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Gloria Estefan

Personal Profile

Gloria Estefan
  • Birth Name:
    Gloria María Fajardo García
  • Date of Birth:
    September 1, 1957
  • Zodiac Sign:
    Virgo
  • Place of Birth:
    Havana, Cuba
  • Sex:
    Female
  • Nationality:
    Indian

Family

Gloria Estefan
  • Spouse:
    Emilio Estefan Jr.

Career

Gloria Estefan

Awards

Gloria Estefan

1993 : Ellis Island, Congressional Medal of Honor

1993 : Honorary doctoral degree, University of Miami

 

Trivia

Gloria Estefan
  • In 1984 and 1985 the group released several singles from their albums, one of which, “Hot Summer Nights” was to feature in the movie Top Gun which starred Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer.
  • Gloria’s success with the group was such that the group name was changed to Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine and later the Sound Machine was dropped altogether and Gloria was seen as a solo artist with the band as her backing group.
  • The success of Gloria and her backing group was to be phenomenal as she gained recognition both in the USA, Europe and in the United Kingdom.
  • The single “Cuts Both Ways’ which was taken from her album of the same name sold over 10 million copies and went platinum within its first month of release in the U.S.
  • The success followed in the UK, where it debuted at number one, with Gloria being the first act in 10 years to have two number one albums on the UK albums chart in one calendar year.
  • In 1990 while touring in Pennsylvania, Gloria was critically injured when her tour bus crashed into a tractor trailer.
  • Her injuries included a fractured spine which took Gloria a year to recover from after intensive physical therapy and specialized operations to place titanium rods into her spinal column.
  • She returned to the tour within ten months of the accident.
  • In 1980 Gloria and Emilio had their first child, a boy, Nayib and in 1994 they had a daughter, Emily Marie.
  • Once again Gloria had two cover versions of her album tracks which took on hit status, “Turn the Beat Around” featured in the Sharon Stone movie, The Specialist and “Its Too Late” originally by Carole King did well in the Contemporary radio.

Quotes

Gloria Estefan
  • “very passionate, all about love, very sensual.”
  • “Music of My Heart”
  • “We protect aspirin bottles in this country better than we protect guns from accidents by children, ... Always Tomorrow.”
  • “The separation of families to me is very close to my heart because we lived that as immigrants. I strongly feel that we are all connected, and having felt people's love and support first hand through difficult moments in my life, makes me feel it's our responsibility to help one another. I am privileged to help in some way and I will always take that opportunity.”
  • “They are smaller shelters in great need of many things. We are taking things that they specifically requested that they need at this moment.”
  • “As an artist, you dream about accumulating enough successful music to someday do just one greatest-hits album, but to reach the point where you're releasing your second collection of hits is beyond belief.”
  • “The separation of families to me is very close to my heart because we lived that as immigrants. I am privileged to help in some way and I will always take that opportunity.”
  • “We want it to be clarified to us why this family, who has been guarding this boy, is being compelled to betray his trust and hand him over on a silver platter.”
  • “Miami's number-one power couple.”
  • “I'm totally animal-oriented, ... I've got nine dogs, eight birds, turtles, fish and I had wallabies at one point.”
View all Quotes: Gloria Estefan

Biography

Gloria Estefan
Last Updated: Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Gloria Gloria Estefan was born in Havana, Cuba on September 1st 1957 to Jose Fajardo and Gloria, her mother. The family had lived happily in Cuba where her father was a personal bodyguard to the Cuban president, Fukgencio Batista’s wife until the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Gloria was just sixteen months old when her father was taken prisoner in the Bay of Pigs invasion that attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro during his bid for leadership of Cuba. 

Gloria’s father was part of an exchange arranged by President John F Kennedy to release prisoners captured in Cuba. The family, along with Gloria’s younger sister, Becky, moved to Miami, Florida. As a proud anti communist Gloria’s father served in the US Army for multiple tours in Vietnam where he was exposed to Agent Orange. In later life he contracted multiple sclerosis and died in 1980. Gloria’s mother remained in Miami.

During her childhood Gloria lived on several army bases but spent most of her school years in Miami where she attended the Catholic high school and later the University of Miami. While at university she also had a job working as a translator of Spanish and French at Miami International Airport. She graduated with a degree in communications and psychology. In 1976 Gloria met the Miami Sound Machine band leader, Emilio Estefan and became romantically involved with him and in 1978 they were married.

It was during her time watching him in the band that she made her first public appearance when Emilio asked her to come up on stage and sing with the band. Her performance was so well received that she became the lead singer with the band. While with the band she was the singer on their album which was released in 1977 which was an all Spanish LP. With Gloria in the lead vocals the band had their first English language hit with “Dr Beat”.

Filmography

Gloria Estefan

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