Gloria Estefan (birth name Gloria MarÃa Milagrosa Fajardo, born September 1, 1957 in Havana, Cuba) is a five-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter-author, who began her career as lead vocalist for the Hispanic dance music band, Miami Sound Machine, in 1975, and crossed over to mainstream popular success with English-speaking audiences with the international hit singles, Dr. Beat (1984) and Conga (1986).
Biography
Known as the “Queen of Latin Pop,” Estefan is one of the world’s most recognized popular music artists. With over 70 million albums sold worldwide, she is the single most successful crossover performer in Latin music history.
In addition to her music career, Estefan has appeared in two movies, Music of the Heart (1999) and For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story (2000). She is slated to star 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 Ms. Francis’ life. Filming is reportedly scheduled to begin in 2006.
Fleeing Cuba
Cuban-born, Estefan’s family moved to Miami, Florida when she was 16 months old, following the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Estefan’s father Jose Fajardo, who in the 1950s was a personal bodyguard to then-Cuban president Fulgencio Batista’s wife, was captured in the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion that attempted to overthrow the new communist government established by Fidel Castro. Estefan’s father was held as a prisoner until an exchange was arranged by then-President John F. Kennedy.
Father’s death
Estefan’s father also served as an officer in the United States Army in Vietnam, where he is suspected of having been exposed to Agent Orange, a defoliant used extensively during the Vietnam war to clear combat areas. He subsequently contracted multiple sclerosis, and was nursed by a young Estefan for many years. He died in 1980.
Estefan’s mother, Gloria Garcia Perez de Fajardo, now living in Miami, ran a school in Cuba in the 1950s for kindergarten students.
University of Miami
Estefan was raised primarily in Miami (though she accompanied her mother, father and younger sister, Becky, to several military bases in the 1960s during her father’s military service). While attending the University of Miami, she worked as a Spanish and French translator at Miami International Airport’s Customs Department. Estefan graduated from the University of Miami in 1978 with a degree in communications and psychology (with a minor in French). Since graduating, she has been a prominent advocate for the university and a member of its Board of Trustees.
Miami Sound Machine
Estefan’s first public musical performance was at a large Cuban wedding when her future husband, Emilio Estefan, Jr., asked her to join Miami Sound Machine in singing. 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.
With Estefan on vocals, The Miami Sound Machine had its first English-language hit with “Dr. Beat,” which topped the dance charts across Europe, from the album Eyes of Innocence, in 1984. Primitive Love was released in 1986; “Conga,” “Bad Boy,” and “Words Get in the Way” were crossover hits.
Estefan’s next album, 1988’s Let It Loose, went multi-platinum, with several million copies sold and the following hits: “Anything For You” (#1 Pop), “1,2,3” (#3 Pop), “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” (#5 Pop) and “Can’t Stay Away From You” (#6 Pop and #1 Adult/Contemporary).
In 1988, Estefan took top billing as the band’s name changed to Gloria Estefan and The Miami Sound Machine. Beginning in 1989, the group’s name was dropped altogether and Estefan was credited as a solo artist (though the ever-changing line-up of Miami Sound Machine has continued to be her backing band to this day). In 1989, she released her best selling album to date, Cuts Both Ways (which refers to Estefan’s desire to appeal to both English and Spanish-speaking fans) with hits including “Don’t Wanna lose You” (a USA #1 hit), “Oye Mi Canto,” “Here We Are,” “Cuts Both Ways” (#1 in Australia) and “Get On Your Feet.” Cuts Both Ways sold more than ten million copies worldwide and reached number one in several countries.
Marriage and children
Gloria Fajardo became romantically involved with the Miami Sound Machine’s band leader, Emilio Estefan, in 1976. She and Emilio married on September 2, 1978. They have two children: Nayib (born September 2, 1980) and Emily Marie (born December 5, 1994).
1990 tour bus crash in Pennsylvania
While touring in support of Cuts Both Ways, on March 20, 1990, near Scranton, Pennsylvania, a tractor trailer crashed into Estefan’s tour bus, critically injuring her and breaking her back. Estefan was flown by helicopter to New York City, where surgeons permanently implanted two titanium rods to stabilize her spinal column. Her grueling recovery took almost a year.
After extensive physical therapy, Estefan returned to the charts with a concept album, Into the Light, in 1991. “Coming Out of the Dark” was performed publicly for the first time on the “American Music Awards” in January 1991. The “Into the Light World Tour” covered 100 cities in nine countries and was seen by more than 10 million people worldwide.
Comeback
1993’s Mi Tierra saw Estefan return to her Cuban roots with a Spanish-language album, for which she won a Grammy Award for Best Tropical Latin Album. Mi Tierra was a successful album worldwide, with over eight million copies sold. In Spain, Mi Tierra became the country’s best selling international album ever.
The Classics Collection Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, a cover album, was released in 1994. “Turn the Beat Around,” the first single, a disco hit from the 1970s, became one of the most successful singles of the 1990s. “Everlasting Love” was a successful club and pop hit.
