| 1 | 1 | | Gloria Estefan is looking very relaxed. She rushes into her living room at London's |
| 2 | | Mayfair Hotel, hair dripping from a shower taken after a run in Hyde Park. 'This isn't |
| 3 | | like working,' she says with a smile. 'I love going to other countries and talking to |
| 4 | | people.' |
| 2 | 5 | | She's just finished a very heavy tour, which totalled 200 concerts across the United |
| 6 | | States, South America and Asia following the success of the Let It Loose LP. The album |
| 7 | | spent a marathon 75 weeks in the US hit parades, going double platinum in the process, |
| 8 | | and sold over three million copies world-wide. |
| 3 | 9 | | This is just thirty years after little Gloria's family left the Central American island |
| 10 | | of Cuba, when Gloria was just one year old. She grew up in the Spanish-speaking |
| 11 | | community in Miami, Florida. Isn't it difficult to decide which language to sing in when |
| 12 | | you're combining a Latin3) background with American pop? |
| 4 | 13 | | 'My first language is Spanish, but my best language is English,' says Gloria. 'We |
| 14 | | spoke Spanish at home but I never learned the grammar because I did all my schooling |
| 15 | | in English - it's the easier language. But when we quarrel it's in Spanish because there's |
| 16 | | so much more you can do. It's a romance language. That's why the love songs are always |
| 17 | | much stronger in Spanish. |
| 5 | 18 | | But the best-sellers, even in Latin America, have been the English language albums. |
| 19 | | Rock dominates the hit parades there and rock in Spanish doesn't work. Of course we |
| 20 | | record in Spanish for Latin America, but basically we record the material we like and put |
| 21 | | it out. |
| 6 | 22 | | There are some things which are very beautiful in Spanish - the love songs |
| 23 | | especially. I never translate them, but completely rewrite them in the other language. |
| 24 | | That's why the material works well in both languages.' |
| 7 | 25 | | The Latin side to the music of Miami Sound Machine is what made them famous |
| 26 | | and, despite their huge success in the US and Europe, Latin America still offers the most |
| 27 | | fanatical support. But with the political problems in many of the countries, playing live |
| 28 | | can be a discouraging business. 'We played in Peru and it was a wonderful experience |
| 29 | | because we had a crowd of 60,000 people,' says Gloria. 'But we suddenly had to stop |
| 30 | | because a terrorist group shut off the lights by blowing up a local power station. They |
| 31 | | had to get 60,000 people out by torch-light. It is starting to get impossible.' |
| 8 | 32 | | Gloria is very American - there's no hint of a Latin accent and much of the music |
| 33 | | now shows American rather than Latin influences. However, many of the Latin countries |
| 34 | | she has played in hold strong anti-American feelings. How does she deal with this? |
| 9 | 35 | | 'I love the United States and it's sad that those sentiments exist,' she says. 'I |
| 36 | | approach the US differently because I'm not originally from the US. You're probably |
| 37 | | going to get more pro-US comments from us immigrants because it's been very good to |
| 38 | | us. We chose to live in this country. Americans themselves take it for granted.' |
| | | |
| | | based on an article by Simon Hills in 'Sky', February 1989 |
noot 3: Latin = (hier) Latijns-Amerikaans, dat wil zeggen Zuid- en Middenamerikaans
