The 32-year-old Cuban professional baseball shortstop has agreed to a one-year contract with the Colorado Rockies, according to The Associated Press.
Iglesias, who is represented by MVP Sorts Group, will earn $5 million.
Bringing in Iglesias all but shuts the door on a return of free-agent shortstop Trevor Story, who is set to become the latest big-name player to exit the Rockies.
Before the 2021 season, the team traded perennial All-Star and Gold Glove third baseman Nolan Arenado to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Story turned in a 24-homer, 20-steal season in ’21 as the Rockies missed the playoffs for a third straight year.
Iglesias batted .271 last season over 114 games with the Los Angeles Angels and 23 with the Boston Red Sox. He was an MLB All-Star in 2015 while a member of the Detroit Tigers.
Iglesias, who made his debut in Major League Baseball in 2011, has also played with the Cincinnati Reds and Baltimore Orioles during his 10-year-career.
Jose Feliciano is making chart history with his holiday classic…
The 75-year-old Puerto Rican musician, singer and composer’s “Feliz Navidad” moves up from No. 16 to No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100songs chart, dated December 19, hitting the top 10 for the first time, 50 years after its original 1970 release. It previously reached No. 12 last holiday season.
The holiday classic sports gains of 6% to 23 million in radio airplay audience, 15% to 18.5 million U.S. streams and 34% to 3,000 sold, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data.
Feliciano adds his second Hot 100 top 10, after his debut entry, his cover of The Doors‘ “Light My Fire,” hit No. 3 in August 1968. (The Doors‘ original ruled for three weeks in the summer of 1967.) He has charted 11 total Hot 100 entries, as well as 16 titles, including eight top 10s, on the Hot Latin Songs chart.
The legendary singer, songwriter and guitarist is celebrating the 50th anniversary of “Feliz Navidad” this year. He performed on NBC‘s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallonand CBS Sunday Morninglast week and, among other festivities, has a livestream scheduled for December 20.
Juanes is supporting the Latin industry’s next musical prodigy…
The Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation has revealed that the 48-year-old Colombian musician and singer-songwriter is set to finance the next four-year Prodigy Scholarship that will fully fund a student’s bachelor’s degree in music at Berklee School of Music starting in the Fall 2021.
“When the Latin Recording Academy reached out with this opportunity, I felt great joy,” said Juanes. “It took me back to when I was just getting out of high school and I was obsessed with music but I didn’t have the money to study music. Actually, studying music wasn’t even a thing and back then, I didn’t really think studying music would do anything for my future. But now I understand the importance of a music education and that’s why it’s so beautiful to be able to give back.”
The scholarship, created six years ago, holds a maximum value of $200,000 and the application period will be open from December 14 through April 10, 2021. It’s traditionally awarded to an outstanding music student between the ages of 17-24, who demonstrate a passion for Latin music but face severe financial hardships while pursuing a college education.
“This next musical prodigy should be exceptional and I don’t mean that they have to extremely virtuoso but they should have special something,” Juanes adds. “But most importantly they have to love music and be passionate about the craft. Whether you’re studying, practicing, wiring songs, you have to be dedicated 100 percent.”
In addition to the Juanes scholarship there will be 43 other scholarships; three Gifted Tuition scholarships and and 40 Tuition Assistance scholarships for music students admitted to universities of their choice.
In previous years, the Prodigy Scholarship has been co-sponsored by Latin stars including Enrique Iglesias, Juan Luis Guerra, Miguel Bosé, Carlos Vives, Emilio and Gloria Estefan, and Julio Iglesias.
The 27-year-old Brazilian singer has been added to the list of performers set to take the stage at this year’s Latin Grammys, according to the Latin Recording Academy.
Anitta appears on the final star-studded list of performers that includes Rauw Alejandro, J Balvin, Camilo, Lupita Infante, Juanes, Mariachi Sol De México De José Hernández, Ricky Martin, Natalia, Jimenez, José Luis Perales, Prince Royce, and Carla Morrison.
