ADVERTISEMENT

Julio Iglesias

Julio Iglesias was born in Madrid, on September 23rd, 1943. He is the oldest son of Dr. Julio Iglesias Puga and Maria Del Rosario de la Cueva y Perignat.

On his father's side, Julio's ancestors came from Galicia.

His father, Dr. Iglesias Puga, was born in Orense.

And Julio's paternal grandparents were Manuela and Ulpiano.

On his mother's side, his grandfather was Jose de la Cueva, a famous Andalusian journalist, and his grandmother was Dolores de Perignat y Ruiz de Benavides.

Julio Iglesias was a remarkable athlete, and he played goalkeeper for the junior Real Madrid soccer team. He wanted to be a professional soccer player, but he never abandoned his studies.

He studied Law in the Complutense University of Madrid.

When he was 20 years old, on the night of Sept 22nd, 1963, while he was returning from Majadahonda to Madrid about two o'clock in the morning with some friends, specifically Enrique Clemente Criado, Tito Arroyo and Pedro Luis Iglesias, he suffered a very severe auto accident which left him semi-paralyzed more than a year and a half. The hope that he would walk again was very slight.

The nurse who took care of him (Eladio Magdaleno) gave him a guitar.

Julio spent hours listening to the radio and writing poems.

They were sad, romantic verses that questioned man's mission in life. Never did he think of becoming a singer.

Julio Iglesias began to sing to alleviate the nostalgia of having been an athlete who now was prostrate in a bed. He was learning to play the guitar, basic chords to dress his poems with music.

His personal force, his will to live, and the great support of his family, especially of his father, who even abandoned his profession during more than a year to help his son's rehabilitation, produced a true miracle: Julio began to walk again.

It was many months of very difficult recuperation on the beaches of La Carihuela in Torremolinos (Malaga) and Benidorm (Alicante) from the very early hours of the morning, accompanied by his father.

Once he recovered, Julio Iglesias resumed his studies and he travelled to England to study English, first in Ramsgate and then at Bell's Language School in Cambridge.

Some weekends he would sing in a pub, the "Airport Pub", songs that were popular at that time?

songs of Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, The Beatles...- And it was there, in Cambridge, where he met Gwendolyne Bollore, who would become his girlfriend, and who inspired one of his most famous songs: Gwendolyne.

Julio continued writing songs, and one day he decided to go to a record company to offer one of his songs to be interpreted by one of their singers.

The manager, after listening to a single recorded by Julio with only his guitar, asked him ?Why don?t you sing it yourself?

Julio answered "Because I am not a singer".

Finally they convinced him, and he performed at the then famous Benidorm Music Festival.

On July 17th, 1968 he was proclaimed the winner of the contest with his famous song La vida sigue igual, and he signed a contract with Columbia Discos.

Return to Message List

--------------------------------------------

...

... -------------------------------------------------------