TEEN PEOPLE - in the spotlight - Enrique Iglesias

With the release of his first English-language CD, Enrique Iglesias steps into the international superstar league. Now, if only he weren’t so uncomfortable with fame.

Upon first glimpse of Enrique Iglesias, you think: “This man oozes star power.” Tall, dark and head-turningly handsome, the son of legendary Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias looks every inch the celebrity.

Just don’t expect him to act like one. For starters, the Miami-based singer gets around town in a silver SUV, no in a chauffeur-driven Bentley or Benz. He dislikes schmoozing with other celebrities and never travels with a bodyguard. He prefers drive-through fast-food joints to his city’s more glamorous eateries. And forget about finding him at one of South Beach’s trendy clubs; Enrique would much rather go waterskiing or catch a late-night movie with his old high school buddies.

When Enrique appears at the door to his two-story Mediterranean house on the Bay of Miami (just several houses away from his childhood home), the 24-year-old is barefoot and dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, playing down his pop star aura. “I hate to draw attention to myself,” he explains later, while carrying beverages from the kitchen into the living room. (Never mind that there’s a maid present who’s paid to handle these things.) “It’s not that I mind my fans. Please, I love them a lot. But that’s just the way I am. If I’m walking down the streat and people start screaming, I get really embarrassed.”

That happens often. A Latin singing sensation since 1995, Enrique had already sold 13 million copies of his first three Spanish albums and collected 12 No. 1 Latin singles, a Grammy and an American Music Award, before hitting the U.S. last summer with his first English-language single, the Billboard No. 1 “Bailamos.” Now, with his first English-language album, Enrique, and its second his, “Rhythm Divine” -- not to mention a new $44 million deal with Interscope Records-- his crossover success is complete.

Though Ricky Martin had been there, done that months earlier, Enrique insists that Ricky’s phenomenal success was not what convinced him to record his fourth album in English. “I’ve grown up in the U.S.,” says Enrique, a Madrid native who moved to Miami when he was seven. “I write in English. My first demo was in English. And anyway, musically [Ricky] and I are completely different. He Caribbean; I’m Mediterranean.”

But comparisons are inevitable, and they have been since “Bailamos” followed Ricky’s “Livin’ la Vida Loca” into smash status. And the two do have a lot in common.

“Women love him. He’s very handsome, very charismatic,” producer David Foster says of Enrique. (Foster produced “Could I Have This Kiss Forever,” a duet with Whitney Houston that appears on Enrique.) “I think men love him too. He’s kind of nonthreatening in a way. He’s got that disarming charm and that almost self-deprecating humor.”

Foster has helmed records for major leaguers like Celine Dion and Mariah Carey, but he’s also worked with none other than Enrique’s dad, Julio. But lest one think Enrique is following in his father’s footsteps, he had actually gone to great lengths to distance himself professionally from his famous dad. The younger Iglesias ultimately wants his music to succeed on its own merit and not because of his last name. “I never paid attention to whether my father liked [my music] or what he thought I should do-- never, never, never,” says Enrique, who is still uncomfortable talking about Julio in interviews. “I remember [listening to music] with my father in the car and he was so musically different from me.”

Enrique was three years old when Julio and his mother, Spanish socialite Isabel Preysler, divorced, and Julio decided to move to Miami. Four years later, Enrique and his siblings-- sister Chabeli, 28, a TV news reporter, and brother Julio Jose, 27, a model-turned-singer-- relocated to the U.S. to live with their dad for security reasons after their paternal grandfather was kidnapped. (He everntually was saved by a rescue operation.) Despite Julio’s international fame, “I had a normal life,” says Enrique, who had often been surrounded by bodyguards in Spain. “I grew up in that environment [of stardom], but he never spoiled us. He raised us well.” Nonetheless, Enrique missed his mother, whom he saw only four times a year growing up. Today, the tow are close; indeed, the only photo in his living room is of her.

With Isabel living on another continent and Julio often away on concert tours, the person in charge of tending to Enrique and his siblings on a daily basis was Elvira Olivares. (Today he refers to her as La Seño, saying, I hate saying that word, ‘nanny.’ She took care of us when we were little. [Now] she’s my friend.”) It was Elvira who loaned Enrique $5,000 to record his first demo when he was 17; he didn’t approach his parents because he didn’t want his father to know he was doing it.

