Travels from Florida, USA
Gloria Estefan's speaking fee falls within range: Over $75,000
Cuban-born American singer, songwriter, actress and entrepreneur, Gloria Estefan is best known for being the “Queen Of Latin Pop.” One of the top 100 best-selling artists with over 100 million albums sold worldwide, she has committed much of her talent and time to philanthropic acts and humanitarian causes.
Estefan’s family fled to Miami when Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the Miami Sound Machine. Her reputation and influence climbed to greater heights when she returned to the stage after an accident in her tour bus left her paralyzed for almost a year. The comeback was an astonishing triumph considering that medical experts claimed the crash should have left her paralyzed for life. Apart from intensive physical therapy, Estefan credits her miraculous recovery to the millions of prayers that fans around the world sent out to her.
Shortly afterwards Estefan and her husband founded the Gloria Estefan Foundation to help people with spinal cord injuries. Over the years the foundation has broadened to promote health, educational, and cultural programs to disadvantaged populations. She has been a lifetime advocate for a free Cuba and has received numerous awards for her humanitarian efforts, including the Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor, one of the country’s highest awards that can be given to a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Estefan’s recent projects include behind the scenes work on the Broadway musical “On Your Feet!” which tells the story of how she and her husband built their careers on faith, passion for music, and a dream. The play also calls attention to U.S. Cuban relations and immigration.
In addition to her five Grammys, Estefan has received a number of other prestigious awards. In 1992 Estefan was the first ever Latin female to receive the BMI Songwriter of the Year award, Bnai Brith honored her as Humanitarian of the Year, and she won the Premio Lo Nuestro Lifetime Achievement Award. In May, 1993 she received the Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor, which is one of this country’s highest awards that can be given to a citizen born outside the United States. She has won the Hispanic Heritage Award, an MTV Music Award, two cable television ACE awards and the 1993 National Music Foundation′s Humanitarian of the Year award. She has been honored twice by the Songwriters Hall of Fame: in 1996 she won the Hitmaker Award; and along with her husband, Emilio, won the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. In 2003, she was inducted into the Florida Women′s Hall of Fame. She was also the recipient of the American Music Award for Lifetime Achievement and has a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.
Estefan has also been honored for her humanitarian and philanthropic work. She was honored by President George H. W. Bush for her anti-drug efforts. The Alexis de Tocqueville Society awarded her the United Way Outstanding Philanthropy Award in 1993. She was Musicares Person of the Year in 1994. In 2002, she received the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Medallion of Excellence for Community Service. The City of Hope, one of her favorite charities, in 2004 presented her with the Spirit of Life Award in recognition of her contributions to the Hispanic community. Her hometown of Miami honored her, in 2004, with the Mayor′s Lifetime Achievement Award. Most recently she was presented with the American Spirit Award by the Pepperdine University Hispanic Council. She has also founded the Gloria Estefan Foundation aimed to reach those who struggle outside the safeguards of society by promoting good health, education, and cultural development.
Taking her passion for living and learning a step further, Estefan has recently been dedicated to the launch of her first children’s book, The Magically Mysterious Adventures of Noelle the Bulldog, to be published in both English and Spanish. The book centers around the life of an intrepid bulldog named Noelle who does not feel like she fits into the new and mythical land she now calls home. Having lifelong experience with issues of fitting in, discovering her own voice, keeping her integrity, and succeeding, she now writes about the value of individuality and the power of self-respect.
Estefan’s greatest pride is her family, Nayib and Emily Marie, and her marriage of 27 years with her husband Emilio Estefan. Through her magnetic persona and transcendent music, she hopes to continue inspiring fans from around the world to continue reaching “higher.”
Music legend Gloria Estefan speaks on the deep connections between music and spiritual well being. Estefan credits her own survival to music; as a child her father returned from fighting in the Vietnam War severely ill from exposure to Agent Orange and Estefan used music to comfort both her and her family’s spirits during his continued deterioration.
“Artists have the unique responsibility and privilege to influence other people in some way both in the positive and the negative,” Estefan observes. “And every time I would write a word to a song, I would imagine what kind of effect these words would have on the person who was listening.”
Pop sensation, Gloria Estefan’s range of expertise spans as widely as her fascinating career. Estefan speaks on a variety of topics key to her own life’s story including women’s empowerment, the need for political reform in Cuba, and the use of music to overcome challenges. In 2013 she raised awareness on the importance of freedom of religion and the power of the arts at the TED conference in Rome.
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