Gloria Estefan: ’93 — ‘03!
Coming into 1993, Gloria Estefan had crossed a professional rubicon.
Issuing not one, but two compilations — Éxitos de Gloria Estefan [Hits of Gloria Estefan] (1990) and Greatest Hits (1992) — in the Spanish and English markets put the Cuban-American singer, writer and musician in a singular position amongst her peers of the period. And this is to say nothing of her recovery from a life threatening accident in the initial half of 1990.
The release of Mi Tierra in the summer of 1993 officially kicked off Estefan’s imperial phase; it was one of seven studio recordings to emerge on the Sony/Epic label in a decade showcasing a true commitment to craft. Estefan would expound upon, experiment with, or rework her established vibe across these unparalleled projects.
I’ve spoken before on the broader magnificence of Estefan’s output, but wanted to start a larger conversation around this septet of albums. They put Estefan in line with fellow pop genre greats like Donna Summer, Madonna and Kylie Minogue, also known for their stellar discographic achievements. With three of these collections celebrating anniversaries in 2023 — and Estefan’s own recent history-making induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame — the time is right to revisit this area of her canon.
Here’s hoping that this ex post facto exercise will either refresh your memory if you’re a fan who’s lost touch or act as a primer if you’ve been curious. Happy reading and listening!
And a very special thanks to Mark and Trent for the encouragement.
Mi Tierra [My Homeland]
Release Date: 6/22/93
Album Number: Third (solo)/13th overall*
Chart Placement: US (#27), US Latin (#1), Spain (#1), UK (#11)
Certification: US (1x platinum), US Latin (16x platinum), Spain (10x platinum), UK (1x platinum)
Singles: “Mi Tierra,” “Con Los Años Que Me Quedan,” “Tradición,” “Montuno,” “¡Si Señor!…,” “Mi Buen Amor,” “Ayer”
Synopsis: Nine years had come and gone since the Miami Sound Machine’s sixth long player Rio (1982); it was the last time Estefan had drafted an album solely in Spanish. In that interval, she conquered the English language realm. Unlike Rio, when Estefan decided she wanted to use her native tongue moving forward, it would be linked to the sounds of Cuba (circa 1950s). Brainstorming for Mi Tierra began as early as 1988 and was plotted behind the scenes of other ongoing activities — in short, this was a labor of love.
As remarked upon in my standalone tribute to Mi Tierra, “Estefan aurally sketches with boleros, son, salsa and danzón sonics, exposing the latticework-like threads between Cuban aesthetics and the music of other Spanish speaking territories. This lends Mi Tierra variances with its tempo, providing Estefan’s contralto — at its richest hue here — plenty to work with.”
Having shown herself adept at handling downtempo and uptempo material, Estefan glides between engrossing set pieces such as “Con Los Años Que Me Quedan” [With These Years I Have Left] and “Montuno” [Mountain] with a magnetic ease. Whether rhythmic (“Hablemos El Mismo Idioma” [Let’s Speak the Same Language]) or orchestral (“Volverás”) [You Will Come Back], everything on Mi Tierra is meticulously cast by Estefan’s husband Emilio, as well as longtime friends and Miami Sound Machine alumni Clay Ostwald and the late Jorge Casas.
Under their joint direction, a wealth of decorated session musicians and the London Symphony Orchestra were put to superb use to bring everything to life; Estefan herself penned eight of the 12 songs on the record with additional writing contributions from Rafael Ferro, Juanito Maquez, Fabio “Estéfano” Salgado, Jon Secada, and others.
Although there had been some precedence with Estefan’s Mexican-American peer Linda Ronstadt’s Canciones de Mi Padre [Songs of My Father] (1987), Mas Canciones [More Songs] (1991) and Frenesi [Frenzy] (1992), the scale and scope of Estefan’s foray was next level. Released on June 22, 1993, Mi Tierra met with glowing write-ups, brought Estefan her first GRAMMY Award in 1994 for “Best Tropical Latin Album,” and prevails as her best-seller.
Even better is that its influence still resonates.
