Julio Iglesias was born Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva on September 23, 1943, in Madrid, Spain. As a child, Iglesias was very athletic, and played goalkeeper for the junior Real Madrid soccer team. He aspired to become a professional soccer player, but instead studied Law at the Complutense University of Madrid.
When he was twenty years old, Iglesias was involved in a severe car crash that left him partially paralyzed for over a year. It was at that time that Iglesias took up music to help with his recovery, and began playing a guitar which one of his nurses gave him. He also spent hours listening to the radio and writing poetry.
With the support of his family and especially his father, Iglesias did recover, and went on to travel to England where he studied English at Bell's Language School in Cambridge. When he wasn’t studying, Iglesias was singing at local pubs, covering the tunes of Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, and The Beatles. It was also at this time that Iglesias met girlfriend, Gwendolyne Bollore, who would later inspire one of his most famous tunes, "Gwendolyne."
In 1968, Iglesias won a singing contest that awarded him a contract with the Columbia Discos label. Three years later, he married first wife, Hola! magazine reporter, Isabel Preysler Arrastria, with whom he had three children: "Chabeli" María Isabel, born on August 1, 1971; Julio José, born on Feruary 25, 1973; and Enrique Miguel, born on May 8, 1975. In 1979, the couple divorced.
The 80s saw Iglesias receiving much acclaim for his multi-lingual music. In 1983, he received the first and only Diamond Record Award given to a singer from the Guinness Book of World Records for selling more records in more languages than any other musical artist. In 1985, Iglesias became one of the few Hispanic artists to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1988, he received a Grammy Award for Best Latin Singer of the Year.
The mid-80s saw the release of one of Iglesias’s most popular albums, 1100 Bel Air Place. Selling 3 million copies in the US alone, the album included "To All The Girls I've Loved Before," a duet with Willie Nelson, and "All of You," a duet with Diana Ross. The mid-80s also saw a personal crises for Iglesias when his father was kidnapped. Although his father was found alive two weeks later, this prompted Iglesias to move his family to a high-security home in Miami Beach.
Since 1990, Iglesias has been in a relationship with Dutch model, Miranda Johanna Maria Rijnsburger. In 1997, the couple had a son, Miguel Alejandro; and two years later, a second son named Rodrigo. In 2001, they had twin girls, Victoria & Cristina, and are currently expecting a baby boy in May 2007.
Iglesias has continued to release records in the new millennium, most recently promoting the 2006 release of Romantic Classics on Dancing With The Stars , Good Morning America, The View, and Martha Stewart.
As the best-selling Spanish singer of all time, Iglesias has sold over 250 million records and received more than 2,600 Platinum and Gold records. He and his family divide their time between homes in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; Miami, Florida; and Marbella, Spain.
YUDDY
