Julio Iglesias (born September 23, 1943 in Madrid) is a Spanish singer who has sold over 300 million albums in 14 languages and released 77 albums. According to Sony Music he is one of the top 10 best selling music artists ever. While Iglesias rose to international prominence in the 1970s and 1980s as a performer of romantic ballads and his success has continued as he entered new musical endeavors. Thus far, he has performed approximately 5,000 concerts.

Julio Iglesias is the eldest son of Dr. Julio Iglesias Puga and Maria del Rosario de la Cueva y Perignat which was of Jewish orgin; Carlos is his younger brother. When the singer was 61 years old, his 89-year-old father sired more children: half brother Jaime (18 May 2004), half-sister Ruth (26 July 2006). Julio's siblings were born of Dr. Iglesias's second marriage to Ronna Keitt.

In the early sixties, when he was a law student in Madrid, he briefly was goalkeeper for one of Real Madrid's youth soccer teams; however, a 22 September 1963 car crash truncated his footballer's 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.