Pop star: From heartthrob to hermit: Julio Iglesias turns 80

“What is Julio Iglesias fleeing from?” the widely read newspaper “La Razón” recently asked in Spain. The question is justified because the pop star, who turns 80 on Saturday (September 23rd), lives completely secluded in the Caribbean. The singer has been avoiding appearances since 2019 and has not given any interviews for a long time. And he seems to be well shielded, because paparazzi last saw him in front of the lens three years ago, in the summer of 2020.

The Madrilenian only gives signs of life online. He mainly posts old videos and photos on Instagram. The last time there was real news on the social network was on May 31, when Iglesias revealed that he was writing his memoirs.

“I’m doing damn well”

Of course, being a hermit causes the rumor mill to simmer. Among other things, it is often said in Spain that the former epitome of the “Latin lover” is in very poor health. That he was dependent on a wheelchair. That he had largely lost his memory and had even forgotten the lyrics to his own songs. It’s all nonsense, said columnist Jaime Peñafiel in the newspaper “El Mundo”. The 91-year-old wrote at the weekend that he had recently spoken to his close friend on the phone and he had assured him: “I’m doing damn well.”

The languishing bard, who has been making the hearts of older fans beat faster with his voice and hits like “Hey!”, “Me va, me va” and “Careless Whisper” for 55 years, has never seen the end of his career announced – or even just hinted at. “I’ve decided to sing until I’m 90,” he said several times. He simply needed singing “to be able to live on.” He once described live concerts in an interview as “an addiction for which there is no antidote.” There is speculation in Spain that Iglesias may be back on stage at the inauguration of the modernized stadium of his football club Real Madrid, which is scheduled to take place shortly before Christmas.

But he told his friend Peñafiel something that sounded a bit like a farewell: He had no interest in anything other than being happy with his wife, the 57-year-old Dutchwoman Miranda, and his eight children and grandchildren.

Over 300 million albums sold

Iglesias is considered the most successful Spanish-speaking singer, as listed in the Guinness Book of Records, among others. But he has also sung in German, English and many other languages. He has sold more than 300 million albums worldwide and received over 2,600 platinum and gold records. He worked with music legends of all stripes: Frank Sinatra and Plácido Domingo, Stevie Wonder and the Beach Boys, Diana Ross, Sting and many others. In Hollywood he has a star on the legendary “Walk Of Fame”.

Julio José Iglesias de La Cueva, who was born in Madrid on September 23, 1943 as the son of a gynecologist, had nothing to do with music for a long time. “I wasn’t born to be a singer. I don’t really know what I was born to do, but I had a lot of circumstances in my life that changed everything,” he wrote in a letter to ¡Hola! the Spanish tabloid magazine published on Friday. As a teenager, Iglesias dreamed of a career as a soccer goalkeeper. He had what it took. He shone in Real Madrid’s youth teams and was already on the verge of joining the professional team shortly before his 20th birthday when a serious car accident put a stop to his plans.

Confined to the hospital bed for 20 months

Iglesias probably has his music career to thank for his accident. At that time, Jung-Julio was tied to his hospital bed, half paralyzed, for 20 months. During this time he taught himself to play the guitar and wrote his first songs. “Music helped me get well again.” After he was released from the hospital, he had long forgotten about the goalkeeper gloves and his law degree. He initially spent a long time going from bar to bar in Madrid and London. As an unknown newcomer, he won at the Benidorm Festival in 1968, although in the letter to “¡Hola!” admits that he initially sang “not very well”. At the latest after 4th place at the Eurovision Song Contest 1970 in Amsterdam, things went uphill.

Chabeli (52), Julio Iglesias Jr. (50) and Enrique (48) come from his marriage to the Filipino diplomat’s daughter Isabel Preysler (1971-1979). The two boys followed in Dad’s footsteps professionally. Enrique in particular is a world dance-pop star (“Bailando”).

Iglesias has lived with Miranda since 1992 and married in 2010. The couple has five children together. The always tanned singer and composer lives primarily with Miranda and their youngest son Guillermo (16) in three Caribbean “bunkers”: in Miami, in the Bahamas and in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. In Spain he has a luxury finca near Marbella. But Iglesias wasn’t seen back home for a long time. Maybe because he isn’t criticized so harshly anywhere. Many media and people there disdainfully call the famous countryman “a crooner.”

“Strong as a bull – but too lazy to return”?

The usually well-informed writer and journalist Beatriz Cortázar recently said on the radio station EsRadio: “He has the feeling that his country doesn’t love him as much as he loves his country.” Iglesias is still “strong as a bull.” “But he is too lazy to go back. He would have to get in shape, build the orchestra and organize all the logistics.”

Cortázar also has an answer to “La Razón’s” question: The singer won’t show up because he’s very vain and can’t cope with getting older. “If he doesn’t look the way he would like, he doesn’t like to be seen.” And: “He’s tired of being reminded of his 80th birthday.”