By Lauren Miller, executive broadcast editor
Artist: Enrique Iglesias
Sounds like: Latin pop, soul crushing beauty (cus you can’t have him :’( )
So I may still not be over the fact that I’m back in Mt. Prospect, I may tear up when I look outside and see this grayish, sleeting ick, and I may miss my friends in Barcelona almost every day, but I mean whatever. I’m fine… ish. Enrique Iglesias’s voice helps me reminisce on a more beautiful place and warmer time when it didn’t feel like mother nature was constantly sneezing on me.
When I found out Iglesias is 40 years old, I got upset. Not for the reason that you would think. You see, there is a threshold of how old someone can be for me to marry them (cut off is probably 15 years older), even for celebrities, but his puppy dog eyes, Greek god-esque chiseled face, smoldering voice and toned body may make me rethink my set limit. I first found his music, and I was already hooked when saw him. After that, I would describe it more as a slightly stalkerish relationship.
His perfectly-tuned voice with a hint of sadness and the addition of slower Latin sounds, like maracas, acoustic guitars and light drum beats, blend extremely well such as in “Cuando Me Enamoro” and “El Perdedor” to create the perfect heart throb song (and you can’t forget about those eyes throwing pained, longing looks at the unattainable, drop dead gorgeous girl in the music videos).
For all the slightly boy band, pained songs, Iglesias also has a good amount of straight-up hip shaking songs. Primarily and ironically, “Bailando” has an upbeat tempo and Spanish guitar that just make me want to move. Even if I’m sitting down, I can’t stop myself from mouthing the lyrics and awkwardly bobbing my head and/or moving my hips.
One thing that establishes him as a Latin pop heartthrob is that his collaborations are straight fire; he seems to have worked with anyone who is anybody in the Latin pop and US pop world, from Whitney Houston to Usher to my personal favorite collaboration with Nicky Jam, which produced “El Perdón” (yes, this is the song that won the first ever Manía Musical de Marzo).
While I’m sure you know his songs in English like “Hero” or “I like it,” I highly recommend listening to his songs only in Spanish. I may be biased because I absolutely love the Spanish language, but it honestly just sounds better.
So this may have just been a glorified love letter to Enrique Iglesias, but I truly do encourage you to not only listen to his music (and stare at him as you do), but to also stick with Spanish or whatever language you are learning. Experiences on the exchange alone make it all worth it, not to mention the lifelong experiences you will have with the culture and the language.