Iglesias Keeps Love Affair With Latin Music Alive

With the Latin pop music boom in full swing, it’s virtually impossible to listen to mainstream pop radio and not hear Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez or Christina Aguilera.

Now that Martin’s debut album has sold more than 5 million copies, the Puerto Rican-born heartthrob has reached “an all-time high for U.S. sales by an artist of Latin heritage,” according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America.

The artist he topped?

Julio Iglesias. Some 15 years ago, the handsome, crooning Spaniard, who opens a three-day engagement at the Orange County Performing Arts Center today, crossed over before crossover was all the rage. And Martin has recognized his debt to Iglesias, whose 1984 album, “1100 Bel Air Place”--his first sung in English--sold 4 million copies, helped along by his hit duet with Willie Nelson, “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before.”

“Julio Iglesias is my godfather in music,” Martin told the New York Post in June. “I have been able to work with him, and he’s given me many words of wisdom.”

Iglesias, 56, also has children who are reaping the rewards of the public’s appetite for Latin pop. Enrique Iglesias, 23, has scored a No. 1 single with the English-language ballad, “Bailamos,” and Julio Jr., 26, has just released his debut album, “Under My Eyes,” for a major American label, Epic Records.

But when the elder Iglesias phoned in from one of his three homes--this one in the Dominican Republic--he modestly declined taking any credit for paving the way for a new generation of Latino artists.

“Of course, there is a genetic link between me and my sons, but I am not someone who opened doors,” Iglesias said. “You open your own doors in this business.

“Now the young kids, like Ricky, have an attitude and look that is very appealing to the American market,” he said. “But more importantly, they have a willingness to learn how to better themselves--and that makes them only stronger and wiser.

“I was fortunate back then,” Iglesias said. “I had a song and an album that touched something in the Americans, so they graciously accepted me. But I’m just one like the thousands [who came] before me . . . and not just the Spaniards, but the Italians, Greeks, Irish and French.”

Although Iglesias, who was born in Madrid, said he’s happy to see more Latinos acquire mainstream success, he noted that many others still go virtually unnoticed.

“We have many fabulous artists that unfortunately are relatively unknown to most people in the U.S.,” he said. “[Venezuela’s] Franco De Vita comes to mind, and [Spanish singer-songwriter] Alejandro Sanz is the biggest Latino artist in the world right now. He’s tremendously talented. But without a hit song or album in America . . . without radio airplay . . . the media just isn’t that interested.”

Iglesias understands how that fickle machinery works.

At the height of his U.S. popularity in the late ‘80s, Iglesias sold millions of records and played single-night stands at 18,000-plus capacity venues like the Hollywood Bowl and the now-defunct Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa.

Now he’s playing facilities more like the 3,000-seat center in Costa Mesa, while his latest album--1998’s double-CD “My Story--Greatest Hits”--has sold only 102,000 copies in the U.S., according to SoundScan.

“I don’t have any current hits in the U.S., so, yes, I am now playing the smaller places,” Iglesias said. “It doesn’t bother me to play halls like that beautiful arts center in Costa Mesa. That’s not to say I wouldn’t prefer playing for 100,000 people, like I still do in other parts of the world.

“I know that today’s success can be gone tomorrow. But I honestly am happier now than I was 10 years ago because I understand the food and colors of life,” he said. “I enjoy attending to what really matters, like my friends and family . . . and watching two of my sons carve out their own careers.”

While Iglesias no longer needs to work--he also owns homes in Miami and Madrid--he said he simply must sing to satisfy a deeper need.

“For me, the stage can cure all my ills,” Iglesias said. “For two hours a night, performing brings such joy into my life. You expose this part of yourself, and, hopefully, you connect emotionally with the audience.”

Still ambitious, the self-described “skinny, lucky guy with a little voice and amazing fans” plans to record a new album, with songs in English and Spanish, that he hopes will help him regain some momentum.

“Success is so intriguing,” Iglesias said. “It becomes a need. . . . It runs through your blood. An artist without goals is not an artist. When you stop dreaming, I believe you stop breathing. You die.”

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Julio Iglesias sings tonight through Sunday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Segerstrom Hall, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 8 p.m. tonight-Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday. $25-$75. (714) 556-2122.