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me
Release Date: 10/18/94
Album Number: Fifth (solo)/15th overall*
Chart Placement: US (#9), Spain (#6), UK (#5)
Certification: US (2x platinum), Spain (4x platinum), UK (1x platinum)
Singles: “Turn the Beat Around,” “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me,” “Everlasting Love,” “It’s Too Late,” “Cherchez La Femme”
Synopsis: In the midst of her promotional stride for Mi Tierra, Estefan readied not one, but two records for eventual release. The first was Christmas Through Your Eyes, her fourth solo album and 14th album overall; it landed in shops on September 27, 1993. Her inaugural wintertime offering, helmed by the esteemed Phil Ramone, was a tuneful cornucopia of well-known chestnuts and a few originals. The second set in Mi Tierra’s slipstream was not as easily pigeonholed. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me was Estefan’s first covers album and while conventional wisdom tells us that these affairs are usually done as artistic “holding patterns,” many often show themselves to be imaginative outlets.
Straddling several American popular music genres — classic soul, adult contemporary, soft rock, disco — across the album’s 12 tracks (13 on the international iteration) Estefan pays homage to the songs of her adopted home that also shaped her parallel to the songs of her native Cuba. On tap for Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me is an eclectic spread with select highlights from Mel Carter (“Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me”), The Classics IV (“Traces”), Neil Sedaka (“Breaking Up Is Hard to Do”), Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band (“Cherchez La Femme” [Look for the Woman]), Carole King (“It’s Too Late”), and Elton John (“Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”).
Estefan pulls the production techniques of these staples from the 1960s and 1970s into the (then) present-day, preserving their characteristics but with modern studio tech magic. Casas, Ostwald and Emilio Estefan are back behind the boards to execute this feat, joined by the equally skillful tunesmith Lawrence Dermer.
Tying all these tunes together is Estefan’s passionate, honeyed voice. Three cuts in particular stand out in this regard: “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying,” “Turn the Beat Around” and “Everlasting Love.” That first mentioned selection — tendered by French chanteuse Louise Cordet in 1964 but popularized that same year by the British male vocal troupe Gerry and the Pacemakers — is brilliantly deconstructed into a Latin folk number spiked with the classical French composer Erik Satie’s “Trois Gymnopédies” [Three Gymnopédies].
The one-two clubby punch of “Turn the Beat Around” and “Everlasting Love” keeps her layered dance-pop crisp. The former track, initially done by revered disco siren Vicki Sue Robinson in 1976, has Estefan pay tribute to Robinson while making it thoroughly her own. Robert Knight and Carl Carlton provided engaging takes of the latter masterjam in 1967 and 1974; Estefan’s jubilant, detailed approach veers closer to Carlton’s version. These two (of five) singles lifted from Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me were also the biggest. “Turn the Beat Around” doubled as the theme to the 1994 Sylvester Stallone-Sharon Stone action vehicle The Specialist, whereas “Everlasting Love” let Estefan show affection to her LGBTQ+ audiences by having drag queens stand-in for her in the partnering video clip due to her impending second pregnancy.
Critical chatter around Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me was mixed-to-positive with some pundits balking at Estefan’s supposed predilection with the songbooks of yesteryear. Its double platinum-plus returns evinced that they had misjudged reception with fans and casual listeners.
Abriendo Puertas [Opening Doors]
Release Date: 9/26/95
Album Number: Sixth (solo)/16th overall*
Chart Placement: US (#67), US Latin (#2), Spain (#1), UK (#70)
Certification: US (1x platinum), US Latin (6x platinum), Spain (6x platinum), UK (did not certify)
Singles: “Abriendo Puertas,” “Más Allá,” “Tres Deseos,” “Dulce Amor,” “La Parranda,” “Felicidad,” “Lejos De Ti”
Synopsis: Estefan had plenty of reasons to smile at the outset of 1995.
Not only had she spent the first five years of the 1990s going from strength to strength in a commercial capacity, she’d demonstrated her creative prowess twice over with Mi Tierra and Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me. There was also personal fulfillment when she and her husband Emilio welcomed their daughter, Emily, on December 5th, 1994. A brief period of rest ensued before Estefan was back in the studio cutting Abriendo Puertas.
According to Estefan (per the album’s sleeve notes) Abriendo Puertas “[…] was created with the intention to celebrate many different styles of Latin American and Caribbean music. It’s been done with love and utmost respect for the music. If we were successful in combining all these rhythms musically, then all Latinos should be able to come together as one!”
On top of the wide-ranging Latin American and Caribbean ingredients Estefan utilizes, she threads in elements from South America — specifically Columbia and Venezuela; this makes for a fantastic blend of bolero, cumbia, salsa, merengue, and vallenato aesthetics.
