in the mid-80s, Gloria Estefan carried the Latin sound to the top of the charts with her dance anthem "Conga." Since then, the sultry singer has sold tens of millions of albums to everybody from circuit queens to suburban grandmothers. Whether belting out a ballad or throwing down a heavy dance track, Estefan has spent the past decade riding a relatively smooth wave of international success. Why does she appeal to so many different people? Perhaps it’s because her music reflects the type of person she is – completely down-to-earth and totally at ease with her own stardom.

Estefan doesn’t hide from her celebrity status, but she doesn’t really embrace it either. She takes her fame in stride and puts her family first. Indeed, the two are closely linked. Emilio Estefan Jr. is Gloria’s husband, manager, producer and general business partner. He does production work on her albums and sometimes accompanies the band on tour while simultaneously handling much of the family business.

The U.S. leg of Estefan’s upcoming summer tour seems guaranteed to solidify her status not only as a national treasure but also as a gay cult figure. Expanding on the drag antics of her 1995 video for "Everlasting Love," the tour will include promotional club parties in which drag queens will compete for a chance to appear in a concert.

For Estefan, 38, the past year has been a hectic one. She won a Grammy for her album Abriendo Puertas, but she probably got more press for her involvement in a tragic boating collision in which a jet skier was killed. The accident wasn’t Estefan’s fault, yet the news made headlines around the world. Estefan used the attention to generate support for the Helm-Burton Bill, a measure to regulate boating traffic that was passed in the Florida state legislature last May.

Nowadays, Estefan is busy raising her children, Nayib, 15, and Emily, 17 months, and planning a summer tour to support her new album, Destiny. Recently, the modest superstar sat down with HX and give us more than just the time of day.

Yes! When we got the Grammy, it was a very special win, to be singing in my native tongue. It’s very special to me, especially when my non-Hispanic friends like the music.

Well, it’s five years after our last English-language album. Every experience you go through broadens your views. Actually, your assessment is pretty good; I wanted people to just be able to grab their guitars and play along. For the single "Reach," we made the arrangement more grand for the Olympics, more world-sounding. And there are a lot of different Latin influences, kind of like a synthesis.

Oh, in clubs they played our stuff before anybody. When we did "Doctor Beat" way back when, before it was even released, the 12-inch was distributed to all the clubs. Pablo Flores, a DJ in Puerto Rico, was the first to play our stuff. And he still works with us today, doing the remixes. The gay clubs have always been on the cutting edge musically.

[laughs] At home, the "superstar" part is a very small part. I lead a very normal life, and Emilio does as well. We fell in love before any of this. My life is pretty normal. My most beautiful experiences have come from my children. It’s a challenge, but most women feel that this is our purpose.

I’ve been very lucky. There are a lot of things that make it work. [Emilio and I] are very different, so we balance each other out. But we really do care about the same things – the music. Music is our love. And the communication is very open.

Yes, in the things I do on a social level. I hate actual politics. I think it’s a big game, and I just find that there’s not enough power to do this right thing.

For example, in a nutshell, the boating accident I had this year. I’m a boater for 10 years. They’ve been trying to pass boating laws for years, regulating the traffic, and they couldn’t pass them. I went up to Tallahassee and there were cameras everywhere, Entertainment Tonight, the news, everybody. I guess I was a kind of lobbyist for these regulations. Politicians couldn’t do it!

I think we all have a responsibility. The celebrity has a certain power, because you attract the media. That’s what it is.

I love being onstage, and being with the fans. That’s the reason I do it. They see that we’re a real act. It’s a lot of discipline. I can’t drink alcohol; I have to cut down on coffee and stay out of restaurants so I don’t have to talk above a certain level.

Oh, yeah! I’m bringing the baby and my son.

We were sitting around in the back yard when I was pregnant, and we had to do a video. And I was, like, "I don’t want to be in a video; I’m superpregnant!" And Frank [Ceraolo, director of marketing / A&R at Epic Records] came up with the idea. And I love it. It’ll be like what we did for the "Everlasting Love" video.

We’ll have winners and bring them up onstage during the show.

I love life in Miami. The more I travel, the more I love Miami. It’s more multicultural now, plus all the glamour and celebrities. Culturally, it’s getting better. South Beach is great; I used to come to the beach all the time with my grandfather. It’s a big city, but you can still live a very laid-back life.

We love what we do. What keeps us going is the fact that we’ve been able to grow, and our audience has given us the privilege of supporting us and allowing us to keep going in that direction. When you create something, you have to feel it’s something you really like. If you’re going to do it for the rest of your life, you’d better like it!

© All right reserved by HX 1996

Many thanks for this magazine to Amanda Warnock. You are an Angel!!! :-)

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