"Come on, shake your body baby, do the conga
I know you can't control yourself any longer
Feel the rhythm of the music getting stronger
Don't you fight it 'til you tried it, do that conga beat"
I know you can't control yourself any longer
Feel the rhythm of the music getting stronger
Don't you fight it 'til you tried it, do that conga beat"
Gloria Estefan (born Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García on September 1, 1957) is a Cuban-born American singer, songwriter and entrepreneur. She has sold over 100 million records worldwide and is Latin music's most successful crossover performer. She is best known for her song "Conga."
"Tropes get in the way":
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: "Bad Boy" is a song about attraction to a bad boy who "makes [the singer] feel so good".
- American Football: She and her husband Emilio became in June 2009 the first Hispanics to buy a minority ownership stake in an National Football League team, namely, the Miami Dolphins.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: From the liner notes for Let It Loose:"With inspiration from The Shark, Godzilla and Golf."
- Artist and the Band: The Miami Sound Machine eventually became Gloria Estefan And Miami Sound Machine, before becoming just Gloria Estefan.
- MAD ran a parody of the above situation with the rise and fall of a starlet in a church choir. At first, it's "The Fellows" with just her head sticking out of the row of singers, then it's "The Fellows and Melanie", "Melanie and the Fellows", before apexing at "M" with a closeup of her face. From there it spirals down the way it came, with her a sad, nameless member of the choir again.
- MAD #79 had a similar "Rise and Fall" feature, with the starlet starting as a nameless member of a vocal group, advancing from "The Euclid Phlomm Chorale with Patricia Blousen" to "Patricia Blousen and the Euclid Phlomm Chorale," reaching the peak of her career with an album cover showing "Patti" and a closeup of her face, then gradually declining until once again becoming a nameless member of the Euclid Phlomm Chorale.
- Bilingual Bonus: In addition to full English and Spanish versions, "Anything for You" was also released in a "Spanglish" version combining the two languages.
- Christmas Songs: 1993's Christmas Through Your Eyes. The title song first appeared on her 1992 Greatest Hits album before the full Christmas album appeared a year later.
- Get Out!: "Go Away," from 1992's Greatest Hits, is an uptempo kiss-off aimed at a lover who's outlived his usefulness.
- Greatest Hits Album: Several. Her first was 1990's all-Spanish Exitos De Gloria Estefan. Her first in English was 1992's Greatest Hits.
- Jump Scare: The music video for "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You" ends with her suddenly sort of shoving her face at the camera and growling.
- Omniglot: Speaks Spanish, English and French. Has claimed that while she was working as a translator at Miami International Airport, the CIA once approached her about making her a spy.
- She has also sung in Portuguese.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Early news reports about Estefan's tour-bus crash in 1990 erroneously claimed she had been killed.
- Samba: She has a song called "Samba", a samba version of her hit song "Conga" with lyrics changed to be about samba.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Estefan, who is known for her anti-drug work, and MSM once turned down an offer to appear on Miami Vice, the hottest show on television at the time, because the script called for the band to be playing a party thrown by drug dealers.
- "Sesame Street" Cred:
- She appeared on the 1998 Sesame Street special Elmopalooza.
- She provided the theme song to the preschool series The Fox Cubhouse.
- Silly Love Songs: MANY. "Words Get in the Way," "Can't Stay Away From You," "1-2-3," etc. Little wonder she became a staple artist at the Adult Contemporary radio format during the late '80s and early '90s.
- The Smurfette Principle: Miami Sound Machine had been an all-male outfit known as The Miami Latin Boys before Gloria joined the group as its first female member.
- Song Style Shift: "Oye Mi Canto" abruptly changes from AOR to a breezy Latin number halfway through.
- Spotlight-Stealing Title: The group started as Miami Sound Machine. Then it became Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine. Finally, the band's name disappeared altogether. According to Emilio Estefan, this was done on purpose so that Gloria would be eligible for Grammys as a female solo performer.
- Taking the Veil: According to a story told by Casey Kasem on American Top 40, young Gloria had trouble deciding between a career in music and taking vows as a Roman Catholic nun.
