1995–1996: Enrique Iglesias Iglesias did not want his father to know about his plans for a music career and did not want his famous surname to help advance his career. In secret, he borrowed money from his family's nanny and recorded a demo cassette tape which consisted of a Spanish song and two English songs. Mexican record label Fonovisa signed him, and he temporarily moved to Canada to record his first album. On 21 November 1995, Iglesias released
Enrique Iglesias, a collection of light rock ballads, including hits such as "
Si Tú Te Vas" (If You Go Away) and "
Experiencia Religiosa" (Religious Experience). The record was released by label
Fonovisa, along with Iglesias's following two albums. His song "
Por Amarte" was included in
Televisa's
telenovela Marisol, but with a twist: instead of
Por amarte daría mi vida (To love you, I'd give my life), the words were edited to suit the show, with
Por amarte Marisol, moriría (To love you, Marisol, I'd die). The album also showcased Iglesias's prowess as a
polyglot, releasing both
Italian and
Portuguese editions, with most of the songs being sung in those languages. Five singles were released from the album, including "Por Amarte", "
No Llores Por Mí" (Don't Cry for Me) and "
Trapecista" (Trapezist), all of which topped several of
Billboards Latin music charts. The album still holds the record for most number-one singles on
Billboards
Hot Latin Songs chart. The album went on to win Iglesias the
Grammy Award for
Best Latin Pop Performance.
1997–1998: Vivir and Cosas del Amor In 1997, Iglesias's stardom continued to rise with the release of
Vivir (
To Live), which elevated him to the levels of popular English-language musicians (in sales) that year. The album also included a cover version of the
Yazoo song "
Only You", translated into Spanish as "Solo en Ti". Three singles were released from
Vivir: "
Enamorado Por Primera Vez" (In Love For the First Time), "Solo en Ti", and "
Miente" (Lie), which topped the
Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart as well as the charts of several Spanish-speaking countries. Along with his father and
Luís Miguel, Iglesias was nominated for an
American Music Award in the first-ever awarded category of
Favorite Latin Artist. Iglesias lost out to his father, but performed the song "
Lluvia Cae" (Rain is Falling) at the event. Insistent on playing large stadiums for his first concert tour that summer, Iglesias, backed by
sidemen for
Elton John,
Bruce Springsteen, and
Billy Joel, played to sold-out audiences in sixteen countries. Beginning in
Odessa, Texas, the tour went on to play three consecutive nights in Mexico City's
Plaza de Toros, two nights at
Monterrey's
Auditorio Coca-Cola, and two nights (with over 50,000 attendees each) at the
Estadio Ciudad de La Plata in
Argentina, totaling over 130,000 people. Additionally, Iglesias toured to 19 large indoor arenas in the U.S. In 1998, Iglesias released his third album
Cosas del Amor (
Things of Love). Taking a more mature musical direction, the album, aided by the popular singles "
Esperanza" (Hope) and "
Nunca Te Olvidaré" (I'll Never Forget You), both of which topped the
Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart and helped cement his status in the
Latin music scene. Iglesias did a shorter tour of smaller venues to accompany the release of the album, with one show being televised from
Acapulco, México. This was followed by another larger world tour, consisting of over 80 shows, in even bigger venues. The
Cosas del Amor Tour was the first ever concert tour sponsored by
McDonald's. He won the American Music Award for Favorite Latin Artist for a second time, this time winning against
Ricky Martin and
Chayanne. The song "Nunca te Olvidaré" was also used as the theme song for a Spanish soap opera of the same name, and Iglesias guest-starred and sang the song live on the finale episode of the series.
