The 65-year-old Cuban-born hit-maker Gloria Estefan has earned eight Grammy Awards, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and sold more than 100 million albums worldwide.
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But as you can see below, Estefan is a grounded, thoughtful and family-oriented individual. Where some may leave a show and go to an empty hotel, she wants to be surrounded by family. The performer of hits like “1-2-3” and “Turn the Beat Around” knows of which she speaks.
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But with such acclaim, achievement and wisdom to her, one might wonder what else Estefan has to say about life and love, her craft and the world at large. Below are the 20 best Gloria Estefan quotes.
1. “I was going to be a doctor, but I think my music allowed me to help more people than I could have done one-on-one as a psychologist. Just like other people’s music really helped me.”
2. “I’m very comfortable in my own skin now. I started just being myself more and more. For women, this happens as you get older. I loved my 40s—I thought they were fantastic. And I’m loving my 50s. I’m going to love everything because you’re either older or dead!”
3. “I think we should all live in the moment. But you also have to think ahead. You have to think, ‘Am I going to be happy with this five, ten years from now? Is it going to let me evolve and grow, or am I going to grow to one day wish I had never done it?’ Sometimes you just have to think a little bit ahead.”
4. “When I was a teenager, I was fat. I was shy. I wore glasses. I had a big eyebrow and hair all over my body. They were years of torture.”
5. “Fashion is nice, but it’s for the fans. If it were up to me, I’d be in a sweatsuit!”
6. “Touring is hard. It’s really hard on the singer, especially, because your body is your instrument and you have to be so good, it’s like boot camp out there; I can’t do anything – just sleep, sing and be very healthy.”
7. “Everything that an artist does is a risk. Some people want you to stay the same. If you want to evolve, they want to keep you in a certain place.”
8. “You want your fans to like what you do because it’s coming from your heart and soul. You write it, you produce this thing. It’s like your baby.”
9. “People tend to forget that celebrities are human beings. We live our lives. We try to do what we love, which is music. And to share it with everyone in our job usually is to entertain and to make people forget their troubles.”
10. “As an immigrant, I appreciate, far more than the average American, the liberties we have in this country. Silence is a big enemy of morality. I don’t want our blunders in history to get repeated.”
11. “As an entertainer, my job is to help people have fun.”
12. “When most artists walk offstage, they go to a lonely hotel room. I went home to my family. They were there before the show, during and after. It’s been great. I never would have done it any other way. I wasn’t gonna miss raising my kids. There was no way that was gonna happen.”
13. “There’s no reason that just because you’re a celebrity you can’t write.”
14. “My mom was a source of strength. She showed me by example that women, regardless of how difficult life may get, can do it all.”
15. “I think that the only way to teach is by example, as children will more easily follow what they see you do than what you tell them to do.”
16. “In the United States, if you believe in yourself and you’re determined and persevere, you’re going to succeed.”
17. “There are so many beautiful things that are a part of the world, and I’ve always looked at life that way; I’ve always tried to put on a smile and a brave front, not just for my kids but in my own life and all the difficulties that I’ve gone through.”
18. “What’s the point if you make something that’s not you, and you’re successful? You have to perform it the rest of your life.”
19. “Family has always been the number one priority no matter what happens anywhere else.”
20. “As an artist, you dream about accumulating enough successful music to someday do just one greatest-hits album, but to reach the point where you’re releasing your second collection of hits is beyond belief.”
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