INTO THE LIGHT

Gloria Estefan

„To me it was a celebration, and I wanted to do everything
 I’ve always wanted to do on stage.“

For two weekends in March, 1991, the city of Miami celebrated. Gloria Estefan was returning to the stage for the first time in almost a year, after an accident that could have ended her career. Friends and fans filled the Miami Arena to welcome her home and launch her and The Miami Sound Machine’s “Into the Light” tour of Europe.

Fortunately, the cameras were rolling. Gloria Estefan: Going Home presents an intimate portrait of the artist behind the music, combining concert footage with glimpses backstage, exclusive interviews, and moments at home with Gloria and her husband, Miami Sound Machine leader Emilio Estefan.

When Gloria Estefan first takes the stage to a cheering home town crowd, watch her face. You see real emotion there, and you hear it in the crowd’s ovation. Of that first night Gloria says, “It was a blur. There ws such a euphoric feeling that it went by in two seconds. It was a special night, a feeling of unity most definitely. I was looking forward to performing because I knew there was a lof of speculation about how well I could move. I was sure I would be OK.”

The live concert footage leaves no doubt about her recovery – you’d certainly never guess that the singer who is dancing all over the stage has two small metal rods in her back. From the opening numbers in Miami to footage from concert halls throughout Europe, Gloria Estefan: Going Home proves that she is as full of enthusiasm and energy as ever.

Nearly everybody in The Miami Sound Machine dances, with or without instruments, and no one is more active than Gloria. “To me it was a celebration, and I wanted to do everything I’ve always wanted to do on stage. We have wonderful lights, and projections, and for the first time we had background vocalists and dancers. Our choreographer, Liz Imperio, did a huge call in Hollywood – from 250 dancers she chose four great onces. The show was a lot of fun for me.”

But fun can be hard work, and the Going Home special looks behind the scenes at the long hours spent preparing such a complex show, the largest in The Miami Sound Machine’s history. First the band rehearsed the songs and choreography for two months; then came the technical rehearsal, weeks of them, to coordinate the computerized light show and chase all the bugs out of several tons of sound gear. All this was under the direction of Gloria’s husband, Emilio Estefan. From the earliest days he has led the band, produced the albums, and arranged the tours.

It is no surprise that Emilio is also one of the producers of the Going Home special, and one of his goals is to make it, well, special: “This was a very emotional show, because of Gloria’s coming back. This is the first time we’ve shown our home life and the way we ive, which we wanted to share with our fans.”

Gloria says that she wrote some of the songs for the band’s latest album, Into the Light, while she was recuperating. “Everything that you live becomes a part of your music, somehow. This album is different because everybody knows what happened to me. It’s more personal. Some songs are very obvious, like ‘Coming Out Of The Dark,’ which was related to the accident, and was really about people’s support. The fans really helped me through this, and said a lot of prayer for me.”

When Gloria sings, at the end of the Miami concert, “Forever, forever, I’ll stand on the rock of your love,” she sings it to the audience. You can see that she is singing about the support she has received from her fans, that the song has meaning for everyone in the arena that night, right in that moment. Gloria Estefan and The Miami Sound Machine know they can go home, again and again.

© All rights reserved by 1992 Disney Channel Magazine

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