Gloria María Milagrosa Estefan (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈɡloɾja esˈtefan]; née Fajardo García; born September 1, 1957) is a Cuban-American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. Estefan is a five-time Grammy Award winner and a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, and has been named one of the Top 100 greatest artists of all time by both VH1 and Billboard. Estefan's record sales exceed 100 million worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
A contralto, Estefan started her career as lead singer of Miami Latin Boys, which was later renamed Miami Sound Machine. She and Miami Sound Machine earned worldwide success with their 1985 single "Conga", which became Estefan's signature song. The group followed this with a number of hit singles throughout the decade, including "Anything for You", "1-2-3", "Bad Boy", and "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You". The group was redubbed as Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine with the release of their 1987 album Let It Loose, and in 1989, Estefan rose to solo stardom with her debut solo album, Cuts Both Ways.
In March 1990, Estefan sustained a life-threatening cervical fracture of her spine when her tour bus was involved in a crash near Scranton, Pennsylvania. She underwent an emergency surgery and made a full recovery. The following year, Estefan launched her comeback with a worldwide tour and album, Into the Light. Estefan's 1993 Spanish-language album, Mi Tierra, won the first of her three Grammy Awards for Best Tropical Latin Album. The album was also the first Diamond album in Spain. Estefan's catalog of international solo hits includes "Don't Wanna Lose You", "Get On Your Feet", "Coming Out of the Dark", "Turn the Beat Around", "You'll Be Mine (Party Time)", and "Heaven's What I Feel".
Estefan has been awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Las Vegas Walk of Fame and was a Kennedy Center Honors recipient in 2017 for her contributions to American cultural life. Estefan won an MTV Video Music Award, was honored with the American Music Award for Lifetime Achievement and has been named BMI Songwriter of the Year. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and has received multiple Billboard Music Awards. She is also a recipient of the 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was conferred by the then-President of the United States, Barack Obama.
Billboard has listed Estefan as the second-most successful Latina and 23rd-greatest Latin artist of all time in the U.S., based on both Latin albums and Latin songs chart. Hailed as the "Queen of Latin Pop" and "Mother of Latin Pop" by the media, she has amassed 38 number-one hits across Billboard charts, including 15 chart-topping songs on the Hot Latin Songs chart.
Early life
Gloria Estefan was born Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García in Havana, Cuba on September 1, 1957 to parents José Fajardo (1933–1980) and Gloria García (1930–2017). Estefan's maternal grandparents were Spanish immigrants. Her maternal grandfather, Leonardo García, emigrated to Cuba from Pola de Siero, Asturias, Spain, where he married Gloria's grandmother, Consuelo Pérez, who was originally from Logroño, Spain. Consuelo's father Pantaleón Pérez served as the head chef to two Cuban presidents. Estefan's paternal side also had musical sensibilities, as the lineage had famous bandleader and flautist José Fajardo and a classical pianist.
Estefan's mother Gloria Fajardo, nicknamed "Big Gloria", won an international contest during her childhood and received a Hollywood offer to dub Shirley Temple's films in Spanish. However, Leonardo García did not permit his daughter to pursue the offer. Gloria Fajardo earned a Ph.D. in education in Cuba, but her diploma and other papers were destroyed by Cuban officials when she left for the United States.
Estefan's paternal grandparents were José Manuel Fajardo González and Amelia Montano. José Manuel was a Cuban soldier and a motor escort for the wife of Cuban president Fulgencio Batista, and Amelia Montano was a poet. As a result of the Cuban Revolution, the Fajardo family fled and settled in Miami, in 1959, and ran one of the first Cuban restaurants in the city. In 1961, Estefan's father José participated in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. He was captured by his cousin, who was a member of the Cuban army, and imprisoned in Cuba for nearly two years. On his return, he joined the United States military and fought in the Vietnam War.
After returning from the Vietnam War in 1968, Estefan's father became ill with multiple sclerosis, attributed to Agent Orange exposure that he suffered in Vietnam. Estefan helped her mother care for him and her younger sister Rebecca, nicknamed "Becky" (b. 1963), while her mother worked to support them. Gloria Fajardo first had to regain her teaching credentials, then worked as a schoolteacher for the Dade County Public School system. When Estefan was nine, she alleged that a music teacher hired to teach her guitar lessons sexually abused her. She alleged that the man told her that he would kill her mother if she told anyone about the abuse. Estefan told her mother, who alerted the police of the allegation; charges were not pressed because of the additional trauma she felt Estefan would undergo as a result of testifying against the perpetrator. When Estefan was 16, her father's illness led him to be hospitalized at a Veterans Administration medical facility.
Estefan became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1974 under the name Gloria Garcia Fajardo.
Education
Estefan was raised Roman Catholic and attended Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Miami, where she was a member of the National Honor Society.
Estefan attended the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, where she graduated in 1979 with a B.A. in psychology and a minor in French. While attending the University of Miami, Estefan also worked as an English, Spanish, and French translator at Miami International Airport's Customs Department and, because of her language abilities, says she was once approached by the CIA as a possible employee. In 1984, she was inducted into the Iron Arrow Honor Society, the highest honor bestowed by the University of Miami.
Career
1975–1988: Miami Sound Machine
In 1975, Estefan and her cousin Mercedes "Merci" Navarro (1957–2007) met Emilio Estefan, Jr. while performing at a church ensemble rehearsal. Emilio, who had formed the band the Miami Latin Boys earlier in that year, learned about Estefan through a mutual acquaintance. While the Miami Latin Boys were performing at a Cuban wedding at the Dupont Plaza Hotel, Estefan and Navarro, who were wedding guests, performed two Cuban standards impromptu. They impressed the Miami Latin Boys so much that they were invited to join the band permanently with the band's name changing to Miami Sound Machine. Estefan, who was attending the University of Miami at the time, agreed to perform only on weekends so that her studies would not be interrupted.
In 1977, Miami Sound Machine began recording and releasing various albums and 45s on the Audiofon Records label in Miami. Their first album was titled Live Again/Renacer (1977). After several more releases on the Audiofon, RCA Victor, and MSM Records labels, the band was signed to Discos CBS International and released several albums beginning with the 1978 self-titled album Miami Sound Machine. In 1978, Gloria married Emilio Estefan Jr. after two years of dating. Growing in popularity in both the U.S. and around the world, the group continued recording and issuing various works for Discos CBS International through 1985.
In 1984, Miami Sound Machine released their first Epic/Columbia album, Eyes of Innocence, which included the dance hit "Dr. Beat" and the ballad "I Need Your Love". Their more successful follow-up album Primitive Love was released in 1985, and contained three Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: "Conga" (U.S. No. 10), "Words Get in the Way" (U.S. No. 5), and "Bad Boy" (U.S…