CLNC

I'm not sure he really counts. For one thing he's never been close to his father and there's been bad blood between them for years. Enrique has even legally waived any right to his father's inheritance (which given him owning shares in Punta Cana and the nearest airport is huge). Enrique felt so strongly he didn't want his father involved in his career he promoted his demo tape under a pseudonym. I'm not sure being the child of a famous star is much of a boost of success. Most flop heavily, always being compared to their famous parent and never measuring up. For every Liza Minelli and Miley Cyrus, there's tons more Ziggy Marleys and Sean Lennons and...Enrique's brother Julio Jr.

An artists biggest haters are always disillusioned former fans.

Yes to all the reasons above but I also think tyere's a contrarian streak in US culture right now. Remember his polling also took dives after both assassination attempts, something you think would have helped him.

He first said it in an interview in '05. He said he was going to endorse extra small condoms because he has one of the smallest ***** in the world. It was clearly a self effacing joke and it he obviously didn't expect it to blow up the press. It didn't help this was in period he wasn't getting Top 40 hits and he'd largely been written off so for a while it was all people talked about when his name came up. He struggled for a bit how to deal with that ranging from "guys I was just kidding can we drop the questions about my ***** size" to embracing it "sure I got a small ***** who cares" which seemed to be his best and most consistent strategy until his resurgence in mainstream popularity when everyone seemed to forget about it. As for him as an artist. He's probably the most consistent pop male. Probably also the most consistent Latin crossover, like your average person could probably name more English language Enrique songs across the years than Ricky Martin or Shakira even if other than Hero her fewer English hits are bigger. He was also a lot savvier adapting to trends. He's always been a straightforward pop boy but can incorporates other genres at just the right time and just the right way. He also had a better sense of perserverance than some of his peers. I'm sure after Seven he was told it was best to stick to the Latin market but kept releasing English music until he scored a comeback. When Interscope flatly told him people would never accept him doing EDM music or mixed language albums he kept pitching it until he eventually fulfilled his contract and left them for a label that would let him do both.

So in even more baffling turns Enrique has put out the solo version of Space In My Heart and the remix of La Botella which was being teased around this time last year. I'm starting to wonder if Enrique's promise to still release standalone singles I wonder if instead new original tracks he was going to release unused stuff from Final Vol. 2 he had laying around. It is interesting to hear the solo version of Space In My Heart and makes me think even more; Enrique would it have killed ya to do some promo performances of this song the week that album dropped. He didn't even need Miranda Lambert or a stand in for her, he could have done it alone. As far as I know there is no collab with Ricky Martin. As for not releasing the songs with Maluma and Rauw Alejandro it's not really surprising when Sony's strategy with Enrique since he signed with them is to pair him with up and coming acts and Enrique's star power would give them a hit. That was fine back then, Enrique has always been big in the Latin market and in the 2014-2018 period he was riding an big wave of Latin hits but him having a break and the market changing so much in they needed to change that strategy and release songs with some bigger names attached but they didn't.

I've often heard people be shocked that this did so little in the US when Enrique was coming off a #1 with Be With You. The thing is the single release was handled by Whitney's team for her Greatest Hits campaign. At the time Whitney wasn't getting a strong radio push and her singles were charting high due to physical releases. I remember when Arista cancelled a the cd single a week before it was supposed to be released a lot of her fans were pissed. The single remix is the only version that got play in Europe.

I don't know how true it is but it was reported in the Spanish press that Enrique has a Greatest Hits coming out this year. If it's a proper release, say a compilation of the hits he's release under Sony then I hope he includes a couple of new tracks and hopefully it's these songs as that's the only way I can see us hearing them. Sadly I think it's more likely Greatest Hits is code for some Spotify 'Essentials' playlist his people will put together.

I remember a behind the scenes video of this that shows Enrique and Weezy were there together but yeah Usher was there another day. Arguably he'd sold his soul well before this. If you ever listen or read an Enrique Iglesias interview it's kinda strange how different his own music taste is to most of his own music. He likes his 80s rock and pop and you can certainly hear that here and there in his music but overall you wouldn't think that of the guy made famous with the likes of Bailamos and Rhythm Divine. I remember how vocal he (and Shakira) were back in the day that they were pop stars who happened to be Latin, not Latin Pop stars and yet they still went full throated in the Latin Pop direction because that was the trend at the time. I don't think his EDM phase was too much of a stretch giving most of his English material had a dance oriented production. He also pushed heavily for it when Interscope told him that the public would never accept this sound from him. I doubt this is what he thinks of as the material that best represents him as an artist but I actually think he enjoyed this direction a lot at the time. It strikes me he had to have his arm twisted to even try reggaeton but with this he was the one pushing for it.

