In 1968, he won the
Benidorm Song Festival with the song "" (meaning "Life Goes On the Same") which was used in the 1969 film in which he played a fictionalized version of his own life. He then signed a deal with Discos Columbia, the Spanish branch of the
Columbia Records company, and released his first studio album, titled . The album spent 15 weeks in the Spanish charts and peaked at No. 3. Shortly after, he had a number one hit in many European countries with "", sung in
Galician, in honour of his father, who hailed from
Galicia. That single sold one million copies in Germany. In 1975, he found success in the Italian market by recording a song exclusively in Italian, called "". Notable albums from this decade are (1974, with the European hit "Manuela"), (1975), and (1973). He also sang in French: one of his popular songs in this language became "". In 1979, he moved to
Miami, in the United States, signed a deal with
CBS International, and started singing in different languages such as French, Italian, Portuguese, and German. Two years later, he released the album , which he dedicated to his daughter
Chabeli, who appeared on the cover with him. From it came the first English-language hit of his career, a cover of "
Begin the Beguine" that became number 1 in the United Kingdom; he also released a collection,
Julio (1983). in 1984 In 1984, he released
1100 Bel Air Place, the hit album which established him as a star in the English-speaking entertainment industry. It sold over three million albums in the United States alone. It also featured "
All of You", in vocal duet with
Diana Ross, a Top Twenty Pop hit, that climbed to No. 2 on the Adult Contemporary Chart with the help of a popular video. He also covered "The Air That I Breathe," written by Albert Hammond and popularized by The Hollies, on this album; Iglesias's version featured vocals from
The Beach Boys. Iglesias won a
Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album in the
1988 Grammy Awards for the album
Un hombre solo ("A Man Alone"). In that year, he recorded a duet with
Stevie Wonder, "
My Love", in his
Non Stop album, a crossover success in 1988. Iglesias made a cameo appearance as himself on
The Golden Girls as
Sophia Petrillo's date on St. Valentine's Day 1989. In 1993, he recorded "
Summer Wind" with
Frank Sinatra. In 1994, released
Crazy, including duets with
Dolly Parton,
Sting and
Art Garfunkel. In 1995, Iglesias was the recipient of the
Excellence Award at the
1995 Lo Nuestro Awards. In 2001, Iglesias was recognized as the
Person of the Year by the
Latin Recording Academy. A year later, Iglesias was inducted into the
International Latin Music Hall of Fame. In 2003, Iglesias released his album
Divorcio ("Divorce"). In its first day of sales,
Divorcio sold a record 350,000 albums in Spain, and reached the number 1 spot on the charts in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, and Russia. In 2003 and 2004, aided by the success of his
Divorcio album, Iglesias went on a ten-month world tour which took him from Europe to Asia and then on to North America, South America and Africa. More than half the shows on that tour sold out within days of going on sale. In December 2004, his Dutch girlfriend Miranda Rijnsburger and Iglesias himself recorded a duet of the Christmas song "
Silent Night". The song, which was not officially released, also included a voice message from Iglesias, Rijnsburger, and their four young children. The song was released online through the singer's official website and a CD was included on their Christmas card as a holiday gift from the Iglesias family to their friends and fans around the world. In 2008, Iglesias recorded another song as a gift to his fans. The family recorded "The Little Drummer Boy" in Spanish and English and included it in the family's Christmas card. Iglesias also made investments in the Dominican Republic's eastern town of
Punta Cana, a major tourist destination, where he took to spending most of the year. He became a Dominican citizen in 2005. In September 2006, Iglesias released a new English-language album, which he titled
Romantic Classics. "I've chosen songs from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s that I believe will come to be regarded as the new standards," Iglesias stated in the album's sleeve notes. The album featured his interpretations of
Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is", the
George Michael selection "Careless Whisper", and
Richard Marx's "Right Here Waiting".
Romantic Classics was Iglesias's highest debut on the Billboard charts, entering at number 31 in the United States, 21 in Canada, 10 in Australia, and top spots across Europe and Asia. He returned to the studio to record songs in
Filipino and
Indonesian for his Asian releases of
Romantic Classics, which helped propel record sales in the Asian entertainment industry. Iglesias promoted
Romantic Classics in 2006; it was seen all over the world on television shows. In the United States, for example, he appeared on
Dancing With The Stars, where he sang his version of "I Want To Know What Love Is",
Good Morning America,
The View,
Fox and Friends and
Martha Stewart. In 2008, Iglesias made a music video with
Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbek dictator
Islam Karimov. In October 2012, he performed a concert in
Equatorial Guinea where tickets were reportedly $1,000 each. In 2015, Iglesias was slated to perform a complete concert for the first time with his son
Julio Iglesias Jr. in a tour in Romania, on 22 May at
Sala Polivalentă in
Cluj-Napoca and 2 July at
Sala Palatului in the capital city,
Bucharest.
Berklee College of Music awarded Iglesias an Honorary Doctorate in May 2015 in recognition of his achievements and influence in music and for his enduring contribution to American and international culture. ==Personal life==