Miami, May 1 (IANS) Singer Enrique Iglesias says he is an artist who is guided by “instinct” and by what “really touches” people.
The Spanish singer won multiple honours at Billboard Latin Music Awards on Thursday evening. But, no matter how many awards he takes home from the gala, they are not the things he craves for.
“The awards are not so important to me. It’s the love of my fans, my public, going up onstage and being in front of them and hearing them sing the songs I’ve written. That’s what is really moving,” Efe quoted Iglesias as saying.
With more than 100 million copies of albums sold, the singer is currently immersed in his successful “Sex and Love” tour, with the album receiving a total of 19 nominations at the Billboard Awards.
He has been in the music industry for 20 years and his newest songs continue to have the same, or even more, success than the first ones he composed and recorded. His career has garnered him four Latino Grammys, two Billboard Awards, 27 Billboard Latin Music Awards and 10 World Music Awards, among many others.
Iglesias also seems to be very happy with the Enrique Iglesias Scholarship, which is provided to boys and girls with musical talent and ambition but with limited economic resources so that they can study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston.
“What motivates me most about the Enrique Iglesias Scholarship with the Latin Grammy Foundation is that a student who, probably, would not have had the chance to have an education at a school like Berklee, can get one,” he said.
The scholarship, which comes with a cash subsidy of $200,000, will allow Silviana Itzel Salinas, 22, to study for four years at Berklee, where singer-songwriter Juan Luis Guerra received his education, among others.
On his current stop here, Iglesias confessed that he feels a great affinity for the city, since – when he was very young – his parents, Julio Iglesias and Isabel Preisler, decided to move the family here.
Asked what his favourite place to live might be, he said: “Without a doubt, Miami. I love it.
“I came to live here at 8 and I got used to living here. I like the sea and it seems to me to be a city where you can relax, although I know that this sounds strange because everyone thinks about Miami as a city of partying and fun. But it can also be very calm, if you want, and you can escape to the sea.”