television spin off from Pop Idol, created by Simon Cowell, “The X Factor”, but she declined to be a judge when she stated that she doesn’t like to “judge” others but she did perform a medley of her greatest hits on her 2006 appearance. Gloria has been awarded five Grammy awards during her career and she received the Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honour, the highest award that can be given to a naturalized U.S. citizen. The release of her compilation album of native Cuban songs in late 2007, when Gloria employed the musical skills of Carlos Santana, Andy Garcia and Jose Feliciano and other Cuban musicians, 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 in Cuba. She and her husband Emilio issued a statement saying “We have never nor would we ever collaborate with anyone who supports the Cuban dictatorship or Che Guevara.? In 2007 Gloria is also rumoured to be starring as Connie Francis, a U.S. pop singer whose peak commercial success was in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in Who's Sorry Now?, based on Francis’ life. ABB |
