Julio Iglesias, born in 1943, Spanish singer of popular music, one of the most popular recording artists in the world with hundreds of best-selling recordings, many of which are available in seven different languages.
Born into a middle-class family in Madrid, Iglesias abandoned a possible career as a goal keeper with the soccer team Real Madrid when, at the age of 18, a serious car accident injured him so seriously that he was in a wheelchair for almost two years. While in the hospital a doctor's assistant gave him a guitar, and his interest in music began to develop. He trained as a lawyer in Spain and at the University of Cambridge in England before winning top honors at the 1968 Spanish Song Festival in Benidorm, Spain, with a song he had written himself: “La vida sigue igual” (Life Goes on Just the Same). This success secured Iglesias his first recording contract. He represented Spain in the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Gwendolyne,” which he later recorded in English, French, and Italian. Through the 1970s he toured and built an international following through hit songs such as “Manuela” (1975) and “Hey” (1979). In 1981 he broke into the English-language music charts with “Begin the Beguine,” which he followed with the million-selling album Julio (1983). His next album, 1100 Bel Air Place (1984), featured duets with well-established American stars such as Willie Nelson and Diana Ross, and Iglesias has continued to use the duet with great commercial success. “My Love,” for example, recorded with American singer and songwriter Stevie Wonder, was an international hit in 1988. Iglesias has also worked with artists such as American singers Dolly Parton and Art Garfunkel, and British superstar Sting. In 1989 Iglesias won a Grammy Award for his album Un Hombre Solo (1987). In 1995 he became the first non-Chinese musician to be awarded the Golden Record Award, presented by China in recognition of outstanding musical achievement—in this case, for consistently selling more records in China than any other foreign artist
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