1999–2007: English market success In 1999, Iglesias began a successful crossover career into the English-language pop music market. Thanks to other successful Latin crossover acts, most notably
Ricky Martin,
Jennifer Lopez, and soon thereafter
Shakira, Spanish-language and Latino musicians experienced a great surge in popularity amongst the public. After attending one of Iglesias's concerts in March 1999, American actor
Will Smith asked Iglesias to contribute a song to the soundtrack of his upcoming movie
Wild Wild West; Iglesias's contribution of "
Bailamos" was released as a single that year, becoming an international hit and peaking at number one on the US
Billboard Hot 100. Following the success of "Bailamos", several mainstream record labels were eager to sign Iglesias. Signing a multi-album deal, after weeks of negotiations with
Interscope, Iglesias recorded and released his first full record in English,
Enrique. The pop album featured some clear Latin musical influences and took two months to complete. It contained the popular song "
Rhythm Divine", a duet with
Whitney Houston titled "
Could I Have This Kiss Forever", and a cover of
Bruce Springsteen's song "
Sad Eyes". In 2000, Iglesias performed at the
Super Bowl XXXIV halftime show with
Christina Aguilera,
Phil Collins and
Toni Braxton. Shock jock
Howard Stern repeatedly played a tape of a (supposedly) very off-key Iglesias on his radio show, accusing him of "not being able" to sing live. On 8 June 2000, Iglesias came to New York and sang the song, live and unplugged, on Stern's show with just an accompanying guitarist. After the performance, the two had an interview, and Stern remarked, "I respect you for coming in here; you really can sing." Iglesias noted that the recording could have been him, but that it was probably a recording made during a television taping where he was required to
lip sync and not sing properly. He would remark that the controversy was the best promotion he could have. The album's single "
Be with You" became Iglesias's second number-one single on
Billboards
Hot 100 chart. Where most of the Latin crossover acts of the previous year experienced some difficulty matching the record sales of their first English-language albums, Iglesias actually went on to sell even more, with the album being certified Diamond for shipments of over 10 million copies. The album's first single, "
Hero", became a number-one hit in the United Kingdom and in many other countries. The entire album was co-written by Iglesias.
Escape is his biggest commercial success to date. The singles "
Escape" and "
Don't Turn Off the Lights" became radio staples, placing highly or topping various charts both in North America and elsewhere. A second edition of the album was released internationally and contained a new version of one of Iglesias's favorite tracks, "
Maybe", as well as a duet with
Lionel Richie called "
To Love a Woman". Iglesias capitalized on the album's success with his "One-Night Stand World Tour" consisting of fifty sold-out shows in sixteen countries. Including
Radio City Music Hall and three consecutive nights in London's
Royal Albert Hall, the tour ended with a big show at
Lia Manoliu Stadium in
Bucharest, Romania. The concert launched MTV Romania, with the video for "
Love to See You Cry" being the first music video to be shown on the channel. In 2002, Iglesias decided to release a fourth Spanish-language album titled
Quizás (
Perhaps). A more polished musical production than his previous Spanish albums and containing more introspective songs, the album's title track is a song about the strained relationship Iglesias has with his famous father. The album debuted at number twelve on the
Billboard 200 albums chart, the highest placement of a Spanish-language album on the chart at that period.
Quizás sold a million copies in a week, making it the fastest-selling album in Spanish in five years. All three singles released from the album all ended up topping the Latin chart, giving Iglesias a total of sixteen number ones on the chart. He currently holds the record for the most number-one singles on
Billboards Latin Chart. With the song "
Para Qué La Vida", Iglesias reached a million spins on U.S. radio, becoming the first Latin act to do so. The video to the song "
Quizás" was the first Spanish-language music video to be added to the selection on
MTV's popular show
Total Request Live.The album went on to win the
Latin Grammy Award for
Best Pop Vocal Album. That year he embarked on an arena tour of the Americas. The "Don't Turn Off the Lights" tour was completed in the summer of 2002, with two sold-out nights in
Madison Square Garden and another two in Mexico's
National Auditorium. The tour finished with a single show in the
Roberto Clemente Coliseum in
San Juan, Puerto Rico. By 2003, Iglesias had released his seventh album, which he called
7, the second to be entirely co-written by him. The album's sound was heavily influenced by 80s rock and pop. The album features the song "Roamer", which he wrote with his friend and longtime guitarist
Tony Bruno and also featured an appearance from
Kara DioGuardi, it also contains "Be Yourself", a song about independence; the chorus talks about how Iglesias's parents did not believe he'd ever succeed in his singing career. The first single was the song "
Addicted", and was followed closely by a remix of the song "
Not in Love", featuring
Kelis which was a hit in the UK, Australia, Europe and Asia. The Seven World Tour was sponsored by
Pepsi with Iglesias featuring in a commercial alongside
Britney Spears,
Beyoncé, and
Pink, and a second ad which featured Not In Love. His biggest world tour to date started with twelve shows in the United States ending with Iglesias playing at
Houston Rodeo, and continued on to several countries, most of which he'd never previously visited, playing to sold-out stadiums and arenas in Australia, India, Egypt, and Singapore, before ending his tour in
South Africa.
