Topic: Julio Iglesias

Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva (born September 23, 1943) better known as Julio Iglesias is a Spanish singer who has sold over 260 million records worldwide in 14 languages and released 77 albums. According to Sony Music Entertainment, he is one of the top 10 best selling music artists in history. While Iglesias rose to international prominence in the 1970s and 1980s as a performer of romantic ballads, his success has continued on as he entered new musical endeavors.

Iglesias was born in Madrid, the eldest son of Dr. Julio Iglesias Puga and Maria del Rosario de la Cueva y Perignat. Iglesias' father's family was from Galicia and Iglesias' mother, who was of Jewish origin, traced her ancestry to Andalusia, Puerto Rico and Cuba. He has a younger brother, Carlos. When Iglesias was 61 years old, his 89 year old father produced more children: half brother Jaime born in May 18, 2004, half-sister Ruth born in July 26, 2006. Julio's siblings were born to Dr. Iglesias Puga's second marriage to Ronna Keitt.

In the 1960s, he studied law in Madrid and was a goalkeeper for one of Real Madrid's football team, however, a car crash in September 22, 1963, ended his football career: I had a car accident; very, very strange car accident . . . I lost control of the car and rolled it, resulting in what they call 'paraparexia', which is not a paraplegi. It's a compression in the cord, in the sense of the neck . . . my spinal cord; and I was very, very ill for three years. His doctors thought he would never walk again, but slowly, he began recovering his health. To develop and increase the dexterity of his hands, he began playing guitar. When he recovered from his accident, he resumed academic studies and traveled to the United Kingdom to study the English language, first in Ramsgate, then at Bell Educational Trust's Language School in Cambridge.