1995’s Spanish-language album Abriendo Puertas earned Estefan her second Grammy Award for Best Tropical Latin Album. It spun off two #1 Dance hits, “Abriendo Puertas” and “Tres Deseos,” and two #1 Latin singles, “Abriendo Puertas” and “Mas Alla.” The Miami Herald called Abriendo Puertas “a danceable pan-Latin American fusion, brilliantly built on improbable instrumental combinations and layers of styles and rhythms.”
In 1995, Estefan sang the Billboard Latin #1 song “Mas Alla” for Pope John Paul II as part of the celebration of his 50th anniversary in the priesthood. She was the first pop star invited to perform for the Pope. At their meeting, Estefan, an anti-communist, asked the Pope to pray for a free Cuba. She has been an active opponent of Fidel Castro’s government, and supported the unsuccessful effort to keep young Elián González in the United States.
The Platinum 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 2 billion people worldwide.
On tour with “Evolution”
On July 18, 1996, Estefan embarked on her “Evolution” world tour (her first tour in five years), which covered the United States, Canada, Europe, Latin America, Australia, South Africa and Asia.
Estefan appeared in a movie, Music of the Heart (1999) and dueted with *NSYNC on the Billboard #1 and Academy Award Nominated “Music Of My Heart.” She also released a Latin hit with the Brazilian group So Pra Contrariar called “Santo, Santo,” sang with Luciano Pavarotti in “Pavarotti and Friends for Guatemala and Kosovo,” released the benefit album “A Rosie Christmas,” and sang with Stevie Wonder at Super Bowl XXXIII in Miami. Estefan is the only artist to perform twice at the Super Bowl.
In addition to her musical success, Estefan and her husband are entrepreneurs. Together, they own a number of business establishments: five Cuban-themed restaurants (Bongos) in Miami, Miami Beach, Disney World’s Pleasure Island in Orlando, Mexico City, and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. They also own two hotels: the Palm Court Resort Hotel in Vero Beach, which was destroyed by Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in September, 2004 (Estefan’s management says it will be rebuilt and reopen as the Cabana Beach Resort in late 2007), and The Cardozo in Miami. A Biography Channel profile estimated the Estefans’ current net worth at $200 million.
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 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 Hollywood’s 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 awarded by the University of Miami in 1993. In 2002, Barry University in Miami bestowed upon her an honorary law degree.
She has scores of encomiums for her musical accomplishments, humanitarian and philanthropic work. In 2002, she received the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Medallion of Excellence for Community Service. The singer was Musicares Person of the Year in 1994.
She has been honored twice by the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 1992, she served as a public member of the United States Delegation to the 47th General Assembly to the United Nations.
“Alma Caribena” and “Greatest Hits Volume II”
Estefan’s next album, 2000’s Alma Caribeña won the first Latin Grammy for Best Music Video for No Me Dejes de Querer. The album reached number one in Spain, the United States and several South American countries. That year, she also won the American Music Awards Award of Merit.
Greatest Hits Vol. II was released in 2001. It contained hits from 1993 to 2000, three new songs and a remix of her first hit “Conga,” now called “Y-Tu- Conga.”
“Unwrapped”
In 2003, Estefan released Unwrapped, her first English-language CD in five years. To promote the CD, she toured Europe, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the United States. The CD’s first video, for the single “Hoy/Wrapped,” was shot in Machu Picchu, Peru. “Hoy” and the next single, “Tu Fotografia,” were #1 on Billboard’s Latin chart.
In April, 2004, Estefan appeared on the Fox Broadcasting Company’s program, “American Idol,” but she declined an offer to be an official judge because, she said publicly, she does not like to “judge” others.
On July 28, 2004, at the Trump Tower Building, in a press conference hosted by Donald Trump, Estefan announced that her then-upcoming tour would be her final one. The “Live and Re-Wrapped” Summer/Fall 2004 Tour, her first tour in eight years, produced by Clear Channel Entertainment, featured Estefan’s greatest hits, along with new material from her recent CD, Unwrapped, in an explosive, multi-media concert production.
Estefan began the “Live & Re-wrapped Tour” in McAllen, Texas on July 30, 2004, and played in 28 cities. She finished her final concert tour in her home town of Miami on the weekend of October 9th and 10th, a finale in a sold-out American Airlines Arena that was delayed for two weeks by a hurricane.
Recent work
In late 2005, after being absent from the UK charts for five years, Estefan had her biggest hit single hit 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 Number 3 on the United Kingdom singles chart.
In early 2006, Estefan performed — along with dozens of other prominent singers — in Los Angeles at a tribute to singer Dionne Warwick’s 45-year career. She sang “Walk On By,” one of Warwick’s signature songs that helped launch Warwick’s career in the mid 1960s.
Estefan is currently recording her next album, which is the last under her current contract with Epic Records. Her last studio album was 2003’s “Unwrapped.”
Estefan currently lives with her husband and daughter on Star Island near Miami.
