| Gloria
Estefan, as one of the biggest new
stars to emerge during the mid-'80s, had
predated the coming Latin pop explosion
by a decade, scoring a series of
propulsive dance hits rooted in the
rhythms of her native Cuba before
shifting her focus to softer, more
ballad-oriented fare. Born Gloria
Fajardo in Havana on September 1, 1957,
she was raised primarily in Miami, FL,
after her father, a bodyguard in the
employ of Cuban president Fulgencio
Batista, was forced to flee the island
following the 1959 coup helmed by Fidel
Castro. In the fall of 1975, Fajardo and
her cousin Merci Murciano auditioned for
the Miami Latin Boys, a local wedding
band headed by keyboardist Emilio
Estefan. With their addition, the group
was rechristened Miami Sound Machine and
four years later, Fajardo and Estefan
were wed. As Miami Sound Machine began
composing their own original material,
their fusion of pop, disco, and salsa
earned a devoted local following, and in
1979 the group issued their first
Spanish-language LP on CBS
International. Despite a growing
Hispanic fan base, they did not cross
over to non-Latin audiences until "Dr.
Beat" topped European dance charts in
1984.
With 1985's Primitive Love, Miami
Sound Machine recorded their first
English-language effort, scoring three
Top Ten pop hits in the U.S. alone with
the infectious "Conga," "Bad Boy," and
"Words Get in the Way." For 1988's
triple-platinum Let It Loose, the group
was billed as Gloria Estefan & Miami
Sound Machine, reeling off four Top Ten
hits -- "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You,"
"Can't Stay Away From You," the
chart-topping "Anything for You," and
"1-2-3." 1989's Cuts Both Ways was
credited to Estefan alone and generated
her second number one hit, "Don't Wanna
Lose You"; however, while touring in
support of the album, on March 20, 1990,
her bus was struck by a tractor-trailer.
She suffered a broken vertebrae that
required extensive surgery and kept her
off the road for over a year. Emilio
Estefan and the couple's son were
injured in the crash as well, but all
three recovered. Estefan resurfaced in
1991 with Into the Light, again topping
the charts with "Coming Out of the
Dark," a single inspired by her
near-fatal accident; two more cuts from
the album, "Can't Forget You" and "Live
for Loving You," secured her foothold on
the adult contemporary charts.
With 1993's Mi Tierra, Estefan
returned to her roots, recording her
first Spanish-language record in close
to a decade and earning a Grammy Award
for Best Tropical Latin Album; on the
follow-up, 1994's covers collection Hold
Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, she also
recalled her dance-pop origins with a
rendition of the Vicki Sue Robinson
disco classic "Turn the Beat Around."
Another all-Spanish effort, Abriendo
Puertas, earned the Grammy as well,
while Destiny featured "Reach," named
the official theme of the 1996 Summer
Olympics. As Latin pop made new
commercial headway thanks to the efforts
of acts like Ricky Martin and Enrique
Iglesias, Estefan reigned as the most
successful crossover artist in Latin
music history, with international record
sales close to the 50 million mark. In
1999, she also made her feature film
debut alongside Meryl Streep in Music of
the Heart, recording the film's title
song as a duet with *N Sync and scoring
both a massive pop hit and an Oscar
nomination in the process. A new
Spanish-language album, Alma Caribeņa,
followed in the spring of 2000. Several
months later, Estefan was awarded a
Grammy for Best Music Video for "No Me
Dehes De Querer at the first annual
Latin Grammy Awards. Her husband,
Emilio, won for Producer of the Year.
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