Gloria Estefan

Gloria Estefan Profile

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.

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  Gloria Estefan is a seven-time Grammy award-winning singer, actress, songwriter, author of two New York Times best-selling children’s books, philanthropist and humanitarian. She is considered one of the world’s most recognizable and beloved performers and one of the most successful crossover artists in Latin music history, having received recognition for her achievements as an international superstar in both the Latin and non-Hispanic entertainment industries.

  Gloria Estefan has achieved worldwide sales of over 100 million records over the course of her legendary career, and 38 #1 hits across the Billboard charts. Her iconic hits, which include “Conga,” “Turn The Beat Around,” “Get On Your Feet” and Spanish-language chart-toppers “Con Los Años Que Me Quedan” and “Mi Tierra,” have made an indelible impression on generations of music fans. From her previous album, Miss Little Havana (2011), “Hotel Nacional” made Gloria the first female artist to debut a song at #1 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart.

  The expansive, multilingual, 2013 Grammy-nominated The Standards is produced by Gloria herself. She personally selected songs with a deep connection to her life, including “The Way You Look Tonight” and “Good Morning Heartache.” She also wrote “The Day You Say You Love Me,” a moving English version of the Carlos Gardel tango classic “El Día Que Me Quieras.”

  In late 2015, the jukebox musical On Your Feet! which follows the lives and music of Gloria and her husband Emilio premiered on Broadway. The show opened on November 5, 2015 at the Marquis Theatre.

  Gloria along with Emilio, are successful entrepreneurs owning and operating several business, which include a globally recognized music publishing company, a hospitality division that includes various restaurants (Bongos Cuban Café a Cuban-themed restaurant in Downtown Miami, South Beach, Downtown Disney Orlando and in Hollywood at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino) and two hotels (the Cardozo Hotel on South Beach and Costa d’este Beach Resort in Vero Beach).  The Estefans are also the first Latin couple to own a minority share in the Miami Dolphins.

  Gloria sits on the Board of Trustees for the University of Miami. She has received countless achievements; including her Oscar-nominated song “Music of My Heart,” a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and an American Music Award for Lifetime Achievement, an induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, an Ellis Island Medal of Honor, a Humanitarian Award from the St. Jude Hospital for Children, a National Artistic Achievement Award from the U.S. Congress, a Presidential appointment as a public member of the U.S. delegation to the 47th General Assembly of the United Nations, among others. Most recently, she and Emilio were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Obama.

  She is also the founder of the Gloria Estefan Foundation whose mission is to support charitable programs for disadvantaged children and empower young people through education and opportunity.  The Foundation also supports spinal cord research and is an open-door Foundation accessible to individual cases of hardship.

  Gloria Estefan holds a B.A. in Psychology, with a minor in French, from the University of Miami. She has been awarded with Honorary Doctoral degrees in Music from the Berklee College of Music in Boston and the University of Miami along with an Honorary Law Degree from Barry University.