IGLESIAS WATERS
2/20/2008 11:54:22 AM by John Kimbert
Enrique Iglesias is a lover of everything aquatic and he’s made a career out of his fascination with the ocean and all that it embodies, both in terms of his songs and in the places he chooses to live in and visit.
Photos by Alan Silfen courtesy of Crossover Agency
One of the most popular Spanish musical artists in the world, Enrique Iglesias can easily assume the title of famous superstar. But what few people know about this prolific singer is his enduring relationship with the ocean, coastal life and yachting.
Some of the songs he has pinned and the lifestyle he has adopted can be attributed directly to his love of the sea. “I love the ocean,” Iglesias says. “The ocean gives me a sense of peace and freedom.”
Iglesias, 32, whose album sales currently total more than $43 million, says some of his songs are based on the inspiration he gets from the sea. “I’ve sailed in a perfect dream, I’ve seen the sun make love to the sea,” Iglesias sings in “You’re My No. 1,” which was released in 1999’s album simply titled Enrique. “From the coast of Ipanema to the Island of Capri,” begins Iglesias’ “Rhythm Divine.” And in the 1990 music video, he chases a mysterious woman — arguably his muse — who at the end of the video disappears into the sea. “The ocean can be so inspirational, especially when writing an album,” he says. “I get a lot of my thinking done there, so many of my songs are inspired by the ocean.”
Many would say that Iglesias got a head start on his music career from his famous father, Julio Iglesias, whose talent is revered throughout the world. Considered the best-selling Spanish signer of all time, Julio Iglesias has sold more than 250 million albums. But the elder Iglesias also gave his son his first exposure to the pleasures of the sea.
During the 1980s, stories of Julio Iglesias’ expensive private jets, boats and houses became notorious. In 1978, after obtaining a multimillion contract with CBS International, he declared Miami his official residence. He is now retired and moved to Punta Cana in Santo Domingo but his former $32 million mansion in Miami, with nine bathrooms and eight bedrooms, can dock a 100-foot yacht.
Born in 1975 in Madrid, Enrique Iglesias has begun to share his father’s fame, but not necessarily his views and lifestyle. “I hate that ‘Latin lover’ bull,” Iglesias pronounced in an interview with People Magazine when he was 20. “But I’m happy for Dad. I know he’s getting the chicks…Me, I just want to have one girlfriend.”
Enrique was sent to live with his father in Miami Beach when he was 8. “It was supposed to be there for only a year,” he says. “My mother did have some concerns with security in Madrid [after the kidnapping of Enrique’s grandfather], but it was also that she wanted us to learn English.”
But besides learning English and living in a safer place, Iglesias says growing up in Miami gave him plenty of memories of the water. “The beach was so close, it was almost a daily thing,” he says. “When I’m at home in Miami now and have time off, the beach is my first stop. I love to just go out on my little boat and relax with my dogs and enjoy the scenery.”
While his father focused on his career, Enrique lived with Elvira Olivares, “La Seño,” his nanny. (He lives with Olivares still, in Miami now, and dedicated an album to her.) He went to high school at Gulliver Prep in Kendall and enrolled at the University of Miami to study business administration. In his sophomore year, he signed his record contract and quit school. “I love to write and come up with ideas for songs by the beach,” says Iglesias. “The ocean gives me a sense of peace and freedom. I’ve only owned one house in Miami that was on the water. I’ve lived there for quite a while.”
While just a kid at Gulliver, Iglesias started writing songs alone in his bedroom, without his father’s knowledge. Later on, he posed as a Central American named Enrique Martínez as he shopped his first demo. It was only after getting a record contract with regional Mexican label Fonovisa Records that Enrique revealed his real name.
As the millennium turned, he crossed over to the mainstream English market and signed a unique multi-album deal with Universal Music for an unprecedented $48 million. Under the deal, his Spanish albums were to be released by Univeral Music Latino while his English albums were released by Interscope.
Today, Iglesias rents a yacht with friends for the holidays almost every year to go out to the Caribbean. He changes the boat year to year, but agrees they are all usually something nice and roomy. “I went on Paul Allen’s boat once, the Microsoft guy,” he says. “It was incredible!”
Among his numerous media appearances, he has been a guest on Oprah where he spent the day with one of his fans. He has also performed on the season finale of Extreme “Makeover: Home Edition singing a song from his latest album. Not lacking a sense of humor, Iglesias appeared on the May 7, 2007 episode of CBS’ Two and a Half Men as “Fernando the Handyman.”
Iglesias has had two Billboard Hot 100 #1s in English and holds the record for producing 17 No. 1 Spanish language hit singles on Billboard’s Hot Latin Tracks. While many factors may influence the singer’s lyrics, he attests to the powerful impact of water. “Water makes us calm,” he says. “It takes us away from what we have going on in our lives. I think it makes us feel connected to the rest of the world since the world is mostly water and we can’t help but feel a sense of oneness with the Earth.”