Julio Iglesias today enlarged his legend by receiving an honorary Grammy in recognition of his successful career at a gala organized in Los Angeles by the Recording Academy.
The Spanish singer, one of the most successful and influential Latin artists in history, could not attend the event, but sent a video to thank for the Lifetime Achievement Award, a distinction that pays homage to performers who have made contributions of great importance in the music.
“I would love to be there, and thank you very much to all the members of the Recording Academy for this beautiful gift,” Iglesias said in his message.
“I was not born to be a musician, I was born to play football (…) And suddenly, I had a terrible accident and I was almost paraplegic, so they gave me a guitar and that guitar changed my life completely,” he said. at the beginning of his artistic career in the decade of the 60s.
“For those people who have had such tragic situations in life, never give up: life is always an opportunity,” he said.
The Puerto Rican tenor Fernando Varela was in charge of representing Iglesias’ work on stage today, interpreting with great emotion the songs “Bésame mucho” and “Caruso”.
In an interview with Efe last December, when it was announced that he would receive this special recognition, the most universal Spanish singer said that he remains a “guerrilla of life from beginning to end” and that this award is a “great stimulus” for his career.
“It is the last thing that awaited me, it is a prize that honors me very much and I want to receive it, without false modesty, because it is an indelible memory in my life,” he said.
Churches was one of the chosen ones this year by the Recording Academy for their honorary awards, which today also recognized other emblematic artists such as Black Sabbath, George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, Billy Eckstine, Donny Hathaway, Sam & Dave and Dionne Warwick. .
Under the title “Tribute of the Grammy to musical legends”, the event held tonight is not an act especially media or publicized by the Recording Academy, since it is, technically, a television recording, since the PBS chain organized and recorded in detail the evening to broadcast it in a few months in a special program.
The ceremony, however, took place in one of the most famous and glamorous venues in Los Angeles: the Dolby Theater, the theater where the Oscars are held every year.
Not far from the Dolby Theater is the star that Julio Iglesias has with his name on the Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, a shining example of the many that adorn the splendid curriculum of this myth of the Hispanic song.
More than 350 million albums sold in fourteen languages ​​during half a century of career reflect the worldwide phenomenon of a singer who in 2018 celebrated his 75th birthday.
Iglesias is the third Spanish to receive the honorary Grammy for an entire career after the guitarist Andrés Segovia and the cellist Pau Casals.
In addition, Iglesias joined a select list of Latino artists who won the Lifetime Achievement Award, including Celia Cruz, Antônio Carlos Jobim and Armando Manzanero.
All these names are listed in the prize list of a very exclusive award from the Recording Academy that can almost sum up the history of music in the 20th century, since among its honorees are The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra or Maria Callas.
