EMO-CHECK: 80's Flashback Attack

GLORIA ESTEFAN

September 1, 1957) is a Grammy Award-winning Cuban-American singer and songwriter. She is in the top 100 best selling music artists with over 90 million albums sold worldwide, 26.5 million of those in the United States alone. She has won seven Grammy Awards, placing her among the most successful crossover performers in Latin music to date.

Early life and family
Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo was born September 1, 1957 in Havana, Cuba, to Jose and Gloria Fajardo. Her mother's father Leonardo Garcia emigrated to Cuba from Pola de Siero, Asturias, Spain where he married a woman from Logroño, Spain. The family fled to Lafayette, Indiana, during the Cuban Revolution. A few years after they moved, Jose joined the US military during the Vietnam War. Her father had been a Cuban soldier and bodyguard of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Career in singing

1984-1988: The Miami Sound Machine

In 1989, after the worldwide chart success of single "Anything For You", her Let it Loose album was repackaged as Anything For You. It became the band's first UK #1 album, selling over a million copies. It was the biggest selling album of the year in The Netherlands, staying at #1 for 22 weeks. The album also took top honors in Australia and Canada, launching Estefan to superstar status.

1990: Cuts Both Ways and tour bus accident

1991-1992: Into The Light and The Greatest Hits

1994-1995: Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me and Abriendo Puertas


1996-1997: Summer Olympics and Destiny

1998: Back to dance: Gloria!

1999: "Music of My Heart"

2000-2002: Alma Caribeña and Greatest Hits Volume II

2003-2004: Unwrapped

2005: Mash-up hit with Mylo and the tributes

2006: Compilations and the UK promo tour

2008-Present: Idol Gives Back, 90 Millas World Tour and other presentations

Upcoming Projects
Estefan is currently working on two new albums to be released soon: The first is a Christmas album which is not known yet if would be a Spanish or English-language Christmas album, the second is a new studio-album which is a collection of American-standards as she is continuing to write songs for other artists

Career outside of singing

Film and television appearances

In addition to her singing career, Estefan has appeared in two movies, Music of the Heart (1999) and For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story (2000). Estefan made a cameo appereance with her husband Emilio Estefan Jr. on the smash-box office hit Marley & Me in 2008, her first movie role since 2000.

She is cast to star she asdafsdgtrj wbh. as Connie Francis, a U.S. pop singer of the 1950s and early 1960s, in Who's Sorry Now?, based on Francis’ life. Filming began in late 2008, according to Parade Magazine (March 23, 2008). Estefan, in an interview with www.allheadlinenews.com, stated the film will be released in 2009.

Estefan has made occasional television appearances as well. She appeared in the ABC television special Elmopalooza, which aired February 20, 1998, in which she sang the song "Mambo, I, I, I." In April 2004, Estefan appeared on the Fox Broadcasting Company’s program, American Idol, but she declined an offer to be an official judge, saying she does not like to "judge" others.[citation needed]

Books

Estefan has written two children's books: The Magically Mysterious Adventures of Noelle the Bulldog (2005) and Noelle's Treasure Tale (2006). The latter book spent a week at #3 on the New York Times Bestseller list for children's books.

She also collaborated on a cookbook with her husband entitled Estefan Kitchen, which was published in 2008. It contains 60 traditional Cuban recipes.

Other business ventures
The Cardozo hotel on Ocean Drive, in Miami Beach, Florida

Gloria and Emilio Estefan also own a number of business establishments, including seven Cuban-themed restaurants (Bongos Cuban Café). The restaurants are located in Miami; Miami Beach, Downtown Miami, part of the American Airlines Arena; Disney World’s Downtown Disney in Orlando; Mexico City; and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. They also own two hotels: the Costa d'Este in Vero Beach which opened in 2008, and The Cardozo in Miami Beach.

Gloria Estefan was appointed to the board of directors for Univision Communications Inc. in 2007, according to Hispanic Market Weekly. The Estefans' estimated net worth as of 2007 was approximately $500 million, according to an article in People En Espanol magazine (February 2007).

In June 2009, Gloria Estefan and her husband, producer Emilio Estefan, bought a "very small" ownership stake in the Miami Dolphins.


Personal life

Gloria became romantically involved with the Miami Sound Machine's band leader , Emilio Estefan, in 1976. She and Emilio married on September 1, 1978. They have a son, Nayib (born September 2, 1980) and a daughter, Emily Marie (born December 5, 1995). The family lives in the exclusive Star Island section of Miami Beach, Florida.

Award


In addition to her seven 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.[citation needed] She has won the Hispanic Heritage Award, an MTV Video 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 the Hollywood 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 from the University of Miami, awarded in 1993. In 2002, Barry University in Miami bestowed upon her an honorary law degree. Along with her husband, Emilio, Estefan received an honorary doctoral degree in music from the Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2007. She also delivered the commencement address to the 2007 graduating class.

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. Gloria also founded the Gloria Estefan Foundation whose goal is to help those with spinal cord injuries.

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.

She was awarded "Person of the Year" at the Latin Grammy Awards in a ceremony aired in November 2008, in recognition of her twenty-five year singing career. She is the first female singer to receive this award.She also received a Latin Grammy for "Best Traditional Tropical Album" for 90 Millas, and a Latin Grammy for "Best Tropical Song" for her single, "Píntame De Colores". This marked the first occasion for Estefan to ever win a Grammy award for a song (either Latin or non-Latin).

On March 12, 2009 she was honored by the BMI Foundation with the "BMI Icon" award.The award was previously given to other singers such as Carlos Santana, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Brian Wilson.