“He didn’t want to be played on the radio because he was Julio Iglesias’s son,” say Fernan Martinez, the singer’s manager. “When he was little, if a friend introduced him as Julio Iglesias’s son, he would walk away. He never used that, either in school or with girls or in a restaurant.” Enrique would eventually dedicate his first album to Elvira.

By the time he made his first demo in 1994, Enrique already had spent years writing music, often staying up until 7 a.m. and sleeping until noon doing it, a schedule he keeps to this day. “For me it was like my own little diary,” he says. “I used to hide in my room and write. My music was my little secret, my therapy, my shrink.”

After high school, Enrique enrolled as a business major at the University of Miami. But he dropped out of college following his freshman year and began to work on music full-time with his collaborators, songwriter Mario Martinelli and producer Roberto Morales. In 1994, Enrique approached Fernan Martinez, who had once worked as Julio’s publicist, and asked for help in getting a record deal. “I thought the whold thing was suspicious, because he was Julio’s son,” Martinez admits. “But when I heard him [sing] I said, ‘This is great. Let’s get to work.’”

Martinez’s first challenge as Enrique’s new manager: landing him a record deal. Unfortunately, all the major U.S. labels passed on Enrique Martinez (the singer used this name at the beginning of his career so record company execs wouldn’t link him to his father). However, a year later, Enrique jumped at an offer from Fonovisa, a small label that specializes in Mexican music, and recorded his smash debut, Enrique Iglesias. Then things really took off.

“His first prize was a Grammy [in 1996 for Best Latin pop performance],” says Martinez. “His first live [TV] show was on David Letterman. His first album sold six million copies. His first English single was a No. 1. His first duet was with Whitney Houston. He starts where most people want to arrive! He’s so effective; like the batters who always hit a home run.”

But there are days when this cleanup player would prefer to sit on the bench. “It does come to a point whre it kind of scares me,” he says. “You become, like, a little freaky about going out in public. You prefer to stay home.”

At least Enrique can joke about his sex symbol status. Like the tiime he was asked how he felt about being named Sexiest Man Alive in 1998 by People en Español. He suggested that his then-lable, Fonovisa, had bought him the honor. “It was a joke!” says Enrique, who publicly recanted after the subsequent mini-media uproar. “I was trying to be modest. If it were true, do you think anyone would go around saying it?”

A while later, Enrique takes a break from his TEEN PEOPLE interview to make a quick telephone call to a Philadelphia radio station that’s launching his latest single. He warmly greets the programmer and DJs by name before taking calls from several listeners. “Sheila!” Enrique shouts to one, as if he’s greeting a longtime friend. “Do you have a boyfriend, Sheila?” he teases.

Resuming his TEEN PEOPLE talk, Enrique explains that he loves to flatter his female fans. In concert, he always brings a girl or two onstage to serenade them. “I never look to see if they’re beautiful or not,” he says. “I pick the one who most wants to get onstage.”

Although romantic interludes are mostly onstage these days, Enrique does date when he can. But gold diggers beware: He says he can always tell whether someone is interested in him or in his celebrity. “That’s one thing I know. I’ve grown up in this environment, and I know. You can tell if they like you for yourself.”

Seems Enrique is a pretty good judge of character. All of his best friends date back to elementary and high school. Some even work with him today, as producers and personal assistants. Not that he’s trying to hand on to the happy-go-lucky, and decidedly more anonymous, days of his youth. But even if he does yearn for them now and then, Enrique has no regrets. “I think it’s important to enjoy those years when you’re between ten and eighteen-- I did. I was a mischievous kid, a normal kid. I had my first kiss. When I turned 18, I had already enjoyed my youth.” Soon after, fame came knocking. And “when a door opens for you,” he says, “you gotta go in.”

Other quotations and/or photo captions in the article:

Enrique uses his VIP status sparingly-- even when he checks into a hotel: ‘The only think I ask is [that they don’t put me on] the ground floor,” he says. “I like beingo on the top, not on the bottom.”

“He would rather no get into a disco than say he was Julio Iglesias’s son.” --Fernan Martinez

“I have a foot fetish,” says Enrique, who hates his own. “I always look at girls’ feet.”