Julio Iglesias the Subject of New Biography Out This Month

Julio Iglesias fans, prepare for a page-turner…

A new biography about the 75-year-old Spanish singer/songwriter chronicles the story of his long career, his relationship with fame, and his legend as the quintessential Latin lover— it was once reported that he had slept with 3,000 women, a figure, according to the book, that he privately told his manager not to deny.

Julio Iglesias

Julio. La Biografíawill be published on Thursday (Sept. 19), in Spanish, by Penguin Random House imprint Aguilar. The book’s author, Óscar García Blesa, a journalist and long-time music industry executive, previously wrote the authorized biography of Alejandro Sanz, which was a bestseller in Spain. García is currently director of Mow Management, the agency that also manages Sanz.

While the Iglesias book was not penned as an official biography, it is one that, in the publisher’s words, was written “with respect and rigor.”

“My admiration for Julio, his artistic achievements and his kaleidoscopic personality have been the fundamental reasons that drove me to write the book,” García writes in the introduction to Julio. La Biografá.

Published to coincide with the 50-year anniversary of Iglesias’ first album, Yo Canto, the 800-page book covers the crooner’s superstar achievements: his 350 million records sold throughout the world, his place among the five best-selling artists of all time and Spain’s internationally best-known artist of all time.

The book probes Iglesias’ feeling about success, and professes his insecurities with the ladies. “When I go out with a woman, when I have her in my mind, however beautiful the woman is and however romantic the evening” García quotes Iglesias as once saying, “I always ask myself, is she with me because of who I am or what I represent? That has made me doubt a lot and suffer quite a bit.”

The bio also delves into Iglesias’ marriage to Isabel Preysler, constant fodder for gossip magazines until she ended the union in 1979, as well as his relationship with his son and fellow singing star Enrique Iglesias, who began his career under an assumed name to escape the shadow of his father.

García, who first met Iglesias in Miami recording studio Criteria in 2001, says that his intention was to offer “a new look at the man and the character, someone who everyone in the world knows, but who, like any human being, has dirt that has not been dished.” The book, says García, is also “a sociocultural chronicle of an entire country [Spain] over more than seventy years.”

Rosa Pens Plant-Based Eating Guide and Cookbook with His Nutritionist Nena Niessen

Draco Rosa wants you to eat healthy…

The 46-year-old Puerto Rican rock singer-songwriter and cancer survivor has collaborated with his nutritionist to publish an eating guide and cookbook with recipes like “Draco’s Super Juice” and “Miracle Salad.”

Draco Rosa

Rosa penned the book with Nena Niessen, who was also diagnosed with cancer and beat it, twice.

“This is a book born of our healing from the terrible disease cancer,” Rosa stated in a release about the book, published in Spanish by Penguin Random House imprint Aguilar.

Draco Rosa Cookbook

El secreto de la vida a base de plantas has climbed to the top of Amazon’s Spanish language books alternative medicine section since its release on July 28.

Draco Rosa’s Vida, the 2013 Latin Grammy Album of the year, was a personal as well as professional triumph. The album had been recorded with collaborators including Juan Luis Guerra and Ricky Martin after Rosa was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Rosa underwent a stem cell transplant. Upon the album’s release he was cancer free.

After a euphoric tour of concerts that were, literally, life-affirming for both the artist and his audience, the cancer had returned. Rosa went through another round of treatments, and moved his family and his recording studio to Hacienda Horizonte, the coffee plantation he owns in Puerto Rico.

Niessen, who is Nicaraguan and lives in Southern California, is known for her “cooking for cancer” classes. She worked with Rosa to change his own diet during his illness. Now the two “want to spread the word about plant-based nutrition as a fundamental weapon in the fight against illness in general and cancer in particular.”

The book outlines a healthy vegetarian diet and a plan for detoxing, and explains the nutritional and medicinal properties of specific plants.

“Having been attacked twice by cancer was a blessing and a new awakening,” Rosa said. “We found the way to healthy eating. We don’t pretend to be doctors, we just want to share what we learned, and the benefits that plant-based eating has given us.”