Today is Their Birthday-Musicians: Sept. 23: Spanish singer Julio Iglesias is 70-years-old today.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Sept. 23: Spanish singer Julio Iglesias is 70-years-old today.

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Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva has sold over 260 million records worldwide in 14 languages and released 77 albums, making him one of the top 10 best selling music artists in history. While Iglesias rose to international prominence in the 1970s and 1980s as a performer of romantic ballads, his success has continued on as he entered new musical endeavors.

Iglesias was born in Madrid. In the 1960s, he studied law in Madrid and was a goalkeeper for one of Real Madrid's football team until a car accident ended his athletic endeavors. To develop and increase the dexterity of his hands, he began playing guitar. In 1968, he won the Benidorm International Song Festival, a songwriter's event in Spain.

In 1979, he moved to Miami, Florida, in the United States and signed a deal with CBS International, and started singing in different languages such as English, French, Portuguese and German, producing his first English-language hit, a Spanish cover of "Begin the Beguine."

In 1984, he released 1100 Bel Air Place, which sold four million albums in the United States, The single "To All the Girls I've Loved Before," a duet with Willie Nelson, hit number five on the Billboard Hot 100; it also featured "All of You," with Diana Ross.

Iglesias won a Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album in the 1988 Grammy Awards for the album Un Hombre Solo (A Man Alone). He recorded a duet with Stevie Wonder on "My Love," in his Non Stop album, a crossover success in 1988. In the 1990s, Iglesias returned to his original Spanish melody in Tango. Julio Iglesias went on to win the World Music Award for Tango in Monaco late in 1996.

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