Music had a hold of Gloria Estefan early on. “My mom couldn’t get a diaper on me unless she was singing to me,” Estefan tells American Songwriter.
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Growing up listening to everything from country music, Johnny Mathis, and some of the great Latin singers, as a child, she was already starting to sing and play guitar. By the mid-1970s, she joined the Miami Latin Boys — later renamed Miami Sound Machine — with her future husband Emilio Estefan.
Writing hits with Miami Sound Machine, from their 1977 debut, Live Again, through the group’s tenth album, Let It Loose, in 1987, Estefan also embarked on her own solo career. Throughout her more than 30 years, Estefan continued writing on her 1989 solo debut, Cuts Both Ways with No. 1 hits, “Don’t Wanna Lose You” and “Here We Are,” and later hits “Coming Out of the Dark,” “Live for Loving You,” and her cover of the 1976 Vicki Sue Robinson disco hit “Turn the Beat Around,” among many more.
Over the years, Estefan also wrote several hits for other artists, including John Secada’s “Just Another Day” in 1992, and Jennifer Lopez‘s 1999 hit “Let’s Get Loud.” Estefan has sold more than 50 million records worldwide, won seven Grammy awards, and in 2023, she was revealed as one of six artists set for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Prior to the Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony, Estefan spoke to American Songwriter and shared stories behind some of her biggest hits, how she vividly remembers where she was, and what she was doing, when she wrote each one of her songs, writing a new country song, and the track she originally wrote for Michael Jackson that she ended up recording.
American Songwriter: Congratulations on your induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Gloria Estefan: Thank you. It’s a big honor. It’s a big one for me. It’s funny because I’m getting an award with Glen Ballard, who wrote one of my favorite albums of all time, Jagged Little Pill (Alanis Morissette), which I still listen to by the way. Talk about an album that broke a mold. It’s just so angst-ridden, and it comes from such a real place. Glenn wrote that and (Michael Jackson‘s) “Man in the Mirror.” I’ve been asked a few times if there was a song I wish I would have written and I name that song [“Man in the Mirror”].
AS: You’ve been writing for nearly five decades now. What have you learned about songwriting in this time?
GE: I’ve learned a lot through the years. First of all, inspiration is crucial, but that can come from anything, just a spark that you need to start the process. I have different ways that I write. By the way, most of my songs have been written between midnight and six in the morning, because that’s the time when the songs always came up. That’s the time that, not only is it my own time, but no one’s gonna call me or interrupt, or need something from me. Also, the majority of the hemisphere is asleep, and the channels are open, so there are songs that come through me. I think I’m kind of a vehicle. I just happen to be the one in the driver’s seat. Songs come from a very, very deep place, either from emotions or experiences.
“Coming Out of the Dark,” that was a very big thank you to my fans after an accident (car accident in 1990) that left me paralyzed. “Anything for You” was a song I wrote when so many people were having breakups around me that I started wondering how it would be if Emilio and I broke up. What kind of feelings would I have?
The first big hit ballad that I wrote, “Words Get in the Way,” was written after Emilio and I had a big argument. When he left, I sat at the piano, because I was so frustrated that I couldn’t communicate with words what I was trying to say emotionally, so they all come from a very real place. At this point in my life, I also realized that you have to really work on the craft, and you can never, never settle. And I never have.
AS: Is it easier to gauge whether a song is working or not now?
GE: The songs that came through, if you look at my writing books, they have no corrections. They just came through, and there they are. There are other ones where I know I can say what I’m trying to say better, and I will sit and really think about different ways. It has to fit the melody. Songwriting to me, it’s kind of like Tetris, which is one of my favorite games. Even when I’m mixing in the studio, I literally see a landscape in my head. And when something in the mix doesn’t fit, there’s this jarring building or shape that doesn’t belong. I think very visually when I’m writing songs, so that it all fits together perfectly, and I can see if something’s sticking out.
It’s funny because my husband is usually on the front lines — my sister and my husband. I sing it for my sister, and if she doesn’t cry it’s no good. Somehow, my husband will uncannily zero in on one word, or one line that I’m a little iffy about and he’ll point it out, and I’m going “Dammit, how can you do this?” He’ll go “That sounds great but that one line…” So I go back to the drawing board and invariably something much better comes about.
I love the process of it, but every time I finish a song, I think I can never do this again. [Laughs] It’s like when you have a kid, but I don’t think I’m going to have another kid.
AS: There are songs that need more time. Some writers can shelve a song for weeks, a year, or many years. Are you someone who can hold a song until it’s absolutely ready, or do you need to get it out sooner?
GE: Oh, absolutely. It’s gotta be ready, but I’ve never really held on to anything that long, except when we did the Broadway show [On Your Feet!] and we wanted to do an original song, which hadn’t been done in a jukebox musical. The writer said, “When I have this scene, I’m going to call you so that you can write the song.”When my daughter (Emily) was a freshman in high school, she was taking a contemporary music ensemble class. She came home and she said, “Mom, I have to play you something. We have to write a pop melody for homework. I wrote something, and I don’t know if it’s any good.” So she plays it for me, and I told her “You wrote a hit song” but it needs lyrics. She goes “Lyrics? I wouldn’t know where to start.” I told her “Write something that you know about. See what the music makes you feel and write something that you know about.”