Those artists join previously-announced performers Anuel AA, Marc Anthony, Bad Bunny, Calibre 50, Pedro Capó, Julio Reyes Copello, Alex Cuba, Alejandro Fernández, Karol G, Kany García, Guaynaa, Los Tigres del Norte, Víctor Manuelle, Ricardo Montaner, Christian Nodal, Debi Nova, Fito Páez, Nathy Peluso, Raquel Sofía and Sebastián Yatra.
The 21st annual ceremony, led by 13-time nominee J Balvin, will also celebrate several Latin music icons, with special tributes including Julio Iglesias, Pedro Infante, Juan Luis Guerra, Roberto Carlos, and Héctor Lavoe.
Returning with a “music makes us human” theme that highlights musical excellence and the power of music in times of despair, the event will also showcase diverse stories of hope, community, sense of purpose, and celebration.
Hosted by Carlos Rivera, the 2020 Latin Grammys will air at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on Thursday, November 19, via Univision.
The star-studded event will be preceded by the one-hour pre-show Noche de Estrellas, held virtually in Miami, where the majority of the categories will be awarded.
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. La Biografía, will 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.”
Carlos Marin has his first No. 1 on the Latin charts…
The 47-year-old Spanish baritone and his fellow members of the classical crossover quartet Il Divo have earned their first showing on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart as Amor & Pasiondebutsat the top of the chart (dated Dec. 5), selling 5,000 copies in the week ending Nov. 19, according to Nielsen Music.
The 12-track Spanish-language set strays from the majority of Il Divo’s albums, which are performed predominantly in Italian and English.
Over on the Top Classical Albums chart, Amor & Pasion enters at No. 5 — the group’s 10th top 10. Overall, Il Divo has seven No. 1s on the list with its debut self-titled album spending 29 weeks at the top in 2005.
Amor & Pasionincludes classical versions of some well-known Latin tracks including “Don’t Wanna Lose You,” originally written and performed by Gloria Estefan. The group also interprets Julio Iglesias’ “Abrazame,” his 1975 hit from the album El Amor.Versions of Consuelo Velazquez’s “Besame Mucho” and Carlos Gardel’s “Volver” also form part of the track list.
Julio Iglesias is celebrating Mexico in a special way…
The 71-year-old Spanish singer-songwriter, the most successful Latin singer of all time, is planning to release a new album, Mexico – Julio Iglesias, in which he’ll interpret 12 standards from the country’s golden-era songbook.
For his first single, Iglesias offers up “Fallaste Corazón,” by the prolific Mexican songwriter Cuco Sánchez. It’s a song many icons like Rocio Durcal and Pedro Infante have interpreted.
Iglesias’ forthcoming album, due September 18, is his first Spanish-language recording in 12 years. The singer first performed in Mexico in the ‘70s, conquering the largest Spanish-speaking market and then going on to sell more than 300 million records worldwide by recording in as many as 12 languages. But, Mexico still holds a special place in his heart. In fact, this is his second tribute album to a country that was instrumental to his career, the first of which came in 1976.
“Mexico is a country that I love dearly,” said Iglesias in a statement. “The Mexican people have given me many indelible moments in my life. I know this country as if it was my homeland, and I always carry it in my soul. This record is dedicated to the outstanding composers who, generation after generation, filled our lives with love, nostalgia, memories and moments. After all these years, they remain alive in our souls.”
Roberto Carlos is a person of major interest this year…
The 74-year-old Brazilian singer and composer will be honored as the 2015 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year.
Carlos, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Billboard Latin Music Awards in April and is celebrating five decades of recording in Spanish, is the top-selling Brazilian and Latin American act of all time.
He’ll be honored the eve of the Latin Grammys at a star-studded tribute concert Wednesday, November18, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. Proceeds from the gala will benefit the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation.
Born in in the Southern municipality of Cachoeiro de Itapemirim to a watchmaker and a seamstress, Carlos began singing and taking music lessons at an early age. At 17, he moved to Rio de Janeiro and began singing nightly in clubs, devoting himself to the rock n’ roll of the day. By the early 1960s, signed to Columbia and aided by the TV show and musical movement Jovem Guarda (Young Guard), Carlos became a teen idol and began writing with his childhood friend and former bandmate Erasmo Carlos, still his main writing partner to this day. Instead of opting for bossa nova, the sophisticated Brazilian export for which his smooth, entreating voice is particularly well-suited for, they went for romantic pop, penning some of the most enduring compositions in the Latin American songbook. Translated to Spanish and married to the subtle beauty of Carlos’ voice, they became anthems for generations of listeners to this day.
Calos recently recorded his latest album — Roberto Carlos – Primera Fila— at London’s Abbey Road Studios. The set will be released later this year.
Previous recipients of the Recording Academy Person of the Year honor include Miguel Bosé, Plácido Domingo, Gloria Estefan, Vicente Fernández, Juan Luis Guerra, Carlos Santana, Joan Manuel Serrat, Shakira, Julio Iglesias and Caetano Veloso, among others.
It’s one degree of appreciation for Julio Iglesias…
The 71-year-old Spanish singer-songwriter, one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time, will receive an honorary doctor of music degree from Berklee College of Music at the prestigious school’s commencement ceremony next month.
The recognition comes for Iglesias’ achievements and influences in music and for his enduring contributions to American and international culture, according to a press release.
Iglesias, a Grammy winner, has sold more than 300 million records worldwide in 14 languages and released more than 80 albums, with more than 2,600 gold and platinum records certified.
In April 2013, he was inducted into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Other honorees this year include Sony Music Entertainment CEO Doug Morris, jazz drummer Harvey Mason and singer-songwriter Dee Dee Bridgewater.
Past honorary degree recipients include Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, Smokey Robinson, Steven Tyler, Loretta Lynn, David Bowie and Duke Ellington, who was the first to receive this honor in 1971.
The ceremony will be held May 9 at the campus’ Agganis Arena.
Per Berklee’s tradition, on the eve of the commencement ceremony on May 8, students will pay tribute to the honorees by performing music associated with their careers at Agganis Arena. The concert and ceremony are not open to the public.
Gloria Estefan’s name is being added to the annals of Latin music history…
The 56-year-old Cuban singer-songwriter and seven-time Grammy Award winner has been named as a Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee.
Estefan, one of the top 100 best selling music artists with an estimated 100 million records sold worldwide, rose to acclaim as the lead singer of the Miami Sound Machine.
But the “Conga” singer, the female artist with most No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart, earned critical acclaim for penning some of her biggest solo hits in English and Spanish, including “Cuts Both Ways,” “Always Tomorrow,” “Coming Out of the Dark,” “No Llores” and “Oye Mi Canto (Hear My Voice).”
Estefan also co-wrote Shakira’s hit single “Whenever, Wherever” with the Colombian superstar and Tim Mitchell and co-wrote Jennifer Lopez’s signature song “Let’s Get Loud.”
In addition to Estefan, Ricardo Arjona, Juan Luis Guerra, Panamanian composer Omar Alfanno, Spanish pop songwriter Rafael Pérez Botija and Mexican singer/songwriter Lolita de la Colina will also be honored at this year’s induction ceremony — known as La Musa Awards — taking place on October 18 at Miami Beach’s Ritz Carlton hotel.
The Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame debuted in 2013 with a black tie gala honoring well-known Latin music figures including Jose Feliciano, Julio Iglesias and composer Armando Manzanero.
Founded by songwriters and producers Desmond Child and Rudy Perez, the goal of the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame is to “honor the world’s greatest Latin songwriters and their music in every genre.”
Iglesias, who is represented by MVP Sorts Group, will earn $5 million.
