Gloria Estefan is getting the Next Chapter treatment…
The 55-year-old Cuban singer-songwriter will take a seat next to Oprah Winfrey for an in-depth interview.
Estefan will not only discuss her extraordinary career, a remarkable life that she’s developing into a Broadway show with husband Emilio Estefan; she’s also set to talk about the many musical paths she’s helped pave for other stars.
The seven-time Grammy winner is the latest musician to join Winfrey on her OWN show Oprah’s Next Chapter, following high profile chats with the likes of Justin Bieber, Usher, Rihanna and Fergie.
In the episode airing on August 4 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, Estefan talks about how she guided the careers of Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony and Shakira, among others. In one part, Estefan tells Oprah how she fought label execs to release Shakira’s first English-language album, a record that went on establish the Colombian singer as a global star.
“They wanted her just to throw a couple of songs in English on a Latin record and I fought hard. I said, ‘Listen. This is her shot. You can’t do it halfway, you know’?” Estefan says. “An American audience is not gonna get a record that’s mostly Spanish because there’s a couple of English cuts on it. They’re gonna want to hear the whole thing. This is gonna work. I fought hard for her. Fought hard. And she sold like 13 million of that album.”
Estefan and Oprah sit down for a Cuban-style lunch at the singer’s home in Vero Beach, Florida, where they chat about Estefan’s upbringing as a Cuban exile, her rise into the mainstream, and that shocking bus crash in the 1990s that almost left her paralyzed.
Estefan, the Latin music industry’s premier female artist, has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide. She’s also in charge of a string of enterprises and a minor stake in the Miami Dolphins NFL team.
