Interview Gloria

INTERVIEW: GLORIA ESTEFAN



1. I recently found out that you and Emilio own your entire music catalog. Knowing this, I have to ask... Any chance of albums like 'Let It Loose' being re-released with the original 12" mixes added as bonus tracks?

GLORIA: Although we own entire music publishing catalog, Sony still owns all the Masters starting with “Primitive Love” so only they could rerelease with the original 12” mixes added in.



2. You and Emilio have been married for 30+ years. How did you do it? When I heard that Jlo & Marc Anthony split I was like... No Way. Seems most Hollywood marriages dont work. What's your secret?

GLORIA: I wish there was an actual “secret” I could share as to why Emilio and I have had such a long and happy marriage but there isn’t one thing that I can point to. We married young before all the craziness of the fame happened and we were very deeply in love. I feel that our union was destined somehow because marriage was the farthest thing from my plans. I had been accepted at the Sorbonne in France and was ready to go to graduate school there but our relationship grew steadily and when he asked me to marry him in 1978 there was no doubt in my mind that he was “the one”. We balance each other personality-wise because we’re very different but in the things that are most important in life, values, priorities, business decisions, etc., we rarely differ. He also makes me laugh all the time which I think is beautiful!



3. How did you come up with the idea for a song like 'Wepa'? Its so original

GLORIA: I stepped out of the studio for 2 hours to work on something with Natalia Jimenez, an amazing Spanish artist, and when I came back, Emilio & Pharrell had already written Wepa. It’s supposed to be a nuclear meringue that celebrates all the street festivals world-wide where people are dancing in the streets. We even put in a drunken trombone guy…lol! It’s meant to make you MOVE!!! It also celebrates the contributions of the “oprimidos” (the oppressed) who put so much love into the world with their hard work. Music is for everyone regardless of social status or income. We’re all the same on the dance floor.




4. I heard you say that you wont be doing a tour to support the new album. It makes me sad as I have never seen you in concert and I thought I would finally get my chance. Is that a solid decision or could things change? Would love to see you live.
GLORIA: My worldwide tour days are over but I will always do things here and there live, in concert, so I can reconnect with my fans. Hopefully it will be somewhere not too far from you.




5. Your trademark song 'Conga' celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. How do you feel looking back to the early days of when 'Conga' sky rocketed? Did you think you would be known as this huge international pop icon that you have become? Did you think 'Conga' would still be as hot now as it was then?

GLORIA: I always felt that I would end up doing something different but since I didn’t like being the center of attention, I never imagined reaching the level of fame that we achieved. But once I joined the band and we started writing and performing our music, both Emilio and I were sure that if we stuck to our guns, things would happen the way we’d envisioned. When we wrote “Conga” I had no doubt that all kinds of people would love it, we just had to convince the record company and the radio stations that said their audiences wouldn’t understand it. We would try to get radio to just play it once and when they did, the phones would explode in requests. It took a full year before “Conga” reached its peak but here we are 25 years later and it still gets played on radio every day all over the world.




6. The Music Industry has changed so much over the years but also has the way of promoting music releases. You have been constantly promoting and networking with your fans via social sites like Twitter & Facebook and I have to say WOW. Never in my life have I been able to follow one of my favorite singers with the process of recording and releasing an album. It was quite the experience. Your Tweets, Videos, Pics and Contests are amazing! I'm surprised not more artists are doing this. You are very smart Gloria. How did you discover Twitter? And what was the experience like from your end through the enitre MLH process?

GLORIA: I had been observing the Twitter and Facebook phenomenon for quite some time because one of my majors in college was Communications. I found it fascinating and knew it was changing the way the world communicated but also saw that once you start that relationship, there’s no going back and I had very little free time. Pharrell was actually the one that put the bug in my ear and I thought that if I was going to do this then I had to be able to share something special with the fans. That’s why I began very slowly before we got into the studio. I still haven’t incorporated all the ideas I have into my FB and Twitter but it’s exciting to me to have the ability to communicate directly with my fans. Hopefully there will be much more to come!




7. I wanted to ask if one day, will your entire music video collection be available on DVD?

GLORIA: It would be great if one day my entire video collection is on DVD but, again, Sony has the rights to most of my videos so it’s up to them.




8. There are many amazing and talented artists out there today. if you were to collaborate with any, who would you choose and why>?

GLORIA: I’ve always learned something new with each collaboration and I’m open to pretty much anything that piques my interest. There’s no one specific that I can name but I’m always willing to work with different artists. It is, however, a pretty intimate thing to write and record music with someone so you definitely need to click if the product is going to be worthwhile.



9. Looking Back - Any Regrets?

GLORIA: I have absolutely no regrets other than I wish I could have been able to be much more expressive with my Grandmother who was my hero. I know she could feel how much I loved her but I wish I could have been able to better express it with words.



10. The albums title track 'Miss Little Havana' has an 80s inspired feel to it. Was that beat sampled from somewhere or was it created to just feel so perfect as if it were from the 80s?

GLORIA: The freestyle beat on “Miss Little Havana” (the song) was not sampled. We were celebrating and remembering a hot beat that was huge in Miami, New York and L.A. back in the 80’s but wanted to make sure it was current and fresh. Both Pharrell and I are big fans of freestyle.

From http://80sinyourface.blogspot.com/