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
NSYNC and scoring both a massive pop hit and an Oscar nomination in the process.
A new Spanish-language album, Alma
Caribeņa, 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. Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide