ENRIQUE IGLESIAS plucks an adoring fan from the audience, sings with her on stage as she and he take cell phone photos

Last night, I had coffee with John Harris my neighbor and friend. John suggested if I want to learn Spanish, I sing Spanish songs. Promptly, a YouTube search of Spanish songs brought me to Enrique Iglesias.

Enrique Iglesias has a substantial portion of real estate on YouTube. His cross over into English dominates the site. Vevo videos, always a sign of quality, have sensuous videos with women so beautiful it can break your heart. But the songs are in English.

The Spanish songs are organized willy-nilly. Iglesias’ voice, always engaging, appears behind a static background. You don’t go to YouTube to see a photo.

ENRIQUE IGLESIAS EN EL ESTADIO OLIMPICO. VERANO PRESIDENTE. 2 DE SEPTIEMBRE 2011. MASVIP.COM.DO

It is a two-hour and twenty-minute flight from Miami to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/18.4796762,-69.9083572/1103+Biscayne+Blvd,+Miami,+FL+33132/@22.0713164,-79.5428848,6z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m8!4m7!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x88d9b41de240e5bb:0x48cccb2becbd415b!2m2!1d-80.186286!2d25.7860641


Joel’s commentary: Last night, I had coffee with John Harris my neighbor and friend. John suggested if I want to learn Spanish, I sing Spanish songs. Promptly, a YouTube search of Spanish songs brought me to Enrique Iglesias.

Enrique Iglesias has a substantial portion of real estate on YouTube. His cross over into English dominates the site. Vevo videos, always a sign of quality, have sensuous videos with women so beautiful it can break your heart. But the songs are in English.

The Spanish songs are organized willy-nilly. Iglesias’ voice, always engaging, appears behind a static background. You don’t go to YouTube to see a photo. You go to YouTube for video and great video. Finally, I found: ENRIQUE IGLESIAS EN EL ESTADIO OLIMPICO. VERANO PRESIDENTE. 2 DE SEPTIEMBRE 2011. MASVIP.COM.DO.

Naturally, I provide basic flight information showing a Google Map of a flight from Miami to the Dominican Republic were you to go back in time and attend the concert.

The video is astonishing, an adjective I seldom use because it is hard to know what astonishing means. The video begins with a sweaty t-shirt and jean clad Iglesias going into the audience and hugging several luscious young women. This goes on for some time amid the sound of female fans howling with delight, reminiscent of Elvis Presley’s iconic appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. Great fun.

Iglesias plucks Rena out of the crowd. She is wearing a black tank top and white shorts. Rena cannot contain her delight as she and Iglesias go on stage. He briefly interviews her, asks her what song she wants him to sing, sings it while she mouths the words. Iglesias is engaging, charismatic, just plain wonderful with her.

He sings, passes the microphone to her but she refuses to sing several times until finally…. During the performance she is constantly taking photographs of Iglesias, showing them to him which he looks at in appreciation, and then he takes photos of the two of them together.

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As to why I am trying to learn Spanish, there are two reasons which I will elaborate in eccentrically multiple items:

  1. My daughter Amelia who has been living in Pontevedra, Spain is planning to visit me in State College PA to celebrate the arrival of 2015 and take part in my community’s First Night Celebration. This is a link to last year’s celebration. Amelia will be arriving with her friend Javier who is a sergeant in the Spanish Army.
  2. I last saw Amelia nearly a year ago, viz.: October 5 in Mebane, North Carolina for her sister and my daughter Joanna’s wedding to Jade Phillips.
  3. During Amelia’s multi-month sojourn to the U.S. last year, she also took a course in medical Spanish at her alma mater [ which means “nourishing mother”] UNC Ashville and took care of me before, during, and after my major and successful kidney cancer surgery in NYC, rooming with me at the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge.

[Note: Commentary to be resumed after I go out and purchase coffee. All out. An apartment without coffee is a terrible place.]

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Back from scooting to the store, going in the opposite direction of crowds of eager football fans en route to Penn State’s Homecoming game. We start again with my two reasons for learning Spanish with another lengthy list:

 Beginning with muñeca cruel video, Spanish lyrics, English lyrics, and Iglesias’ official site:

muñeca cruel

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Spanish lyrics:

Un dia mas y tu no estas aqui
No me concentro tan solopienso enti Dicen que basta
Que es hora de vivir
y es imposible
Ves lo quequeda de mi Aqui esta mi cuerpo
Para que hagas lo que quieras de el Aqui esta mi alma
Para quesigasensanandote Aqui esta mi nombre
Para quepongas a sulado unacruz Aqui esta el final
De mis suenos escrito en tu papel
Muneca Cruel Aqui esta mi sangre
Que aun se altera cuando
mehablen detiAqui esta por fin mi futuro
Y tu no estas en el
Muneca CruelVuelve a llover
Todo me sienta mal
Salgo a buscarte
No se como empezarHago que duermo
Porque no quiero hablar
Mira mi vida
Es un desastre totalAqui esta mi cuerpo
Para que hagas lo que
quieras de elAqui esta mi alma
Para que sigas ensanandoteAqui esta mi nombre
Para que pongas a su lado una cruzAqui esta el final
De mis suenos escrito en tu papel
Muneca CruelAqui esta mi sangre
Que aun se altera cuando
me hablen de tiAqui esta por fin mi futuro
Y tu no estas en el
Muneca Cruel
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English lyrics:

Cruel Doll
Another day and you’re not here
I can’t concentrate I only think of you

They say that’s enough
That’s its time to live
And it’s impossible
Do you see what you left of me?

Here is my body
For you to do with what you want with it

Here is my soul
For it continues to follow you

Here is my name
So you can put a cross beside it

Here is the end of my dreams
Written on your paper
Cruel Doll

Here is my blood
Though it jumps when they
speak of you

Here at last is my future
And you’re not in it
Cruel Doll

The rain comes again
Everything feels bad
I go to find you
I don’t know how to begin

I sleep
because I don’t want to speak
Look at my life
it’s a total disaster

Here is my body
For you to do with what
you want with it

Here is my soul
For it continues to follow you

Here is my name
So you can put a cross beside it

Here is the end of my dreams
Written on your paper
Cruel Doll

Here is my blood
Though it jump when they
speak of you

Here at last is my future
And you’re not in it
Cruel Doll

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/enriqueiglesias/munecacruel.html#

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Wikipedia:

Enrique Iglesias

His name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Iglesias and the second or maternal family name is Preysler.

English /ɛnˈrk ɪˈɡlɛsiəs/; Spanish pronunciation: [enˈrike iˈɣlesjas]) (born May 8, 1975), simply known as Enrique Iglesias, is a Spanish singersongwriter, actor, and record producer.

Iglesias started his career in the mid-1990s on an American Spanish Language record label Fonovisa which helped turn him into one of the biggest stars in Latin America and the Hispanic Market in the United States becoming the biggest seller of Spanish-language albums of that decade.

By the turn of the millennium he made a successful crossover into the mainstream market and signed a multi-album deal with Universal Music Group for an unprecedented US $68,000,000 with Universal Music Latino to release his Spanish albums and Interscope to release English albums.

In 2010, he parted with Interscope and signed with another Universal Music Group label, Universal Republic Records.

In late 2012, Republic Records was revived after eleven years of being dormant, shuttering Universal Republic Records and taking all the artists from that label to Republic Records, including Iglesias.

In 2001, he released his single Hero, which he later performed to commemorate the victims of the 9/11attacks.

Iglesias has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best selling Spanish language artists of all time.

He has had five Billboard Hot 100 top five singles, including two number-ones, and holds the record for producing 25 number-one Spanish-language singles on theBillboard‘s Hot Latin Tracks.

He has also had 13 number-one songs on Billboard’s Dance charts, more than any other single male artist.

Altogether, Iglesias has amassed more than 70 number-one rankings on the various Billboardcharts. Billboard has called him The King of Latin Pop andThe King of Dance.

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Wikipedia

Hero” is a single released by Enrique Iglesias from his second English albumEscape and was written by Iglesias, Paul Barry and Mark Taylor. Iglesias first released the song to radio in early September 2001 to a positive critical and commercial reception.

After theSeptember 11 attacks on theWorld Trade Center, the song was one of the few songs chosen by radio DJs in New York to be remixed with audio from police, firefighters, civilians at Ground Zero and politicians commenting on the attacks. He was asked to sing the song live at the benefit concert America: A Tribute to Heroes ten days after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Iglesias broadcast his performance from a warehouse in New York alongside Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, and Sheryl Crow. The location of the warehouse was kept secret in case of further attacks. It was Iglesias’ first televised performance of the song.

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Wikipedia on America: A Tribute to Heroes Concert 

America: A Tribute to Heroes was a benefit concert created by the heads of the four major American broadcast networks; FoxABC,  NBC and CBS.

Joel Gallen was selected by them to produce and run the show.

Actor George Clooney organized celebrities to perform and to man the telephone bank.

The marketing and public relations was headed by Warner Bros. EVP Corp Comm with assistance from the marketing and publicity departments of all four broadcast networks. It was broadcast live by the four major American television networks and all of the cable networks in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001.

Done in the style of a telethon, it featured a number of national and international entertainers performing to raise money for the victims and their families, particularly but not limited to the New York City firefighters and New York City police officers. It aired September 21, 2001, uninterrupted and commercial-free. It was released on December 4, 2001 on compact disc and DVD.

On a dark stage illuminated by hundreds of candles, twenty-one artists performed songs of mourning and hope, while various actors and other celebrities delivered short spoken messages.

The musical performances took place at three studios in Los Angeles (CBS Television City), New York, and London, while the celebrity messages took place at Los Angeles.

Some of the musicians including Neil Young and Eddie Vedder were heard working the phone banks taking pledges. The money raised amounted to over $200 million, and was given to the United Way‘s September 11 Telethon Fund.

In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine selected this concert, along with the later The Concert for New York City, as one of the 50 moments that changed rock and roll.

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What follows is the YouTube’s  America: A Tribute to Heroes Concert.

Part I which begins, of course, with Bruce Springsteen singing: My City of Ruin (A Tribute to Fallen Heroes)

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Following is Enrique Iglesias’ first live television performance: his appearance at the Tribute to Heroes Concert.