Julio Iglesias

In 1968, he won the Benidorm Song Festival with the song "La vida sigue igual" (meaning "Life Goes on the Same") which was used in the 1969 film La vida sigue igual in which he played a fictionalized version of his own life. He then signed a deal with Discos Columbia, the Spanish branch of the Columbia Records company, and released his first studio album, titled Yo Canto. The album spent 15 weeks in the Spanish charts and peaked at No. 3. He represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1970 with the song "Gwendolyne", finishing in fourth place. Shortly after, he had a number one hit in many European countries with "Un canto a Galicia", sung in Galician, in honour of his father, who hailed from Galicia. That single sold one million copies in Germany. In 1975, he found success in the Italian market by recording a song exclusively in Italian, called "Se mi lasci non vale". Notable albums from this decade are A flor de piel (1974, with the European hit "Manuela"), El amor (1975), and Soy (1973). He also sang in French: one of his popular songs in this language became "Je n'ai pas changé". In 1979, he moved to Miami, in the United States, signed a deal with CBS International, and started singing in different languages such as French, Italian, Portuguese, and German. Two years later, he released the album De niña a mujer, which he dedicated to his daughter Chabeli, who appeared on the cover with him. From it came the first English-language hit of his career, a cover of "Begin…

Iglesias was born in Madrid to Julio Iglesias Puga, a medical doctor from Ourense who became one of the youngest gynecologists in the country, and María del Rosario de la Cueva y Perignat. His paternal grandparents, Manuela Puga Noguerol and Ulpiano Iglesias Sarria, were of Galician ancestry. His maternal grandparents were José de la Cueva y Orejuela and Dolores de Perignat y Ruiz de Benavides, who was a native of Guayama, Puerto Rico. The name "Iglesias" translates as "churches". Iglesias says that he is of Jewish ancestry on his maternal side, and that his mother's family name, "de la Cueva", meaning literally "of the cave" and referring to Jewish people in hiding, is a common Jewish name. He alternated playing professional football with studying law at the CEU San Pablo University in Madrid. In his youth, he was a goalkeeper for Real Madrid Castilla in the Segunda División. His professional football career was ruined when he was involved in a serious automobile accident in 1963 that left him unable to walk for two years. The accident smashed his lower spine and left his legs permanently weakened and requiring therapy for several years. He has said of those years, "I had more courage and attitude than talent". While he was in hospital after the accident, a nurse named Eladio Magdaleno gave him a guitar so that he could recover the dexterity of his hands. In learning to play, he discovered his musical talent. After his rehabilitation, Iglesias studied for three months at…

On 29 January 1971, Iglesias married Isabel Preysler, a Filipina television host. Preysler, a Filipina of Spanish ancestry, was also a member of the wealthy and aristocratic Pérez de Tagle family. The couple had three children: Chábeli (born 3 September 1971), a socialite; Julio Jr. (born 25 February 1973), a singer; and Enrique (born 8 May 1975), an internationally successful singer-songwriter, actor, and record producer. In the 1970s, Iglesias and his family were extensively depicted on the front pages of international newspapers and magazines. The marriage ended in divorce in 1979. The couple also applied for marriage annulment by the Catholic Church which was granted in 1980. Whenever Iglesias was not on tour, he spent his time at his Miami residence, purchased in 1978 for $650,000. The mansion on the private Indian Creek Island, whose interior design was made by Virginia Sipl, was placed on the market in 2006 for a quoted $28 million, making it one of the "Ten Most Expensive Homes in the South" in 2006 according to Forbes magazine.

After his divorce, Iglesias lived with Dutch model Miranda Rijnsburger, 22 years his junior, whom he married on 26 August 2010 in a small church in Marbella, Spain. They had five children: Miguel Alejandro Iglesias (born 7 September 1997), Rodrigo Iglesias (born 3 April 1999), twins Cristina and Victoria Iglesias (born 1 May 2001), and Guillermo Iglesias (born 5 May 2007). They took up residence in the Dominican Republic, where Iglesias had…

Honours

Spanish National Honours

Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts Gold Medal of the Community of Madrid

Foreign Honours

France Knight of the Legion of Honour Medal of the City of Paris