Enrique Miguel Iglesias, better known as Enrique Iglesias, is a Spanish pop music singer-songwriter. Iglesias started his musical career on Mexican label Fonovisa. This helped turn him into one of the most popular artists in Latin America and in the Hispanic or Latino market in the United States, and the biggest seller of Spanish language albums of that decade. Before the turn of the millennium, he made a crossover into the mainstream English language market, signing a unique multi-album deal with Universal Music Group for an unprecedented US$48,000,000, with Universal Music Latino to release his Spanish albums and Interscope to release English albums. In 2010, he parted with Interscope and signed with another Universal Music Group label, Universal Republic.
Iglesias has had five Billboard Hot 100 top five singles including two #1s, and holds the record for producing 22 number 1 Spanish-language singles on the Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks. Up until the release of his latest album, Euphoria, in 2010, he had sold more than 55 million albums in both English and Spanish. He has also had eight #1 songs on Billboard's Dance charts, more than any other single male artist. Altogether Iglesias has amassed 52 #1 hits on the various Billboard charts.
Enrique was born in Madrid, Spain, the third and youngest child of singer Julio Iglesias and socialite and magazine journalist Isabel Preysler. His mother is a Filipino of partial Spanish/Basque descent,[citation needed] and his father is of Galician Spanish ancestry and once claimed to be partially Jewish. His parents divorced in 1988, and the following year Julio moved to Miami, Florida, in the U.S. to continue with his musical career.
In 1985, Enrique Iglesias' grandfather, Dr. Julio Iglesias Puga was kidnapped by the terrorist group ETA. For their safety, Enrique and his brother Julio Iglesias Jr. were sent to live with their father in Miami. He also lived in Belgrade, Serbia, for one year with his mother, who worked as a journalist. As his father's career kept him on the road, the young Iglesias was raised by the family nanny. He attended Gulliver Preparatory School and went on to study business at the University of Miami.
Iglesias did not want his father to know about his plans for a musical career and did not want his famous surname to help advance his career. He borrowed money from his family nanny and he recorded a demo cassette tape which consisted of a Spanish song and two English songs. Approaching his father's former publicist, Fernan Martinez, the two promoted the songs under the stage name 'Enrique Martinez' with the backstory of being an unknown singer from Guatemala. Iglesias was signed by a record label called Fonovisa. After dropping out of college, he went to Toronto to record his first album.