I have nothing against Yotuel or any of the artists that Enrique collaborated with on Final Vol. 2 but when you hear that he recorded songs with the likes of Maluma and Rauw Alejandro, artists that would no doubt have made these songs huge on Latin radio you have to wonder who is making these decisions to forego these tracks and why.

Surprised at Snoop being in the top 10. Not surprised but disappointed at Chris Brown being there. Otherwise the list seems right to me.

Hardly any of those singers are gone or will be going anywhere any time soon.

So are we allowed to like her again? I feel she's only disliked when she's with him.

So much time has passed since this album has released that you'd think that they have probably given up on it. If Sony hasn't released another single by now then surely the album campaign is dead, right? Well no they actually are still releasing new singles from this album and it's....another Fria remix. This time a Dutch version. I almost admire their determination to make this song a hit no matter what if there wasn't La Botella or Llorame Un Rio that scream late Summer hits. Anyway enjoy the hundredth version of Fria.

So it turns out that Enrique had a collaboration with Rauw Alejandro for either Vol. 1 or 2 but it was discarded. Obviously we've never heard the song or know why it didn't make the final cut but I'm just going to assume but it certainly would do better commercially than the likes of Fria. I'm starting to see a narrative among her critics that Shakira is only scoring hits right now because they are collaborations with artists currently huge in the Latin world. While the singles Enrique is releasing from his current album will not go down as his biggest hits (although if they ever release La botella that could be a contender) but no one can accuse Enrique of only getting a hits because of his collaborators. A song with Rauw Alejandro would almost certainly be huge. I have slightly more faith after those Sirius XM interviews he did. He seemed to be much more confident that we'll hear new standalone singles. Prior to that his tone seemed to more a case of him having to say that and we'll only get new music if he feels like it.

As others have already pointed out whole idea of Enrique being a nepo baby is kinda debatable when he was never close to his father. He felt so strongly that he didn't want any help from his last name that he shopped his demo tapes around under a pseudonym with a falsified backstory. I've never really gotten the big deal about nepo babies when it comes to the music industry anyway. For every MIley Cyrus and Liza Minelli there are way more Sean Lennons, Ziggy Marleys and Julio Iglesias Jrs. Yeah the best argument for Enrique's career is comparing it to his brother who came into the industry with all the advantages Enrique didn't and has failed despite multiple attempts. Coming from a famous family has some advantages but ultimately you only really succeed if the public feels you've got something about you worth buying your music. I'm also not sure I agree with the idea that he's talentless either. He's written huge Spanish songs like Enamorado Por Primera Vez and Nunca Te Olvidare completely on his own. Many of his co-writers have praised his songwriting and even these days with a few exceptions if his name appears on the songwriting credits it's because he genuinely contributed to it. He's also been incredibly savvy too. More than once he's pushed for specific songs and artistic directions that were hugely successful and resisted others that weren't. It's how he's been able to come back to relevancy so many times across multiple genres over three decades. In regards to his vocals and performance I think people have been way too harsh. Like he was never a power house vocalist but his voice was more than fine for the kind of material he sang. You'd think a board dedicated to pop music would be more sympathetic to the idea that you don't have to be an opera singer to be a successful performer. Up until 2013 almost every major network US TV performance was completely live and it always sounded good to great. The idea he was always bad but somehow hypnotized people into thinking otherwise is more than a little silly. I don't think his vocals and performing ability would face anywhere near the kind of scrutiny if he wasn't the son of Julio Iglesias. Certainly having a famous father has been more a hindrance in this regard. Sure his voice is not for everyone particularly when he has an audible Spanish accent (something that had dogged all the Latin crossover artists) but can people honestly day that these were bad performances: It's true that his voice has deteriorated over the years due to his near constant touring. In a sad way it's kinda become a self fulfilling prophecy. For decades people said he couldn't sing and now he can't...at least somewhat. Personally I think he sounds okay for 90% of his concert sets particularly during the acoustic songs. More concerning to me is that he doesn't look entirely well. You could tell around 2017 he was starting to look a little emaciated and zoned out. Clearly he's not 100% physically and it should be noted he's had two big respitory illnesses in as many years and was even hospitalized for the latest one. Personally I don't think he should be doing more than two shows a week and hope during the semi retirement that's what he does. One thing that no one seems to comment on in the current pile on is that in all of these videos of his recent concerts people still seem to be having a good a great time and going crazy. There are many legacy acts that are no longer at the top of their game but if you have gained a loyal fanbase over the years fans will still go to see your shows because they want to see their favourite artist performing their favourite songs live. With the music blaring and everyone having a good time no one cares if they flat at times or hit a bum note. One thing that really does puzzle me is the asserion he's bad at audience interaction. That's the one thing he has always been great at. So...yeah leave Enrique alone.