Top 10 Interesting Facts about Julio Iglesias

By Alejandro Vilar –Wikipedia

Top 10 Interesting Facts about Julio Iglesias

Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva is a Spanish singer, songwriter, and former professional footballer. Iglesias is widely regarded as the most commercially successful Spanish singer in the world, as well as one of the top record sellers in music history, having sold over 100 million records worldwide in 14 languages. He has also received numerous music industry awards throughout his career.

However, here are some of the top 10 interesting facts about Julio Iglesias you should consider knowing if you’re his fan. They include the following:

1. He is the most celebrated artist

All-time best-selling Spanish singer Julio Iglesias. The show, By Roberto Santorini – Wikimedia

Iglesias was honored in 1983 for having recorded songs in the most languages in the world, and again in 2013 for being the Latin music artist with the most records sold in history. He was, however, named China’s most popular international artist in April 2013 in Beijing. Iglesias is the most successful foreign record seller in Brazil, France, Italy, and elsewhere, while in his native Spain, he has sold the most records in history, with 23 million.

2.He has won many awards and accolades

Iglesias has received numerous music industry awards throughout his career, including the Grammy, Latin Grammy, World Music Award, Billboard Music Award, American Music Award, and Lo Nuestro Award. He has received Spain’s Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts and France’s Legion of Honour. In 1989, UNICEF designated him as a Special Am ambassador for the Performing Arts. Since 1985, he has had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

3.He was a professional footballer as a goalkeeper

By Alejandro Vilar –Wikipedia

He split his time between playing professional football and studying law at CEU San Pablo University in Madrid. He used to play goalkeeper for Real Madrid Castilla in the Segunda División. In 1963, he was involved in a serious automobile accident that left him unable to walk for two years, effectively ending his professional football career. His lower spine was smashed I n the accident, leaving his legs permanently weakened and requiring therapy for several years.

4.He won the Benidorm International Song Festival

In 1968, he won the Benidorm International Song Festival, a songwriter’s contest in Spain, with the song La Vida Sigue Igualand signed a contract with Discos Columbia, the Columbia Records Spain branch. The Benidorm International Song Festival was a yearly song competition held in the Spanish town of Benidorm. The contest, modeled after the Italian Sanremo Music Festival, was created to promote Benidorm and Spanish music.

5.He received two historic awards

By Eric Koch for Anefo –Wikipedia

On April 1, 2013, in Beijing, he received two historic awards: First & Most Popular International Artist of All Time in China. The award  was given by Sony Music ChRecord presented to Iglesias by world-renowned Chinese artist Lang Lang, and the Guinness World Records for the Best-selling Male Latin Artist.  As a composer and lyricist, with some of his songs written and composed by him, Iglesias was inducted into the Lat in Songwriters Hall of Fame on April 23, In13, alongside Armando Manzanero and José Feliciano.

6.He received Honorary Degree from Berklee

On May 2015 Julio Iglesias and three other prominent music industry figures were awarded honorary degrees at the commencement ceremony of Boston’s Berklee College of Music. According to Berklee, Iglesias and the others were honored for their musical achievements and influences, as well as their long-term contributions to American and international culture. The college hosted a private concert in their honor, featuring music from their respective careers.

7.He has a home in Miami

By Jesús Carrero, ¡Hola! magazine – Wikipedia

When he wasn’t on tour, Iglesias spent his time at his Miami home, which he bought in 1978 for $650,000. The mansion on private Indian Creek Island, designed by Virginia Sipl, went on the market in 2006 for a reported $28 million, making it one of Forbes magazine’s “Ten Most Expensive Homes in the South” 2006.

After his house in Indian Creek did not sell for his asking price in 2008, he ordered it demolished and stated that he intended to build another on the lot.  In 2012, he paid $15 million for the property next door and announced plans to build a new home on the combined properties.

8.He is the father of Javier Sánchez

In 2019, a Valencia court ruled that Iglesias is the father of Javier Sánchez, the son of former Portuguese dancer Maria Edite Santos. Sánchez had been fighting for paternity in court since 1992, claiming that he was conceived during his mother’s alleged affair with Iglesias in Catalonia in July 1975. The singer, who denied all of the allegations, had previously refused to submit to a paternity test. Then Sánchez’s legal team argued that DNA evidence obtained in the United States by an investigator proved their case.

The presiding judge, José Miguel Bort, dismissed the DNA claim but sided with Sánchez. In his verdict, Judge Bort stated that his decision was influenced in part by the “resemblance between the two men” and Edite’s testimony.  

9.He agreed to sell it to Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump, the daughter of then-US President Donald Trump in 2020

By Jesús Carrero, ¡Hola! magazine – Wikimedia

According to a source familiar with the transaction, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were in the final stages of purchasing a plot of land in an exclusive enclave nicknamed “billionaire bunker” near Miami Beach, Florida.

However, the couple offered between $28 and $30 million for the lot, which is just shy of two acres and sits on Biscayne Bay. The buyer’s offer was accepted by the seller, who happens to be legendary Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias, and the sale is pending under contract.

10. He set a record by selling out tickets in the short time ever recorded at the Madison Square Gardens

Julio Iglesias, Concert in Dubai Sheikh Rashid Hall. 22.03.2013. By Wertuose – Own work, Wikimedia

He performed for the first time at New York’s iconic Madison Square Gardens, where he set a box-office record by selling out tickets in the shortest amount of time ever recorded for an artist at this venue.