7:30am Wednesday 15th July 2009
By Martin Hutchinson
GLORIA Estefan brings her unique brand of Latin rhythm to the Liverpool Summer Pops with her headline concert at the Echo Arena on July 27th.
A pop superstar in both English and Spanish, she has sold over 70 million albums in a career lasting almost 30 years.
Born in Cuba in 1957, Gloria and her family fled the island and set up home in Miami, where she still lives.
After studying communications and psychology she was invited to sing at a wedding with a local band called Miami Latin Boys and she soon became their full time singer and they changed their name to the Miami Sound Machine.
In 1984, they released their first English language album ‘Eyes Of Innocence’ which included their first hit single ‘Dr Beat’.
Numerous hits followed, ‘Conga’, ‘Rhythm Is Gonna Get You’, ‘Get On Your Feet’ and ‘1-2-3’ amongst them.
By 1989, after being known as ‘Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine’, the name of the act became ‘Gloria Estefan’, although she was still backed by the Sound Machine – as she still is today.
The band’s music was happy, upbeat and infused with the Latin sounds that guarantee a good time.
It seemed that a good time was being had by Gloria in the nineties after releasing ‘Cuts Both Ways’, her most successful album. This contained no less than five hit singles including ‘Don’t Wanna Lose You’ and ‘Oye Mi Canto’.
The disaster struck.
In March 1990, an accident involving her tour bus critically injured the singer, putting her in hospital with a fractured spine.
Two titanium rods were implanted and months of physiotherapy followed, and Gloria was back on stage in ten months.
More hits followed, many of them in Spanish. She has been awarded many Grammy Awards and has campaigned tirelessly for her foundation to help people with spinal injuries.
She has also been filming ‘Who’s Sorry Now?’ a film about the life of US singer Connie Francis, and Gloria is starring as the singer.
Her brand of music is sure to bring a touch of summer to the Liverpool Summer Pops – whatever the weather.
She will be relishing the opportunity to appear as she said recently, “I’m really looking forward to coming to such a musical city like Liverpool.”
Gloria Estefan will be appearing at the Echo Arena, Liverpool on Monday 27th July at 8.00pm. Tickets are priced at £38.50 and £48.50 and are available from all the usual agencies including the Box Office (0844 800 0400), Ticketmaster (0844 847 1616), Ticketline (0151 256 5555), Gigantic (0115 959 7908) and See Tickets (0871 220 0260).
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