I am a scoundrel, I am a gentleman: the biography that undresses Julio Iglesias between drugs, women and success

It was a complete surprise. When Julio Iglesias left Barajas airport in Madrid in mid-1978, his wife Isabelle Preysler I was expecting it. The wife was not happy to see her husband. After the singer’s tours, he had found girls’ phone numbers on their clothes several times, but this time it was worse. The soloist came from Buenos Aires, where Preysler’s contacts informed him that his partner had a relationship with actress Graciela Alfano who, in turn, was the lover of Emilio Massera, a member of the Argentine military junta. . Before greeting him, the woman demanded that Iglesias not go home and that she wanted a divorce.

It was the first slip-up in the artist’s, to date, immaculate career. . Since its triumph at the Benidorm festival in 1968 with the theme Life goes on, Iglesias was synonymous with success. The year after his first hit, the production company Dipenfa, linked to Opus Dei, brought his story to the cinema. The soloist had all the characteristics of the good youth that Francoism wanted to export. A young man who, after a car accident, had been bedridden for several months in a hospital. Then, a nurse who gives him a guitar to kill time and, later, the creation of the song that made him famous in Spain and the massive popularity of two million people in his country who watch his biographical film and, of course, become an idol. teenage girls and mothers.

“He is a pioneer in personal branding and like any entertainment star, is a brand that has built a heroic story of itself. . He was a goalkeeper in Madrid’s lower divisions, but he wasn’t going to be a star, even though the film said he would make his first-team debut. He had an accident, but what brought him down were other health issues. This was said even by his father in his memoirs. These are half-truths, exaggerations. He builds a more than true credible story and builds a hero”, points out via zoom Hans Laguna, author of Hey! Julio Iglesias and the conquest of America -available in Chile-, a wonderful and exhaustive book that mainly analyzes the period between the end of the 60s and its worldwide success in the 80s.

Although the passage of time has diminished the popularity of Julio Iglesias, his number is unquestionable. He is the only Latin artist to have sold 250 million records. . By the 1980s, he was the leading – and highest-paid – face of Coca Cola worldwide, overtaking Michael Jackson who featured in Pepsi. His best friends in that decade were Kirk Douglas, Frank Sinatra – one of his three idols along with Nat King Cole and Elvis Presley – and he had admirers, for example, Nancy Reagan. He was the first artist from South America to summon, according to the book, one hundred thousand people to a show at the National Stadium in Chile in 1977. And, of course, he accumulated a record never denied by him: he would have slept with three thousand women. “These stories about the three thousand women being part of the press in Spain don’t take it seriously. I was always on the covers of the magazine Hi more than in newspaper music reviews. All this conditioned his reception in the people, who looked at him with prejudices. He never denied it and played with this dialectic between the victor and the humble. Something very Madrid,” says Laguna.

The sociologist never interviewed Iglesias – “it was not positive for the book that his testimony appeared”, he said – and sought to give greater importance to his figure. “It’s a cultural icon with many meanings,” Add. Regarding his desire to achieve world fame, the author assures that it is because in his childhood he had an excessive need for affection because his parents did not get along and he sought to please them. In music, he said, he wanted to win applause and stand out. “His drug he was addicted to was success, flashes, lights. He became addicted to other people’s gaze and love. In Miami, where he settled in 1978 and took his mother to cook his favorite meals for him, he walked around the airport to see if they recognized him. Latinas knew him, but Americans didn’t know who he was. He was a narcissist, because he liked to be flattered and he did that when he got so big in America.”

-One of the topics covered by the book is Julio Iglesias’ relationship with drugs. There were periods in the mid-80s when he played almost a concert every other day, appeared in magazines and on television and always looked good. Did he take drugs to stay like that?

-It’s a delicate subject and, at first glance, you might think it had something to do with cocaine. Julio must have been very focused, he may have flirted with drugs, but he never got carried away with them and he didn’t lose control. In the book, I write about spending a few days in Ibiza and staying with his entourage in the same hotel where Freddy Mercury celebrated his 41st birthday with a great party and lots of drugs, but Julio isn’t very interested. His end was his career. To be the best.

-What is the role of Julio Iglesias as a pioneer of Latino artists in the United States in the success of current stars like Bad Bunny and Rosalía?

-It’s a big influence, even if it’s not explicit. Ricky Martin, Shakira, Enrique Iglesias in the 90s cannot be understood without Julio Iglesias. He opened doors. Unlike Bad Bunny who only sings in Spanish, Julio had to make records in English without mastering the language. There was a tremendous and monumental work. Rosalía sings in one of her songs –Chicken Teriyaki- “like Julio in the 70s”, talking about power as a symbol of ostentation. Maluma took a photo mimicking Julio’s in the private jet. He is the embodiment of the Latino who has reached the top”.

At almost eighty years -which will be in September-, Julio Iglesias does not lose his validity. The documentary aired last February. Julio Iglesias, Life and workfrom Frenchwoman Anne-Solen Douguet, who delves into political events like her presentation at the National Stadium in 1977 to her support at a political rally for José María Aznar in 1996. “He took advantage of the freedoms that Francoism gave him in his early days, which was not the same as the rest of the artists . I know from several sources that Julio intervened before the regime in front of one or two opposition artists, ”says the director.

The documentary talks about the competition he had with his sons who wanted to dedicate themselves to music -Enrique and Julio- as well as the little closeness he had with his daughter Chabeli, who on several occasions found in her bedroom of her father’s casual lovers intimate clothes in Miami.

Douguet did not interview Iglesias, but he interviewed dozens of people who knew him and the comment was unanimous: no one ever said anything bad about him. “They say he is an intelligent and charming man. That if you spend an hour with him, he can be your best friend.

Although his appearances are increasingly sporadic and there is much speculation that his health is deteriorating, Iglesias admitted on his social media in March that he was perfectly fine and did not consider no going back on stage. “I read everywhere that I am in a wheelchair , with my mind lost and I can’t even remember my songs. How mean,” he wrote.

These days he would prepare his autobiography to be published, if possible, sometime in 2024 or 2025. There, he said, he will tell his whole life in detail. According to his Instagram, one of his latest interests is worrying about his ex-wife, Isabel Preysler, after her relationship with Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa ended. True to his style, he defended the mother of his children. “Isabel is exceptional, a true champion. The behavior of Mr. Vargas Llosa leaves a lot to be desired” said.