So cut to three years later, I’m in my warehouse, pulling out letters that people sent me from my accident that I wanted to send to Alex Dinelaris [Jr.], the writer of the musical. I was elbow deep in these letters, and I get a call from Alex, and he starts describing the scene. As he’s describing it, these words pop into my head — I never got to tell you — and the only thing that I could hear in my head was Emily’s song that I heard one time before three years earlier.
I texted her, and I said “When you come home from school today, we’re finishing your song.” She was like “What are you talking about?” I said, “Don’t worry about it.” She starts playing it and I started singing the line and said “Okay, we’re writing this song right now,” and we wrote the original tune.
She [Emily] isn’t in the play because she hadn’t been born yet [in the timeline of the musical], but she’s literally in it in the best way possible. She co-wrote with me the only original tune (“If I Never Got to Tell You”).
Another thing that happened in that way was Michael Jackson had come to Emilio to ask him to do an album with him, and asked for some songs. I wrote this one song, as if it were from the perspective of him [Jackson] to his fans, and how much he loves his fans. Something didn’t happen with that record, and the song stay there because it was very intentional and very specific, and it wasn’t something that I was going to record. Years later, I’m talking almost 10 years later, I wrote a children’s book called The Magically Mysterious Adventures of Noelle the Bulldog (2005) and we got the idea to include a CD with a song along with the book. In my brain, I couldn’t get the song I had written for Michael out, so I took the song, and I wrote it from the perspective of a little girl that gets her dog and it became “Been Wishin’ (For a Friend Like You).” So it found another purpose. It’s still in the same vein of love for someone.
Writing makes me happy, just the process of writing. The song I wrote in November, I want a country star to do it. I love to hear my songs in other people’s voices, and I haven’t gotten that opportunity much, because I’ve pretty much recorded everything I’ve written.
AS: A Gloria Estefan country song is something we all need to hear.
GE: Oh my gosh, I love country. As a kid, I would listen to Hank Williams, and I had a bunch of country records. I don’t know why, because my family certainly didn’t listen to that. My mom had, Johnny Mathis, and she introduced me to all the great singers in Cuban music. I remember when I was a kid, we rented a house that was furnished, and there was a stereo in there. It was a piece of furniture, and on the bottom of the thing, it had all these 78s, so I would sit there and I would listen to Dinah Shore, Doris Day, all these greats of that era, and just stare at the cover and sit there listening.
Music has always been… My mom couldn’t get a diaper on me unless she was singing to me.
AS: With vinyl, it’s that tangible thing of just sitting there, reading through liner notes and lyrics.
GE: It’s making a comeback. My grandson listens to vinyl. He’s got a little stereo system like we had in the day. There’s something very romantic about physically putting a needle on the turntable, and analog has such warmth. Analog records even the space between the notes. Digital is just like a black hole in between. Now, it’s [digital] kind of sorted out with all the plugins and things, but there’s just something about being able to hear the breath of the person playing the guitar, all those in-between things, and the fingers sliding from one note to another. Those things are magical.
AS: How have some songs grown with you? Have some evolved over time, or resonate differently?
GE: They get deeper, but hopefully as you’re writing it’s because you are maturing and experiencing different things. Some things like love are perennials. Love is love, and those feelings and that intensity, obviously when you’re younger, it’s very, very prevalent, and it’s very inspirational. Things take on more depth. The beauty is when you still like the stuff you did. I don’t sit around listening to my albums, but on the occasion that I have to, for whatever reason, I still love what we did. And that’s because it’s honest.
I’ve never written a song, just for the purpose of “I’m gonna do this song. Let me try to write a hit. Let me write a song that I think is gonna get on the radio.” That’s a trap. I will always write what I feel, what I’m thinking. I analyze a lot of things, and my fans probably might know me better than a lot of my friends, because they pour over every word I’ve written, and they’ve thrown back at me like. They use my words to speak, on their behalf, to people they love or when they have trouble saying something to someone. It’s a beautiful way to communicate. It’s amazing. Things change. Your ideas change. Lots change, but we remain the same, I think, deep inside.
AS: Yes, there’s always that specific time and place of a song, and it’s still part of your DNA.
GE: Exactly. In those moments when I wrote them, I can remember where I was sitting, and what I was doing with every song I’ve written. I just have these flashes, where they happened, how they happened. It’s exciting. I’ve been driving a car — and this is before cell phones or voice memos — where I got an idea, and I literally pulled out one of my lipsticks and wrote it on a shoebox. You just have to write it down, because you don’t want to forget it. If you leave it for later, or say “I’ll remember later,” you won’t remember. You might be able to grab it again, but not that particular turn of phrase, that hook, or that idea. Now there are voice memos, thank God. The stuff I’ve been writing recently, I just put it in my voice notes. I capture everything so I have something to go back to because something will change, the melody or the way I’m singing.
AS: In these new songs that you’re writing now, what are some of the things you’re starting to unravel?
GE: The song I wrote during Thanksgiving was actually based on someone that’s very close to me, and I wrote it almost as if I was in their skin. I felt like I was. It’s not so much about love but more introspective. It’s kind of an analysis. I am a very analytical thinker. I studied psychology and communications. It fascinates me. My daughter Emily and I are working on a project together that is very exciting. It’s very different from the things that I’ve written.
Of those two particular songs I’ve written, one talks about how magical things in nature and in the universe can be. The other one talks about stepping out of your comfort zone and discovering who you are. Even though you’re writing for somebody that may not be you, it always has to have a grain of you in it. I love it. I love the process.
Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images