2007–2009: Insomniac, 95/08 Éxitos and Greatest Hits After a two-year hiatus, Iglesias released his new album
Insomniac on 12 June 2007. The album was so named due to it being recorded mainly at night. The record had a more contemporary pop style than that of his previous albums. Its highlights include his first collaboration with a rapper on "
Push", featuring
Lil Wayne, as well as "Ring My Bells" which was featured on the commercial for
Tommy Hilfiger's True Star Men and a cover of
Ringside's "
Tired of Being Sorry". The album's first single, "
Do You Know? (The Ping Pong Song)", was released on 10 April 2007. It was Iglesias's highest-charting song on the
Billboard Hot 100 since "
Escape". The song was also a hit throughout Europe, peaking in the top 10 in many countries. The Spanish version of the song, titled "
Dímelo", was number one on the
Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart for eleven weeks. Iglesias followed up with the ballad "
Somebody's Me", which was released as a single in North America. The song was played extensively on AC radio and peaked high on
Billboards
Hot AC. In Europe, the second single was "Tired of Being Sorry", which performed well in many countries; he recorded a version of the song with French singer
Nâdiya, which was number one in France for eleven weeks. A solo version of "Push" was added to the soundtrack of the movie
Step Up 2 the Streets. The song was regarded as the third single from the album. A music video was released which features the film's lead actors. On 4 July 2007, Iglesias became the first Western artist to play a concert in Syria in three decades when he performed for a sold-out crowd of ten thousand in the capital
Damascus and in the same week, he performed on
Live Earth in
Hamburg. The Insomniac World Tour was launched at the
Coca-Cola Dome in
Johannesburg, South Africa, the same venue he ended his last world tour, and took him to sold-out arenas throughout Europe. It was his first arena tour of the UK, with him playing venues such as Manchester's
MEN Arena and
Wembley Arena. The tour ended with Iglesias performing at the newly opened
L.A. Live. A second leg of the tour took him throughout Latin America. Iglesias's song "
Can You Hear Me" was chosen as the official song of the
UEFA Euro 2008 football tournament. He performed the song live at the 29 June 2008 final in Vienna, Austria. The song featured on a re-issue of
Insomniac, which was released in certain countries. Iglesias released a Spanish greatest hits album titled
95/08 Éxitos on 25 March 2008, which included his seventeen number-one songs on the
Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart plus two new songs. The first single was the song "
¿Dónde Están Corazón?", which was written by Argentine star
Coti, and became Iglesias's eighteenth number-one single on
Billboards Hot Latin Songs. The album debuted at number one on
Billboards
Top Latin Albums chart and number eighteen on the overall
Billboard 200 albums chart. It was Iglesias's second Spanish album to debut in the top 20 of the
Billboard 200 (
Quizás debuted at number twelve in 2002). The album was certified double Platinum (Latin field) in the U.S. The record's second single, "
Lloro Por Ti", also reached number one on the Hot Latin Songs chart and had an official remix featuring
Wisin & Yandel. Iglesias did a tour of the US to promote the compilation. Beginning in
Laredo, Texas, and ending at the
Izod Center in
New Jersey, he was accompanied through most of the tour with
bachata band
Aventura, who also performed "Lloro Por Ti" with him at the
2008 Premios Juventud. Iglesias was a surprise performer at the 2008
Lo Nuestro Awards, opening the show with a medley of "¿Dónde Están Corazón?" and "Dímelo". He also performed at the
Billboard Latin Music Awards. After the success of his Spanish greatest hits compilation, Iglesias released a
compilation of his English-language hits on 11 November. The album includes "
Can You Hear Me" as well as two new songs. The first single, "
Away", features
Sean Garrett, and was followed by "
Takin' Back My Love", featuring
Ciara. The album debuted at number three on the official
UK Albums Chart were it went double Platinum in both the UK and Ireland. Iglesias was the winner of two
World Music Awards in the categories of "World's Best Selling Latin Performer" and "World's Best Selling Spanish Artist" at the ceremony held in Monaco on 9 November 2008.
2010–2011: Euphoria On 5 July 2010, Iglesias released his ninth studio album
Euphoria, his first work to be released under his new label
Universal Republic. The album is Iglesias's first bilingual album, with seven original English songs and six original Spanish songs. Iglesias worked with three producers whom he had collaborated with before:
RedOne,
Mark Taylor, and Carlos Paucar. In a joint venture with
Universal Latino, Iglesias released different singles in both English and Spanish simultaneously to different formats. The first English single from the album, "
I Like It", which features the rapper Pitbull, was released on 3 May 2010 in the U.S. and became a success, reaching No. 4 on the
Billboard Hot 100. The song was also featured in the
MTV reality series
Jersey Shore. "
Cuando Me Enamoro" was released as the lead Spanish single from the album, and became the theme song of the Mexican
telenovela of the
same title, produced by
Televisa. The song debuted at number eight and number twenty-five on the
U.S. Latin Pop Songs chart and the
U.S. Hot Latin Songs chart, respectively. It became his twenty-fifth top ten single on the U.S.
Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart and after four weeks of its release date, it became his twenty-first No.1 song on this chart. In Europe and Asia Iglesias releases
Heartbeat with
Nicole Scherzinger which became a Top 10 in many EU countries. In Australia there was a remix with
Havana Brown and a Bollywood version with
Sunidhi Chauhan was released in India. In January 2011, the album's third English single, "
Tonight (I'm Fuckin' You)" featuring
Ludacris and
DJ Frank E broke into the top ten on the
Billboard Hot 100, also reaching No. 4. The song was released only for digital download in the United States but was featured on some editions of
Euphoria in Europe and some Asian areas. The song became Iglesias' first number one on the U.S.
Pop Songs and
Radio Songs airplay charts. A remix version of the album track "
Dirty Dancer" with
Usher and Lil Wayne was released as the fourth English single and became his ninth
Hot Dance Club Play chart topper, tying with
Prince and
Michael Jackson as the male with the most No. 1 dance singles. In the Latin market he released the song
No Me Digas Que No which was his third collaboration with Wisin y Yandel and topped the Hot Latin Songs chart. Further, "
Ayer" served as the album's third Spanish single and seventh single overall. The
Euphoria Tour took Iglesias across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and several European countries. One of the tour's legs took him to Australia, while fellow artist Pitbull joined him as an opening act.
Prince Royce also served as opening act during the tour's second leg across North America. Euphoria won the
Billboard Music Award for Top Latin Album, the
Billboard Latin Awards for Latin Album of the Year and
Latin Pop Album of the Year, and was nominated for the
Latin Grammy Award for Album of the Year. In August 2011, Iglesias released the single "
I Like How It Feels" to radio. He would perform the track alongside Tonight (I'm Lovin' You) and I Like It and the 2011 American Music Awards and the
Dallas Cowboys vs
Miami Dolphins Thanksgiving halftime show along Ludacris and Pitbull.
2012–2014: Sex and Love On 25 August 2012, Iglesias unveiled his brand new single, "
Finally Found You", a collaboration with American rapper
Sammy Adams. It was released to the US iTunes Store on 25 September 2012. The song was released in UK on 9 December 2012. On 8 December 2012, Iglesias performed at the second annual
iHeartRadio Festival where he confirmed he was working on a new album. That same year he embarked on a co-headline tour of North America with
Jennifer Lopez. Later that year he returned to
India in October 2012 to perform another series of shows called Tri-City tour in
Pune,
Delhi, and
Bangalore playing to sold-out arenas and stadiums. On 31 May 2013, Iglesias performed at the Mawazine Festival in Rabat, Morocco. The show broke the highest attendance record as more than 120,000 fans gathered to watch the concert. Iglesias released a number of singles prior to the album release, the first of which was "
Turn the Night Up" followed by "
Heart Attack" which was released to US Top 40 radio stations. Latin stations were served with the song "
Loco", a smooth bachata duet with urban bachata superstar
Romeo Santos. The single became Iglesias' 24th No. 1 on the
Billboards Hot Latin Songs chart. A version of the song released in Spain featured Spanish Flamenco singer
India Martinez and topped the charts in Spain. This was followed by
El Perdedor, a duet with Mexican singer
Marco Antonio Solis and was the theme to the telenovela
Lo que la vida me robó. The song became his 24th No. 1 on the Latin charts. On 14 March 2014, Iglesias released his tenth studio album,
Sex and Love. The release of the album was accompanied by the single
I'm a Freak and featured
Pitbull. The album also featured a duet with
Kylie Minogue called "Beautiful", which appears on her twelfth studio album
Kiss Me Once. In addition to the previously stated collaborations, the album featured guest appearances by
Flo Rida,
Yandel,
Juan Magan,
Jennifer Lopez, and
Gente de Zona. at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas, 2015 The next single to be released from the album was "
Bailando", featuring Descemer Bueno, and Gente De Zona. "Bailando" was immensely successful becoming his 25th No. 1 on Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. "Bailando" was No. 1 for 41 consecutive weeks on Billboard's Hot Latin songs chart becoming the longest- reigningnumber-one in the history of the chart beating the record previously held by
Shakira's 25 week run. This record was later broken in 2017 when "
Despacito" by
Luis Fonsi and
Daddy Yankee featuring
Justin Bieber. "Bailando" was also a crossover success in part due to a
Spanglish version of the song which featured rapper
Sean Paul, which saw the song peak at No. 12 on Billboard's Hot 100 and Top 10 on the airplay chart, becoming the highest charting Spanish song since the
Macarena in 1996. The original Spanish music video of the song was also
YouTube's second most- watched music video of 2014, behind
Katy Perry's hit singl, "
Dark Horse" and was the first Spanish-language video to reach a billion views on the platform. "Bailando" currently has over 3 billion views on YouTube. The song won three Latin Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year. In addition to the original Spanish version, Iglesias also released two Portuguese versions of the song featuring the Portuguese singer
Mickael Carreira and the Brazilian singer
Luan Santana.
Sex and Love was
Spotify's 7th most-streamed album worldwide in 2014, and "Bailando" was the most-streamed song in both Mexico and Spain. Iglesias was also called the King of 2014, due to his tenth album,
Sex and Love, and his hit single "Bailando".
Billboard called him "The Crowd Pleaser" of 2014. After more than a decade with Universal Music, Iglesias left the record label in 2015 and signed on with
Sony Music.
2015–present: Final Since the release of
Sex and Love, Iglesias continued issuing singles. In 2015, he collaborated with
Nicky Jam on the reggaeton megahit "
El Perdón" which topped the charts in several countries and has over 1.3 billion views on YouTube. In 2016 Iglesias released his first single under Sony: "
Duele el Corazón" featuring
Wisin, which also topped the charts in several countries including the US Latin charts and also has over 1 billion views on YouTube. In 2017, Iglesias released "
Súbeme la Radio", which features
Descemer Bueno and
Zion & Lennox. The song has over 1.3 billion views on YouTube. In 2018, Iglesias released two songs, one called "
El Baño" with
Bad Bunny and the other called "
Move to Miami" with
Pitbull. The song "
Me Pasé" featuring
Farruko was released on 1 July 2021 and became a hit on Latin radio topping the
Latin Rhythm Airplay chart, as well as extended his record for most No. 1s on
Latin Pop Airplay Chart and reclaiming his record for most No. 1s on the
Latin Airplay Chart. Enrique announced his next album would be released in two volumes and be called
Final, as he stated they would be his last albums. Iglesias claimed, "it's something that I have been thinking about for the past few years" but also insisted, "I'm never going to stop writing songs because I love writing songs, but I'm going to do it in a different way, meaning they don't necessarily have to be packaged as an album, so this project to me is important". On 17 September 2021, Iglesias released
Final (Vol. 1), which included his string of hits from 2015 onwards as well as new tracks such as the singles "
Pendejo", and "
Te Fuiste" which featured Puerto Rican rapper
Myke Towers. The album has over 3 billion audio streams and was certified 6× Platinum (Latin category) in the US Also in 2021, Iglesias embarked on a co-headline tour with Ricky Martin. The tour was originally planned for a year earlier but was postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The tour consisted of twenty-six arena dates across North America and featured Colombian pop star
Sebastian Yatra as the opening act. A year later, Iglesias embarked on another co-headline tour of North America with both Martin and Pitbull named "The Trilogy Tour", which originally consisted of twenty-four dates and a second leg of fourteen dates due to popular demand. During this period, Iglesias would feature on songs by other artists such as
RedOne's "
Don't You Need Somebody," Descemer Bueno's "
Nos Fuimos Lejos",
Matoma's "
I Don't Dance (Without You)",
Jon Z's "
Después Que Te Perdí",
Anuel AA's "
Fútbol y Rumba" and a remix of "
Lalala" by
Y2K,
Bbno$ and also was featured by
Carly Rae Jepsen. On 29 September 2023, Iglesias returned to Latin and Spanish radio stations with the song "
Asi Es La Vida" the first single from Final Vol. 2. a duet with Argentine star
Maria Becerra, becoming his eighth No. 1 on
Billboard's Tropical Airplay chart. In February 2024, Iglesias released "
Fría" to Latin-pop formats, which featured Cuban singer
Yotuel. Later that month, he released "
Space in My Heart" a duet with Country Star
Miranda Lambert, which returned him to the Adult Top 40. The Spanish version of the song was used as the theme to the telenovela
Corazón Guerrero. On 29 March 2024, Iglesias released
Final Vol. 2, which included a mixture of genres such as Pop, Dance Bachata, Reggaeton, Cumbia and Dembow. The album contains productions from longtime collaborators like Metrophonic,
RedOne and Carlos Paucar as well as the
Space Primates. In addition to the previously featured songs, the album also featured the King of Dembow
El Alfa on "La Botella" and a duet with the Mexican Spanish Pop Princess
Belinda on "Llorame Un Rio". ==Songwriting, producing, and acting==