Piloting the sessions for Abriendo Puertas are Emilio Estefan and Kike Santander, another accomplished musician, workmate and friend. Couched amongst the robust instrumentation of this collection — accordion, brass and membranophonic percussion — Estefan comes alive as a singer. She steers the sprightly arrangements of “Tres Deseos” [Three Wishes] and “Dulce Amor” [Sweet Love] with pure feeling and contagious optimism. Confident in her writing and interpretive skills, Estefan steps aside to allow Santander free reign as the primary pensmith on this body of work.
Although not quite a sequel to Christmas Through Your Eyes, Abriendo Puertas does share some of its seasonal persuasion. Notably, “Más Allá” [Beyond], “Farrolito” [Little Star], “Nuevo Día” [New Day] and “Felicidad” [Happiness] shine vividly in this fashion, however, the words and music are open enough to operate outside of a holiday context. Estefan won her second GRAMMY one year later in the “Best Latin Tropical Performance, Vocal or Instrumental” category.
Abriendo Puertas dizzyingly spun off seven singles (out of its total 10 tracks) that went on to success in the Spanish language charts domestically and abroad; gold and platinum certifications were soon bestowed to the set too. Parallel to the record’s campaign were two major performances for Estefan where she sang “Más Allá” for Pope John Paul II and President Bill Clinton in October and December of 1995, respectively.
Destiny
Release Date: 6/4/96
Album Number: Seventh (solo)/17th overall*
Chart Placement: US (#23), Spain (#5), UK (#12)
Certification: US (1x platinum), Spain (2x platinum), UK (silver)
Singles: “Reach,” “You’ll Be Mine (Party Time),” “I’m Not Giving You Up/Higher,” “No Pretendo,” “Show Me the Way Back to Your Heart”
Synopsis: Estefan’s last original raft of English stock had been Into the Light (1991); any assumption that she’d lost her way in that lyrical medium was assuaged with Destiny. Barring “The Heart Never Learns,” “You’ll Be Mine (Party Time),” “Show Me the Way Back to Your Heart,” and “Higher,” the remaining seven sides of the long player found Estefan leading on the writing front — they’re some of her sharpest.
There are gripping love songs (some autobiographical, some fictional), genuine inspirational numbers and, following her tribute to her son “Nayib’s Song (I Am Here for You)” from Into the Light, a moving ode to her young daughter: “Along Came You (A Song for Emily).” And Destiny is home to “Reach,” her anthemic ballad co-written with the inimitable Diane Warren that served as the official theme to the 1996 Summer Olympics. It also brought Estefan a GRAMMY nomination in 1997 for “Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.”
Warren was the lone new collaborator to feature with familiars like Casas, Dermer, Ostwald, Santander, and, of course, Emilio Estefan. Everyone assembled was in sync, their ingenious rapport balancing co-writing and co-production tasks. But in the end, it was Gloria Estefan’s singular vision that fueled Destiny and what she sought to achieve with it.
Unlike Into the Light where she worked within the margins of adult contemporary pop, rock and R&B of the era, Estefan tapped into the organic tones she’d put to use on Mi Tierra and Abriendo Puertas for this effort. Taking her Latin amalgamation further with Destiny, she whips up a symphonic Afro-Cuban feast with pronounced Eastern, Middle Eastern and soca flavors. In response to these evocative soundscapes, Estefan wrings conviction from every note she sings and enters a vocal pocket that displays her unique tincture on the title track and “Steal Your Heart” (including an alternative Spanish take in “No Pretendo” [I Do Not Pretend]).
Greeted by roundly positive notices and sales, Destiny became the staging ground for Estefan’s Evolution World Tour which launched on July 13, 1996 in Pensacola, Florida at the Pensacola Bay Center. By the time she wrapped at the Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii on May 3, 1997, Estefan had put on 108 shows across five continents — still her largest concert series to date.
gloria!
Release Date: 6/2/98
Album Number: Eighth (solo)/18th overall*
Chart Placement: US (#23), Spain (#1), UK (#16)
Certification: US (gold), Spain (5x platinum), UK (did not certify)
Singles: “Heaven’s What I Feel,” “Oye!,” “Don’t Let This Moment End,” “Cuba Libre,” “Don’t Stop”
Synopsis: The last time Estefan truly tripped the light fantastic, album wise, was with Let It Loose (1987) — and even then no less than three of its tracks were ballads. Ten years removed from its blockbusting triumph, almost all the dance pieces Estefan did (singles or deep cuts) had been housed as outliers on projects constructed primarily from mid-to-downtempo fare.
Perhaps in awareness of this unintentional-to-partial absence from club environs, Estefan sought to explore the format again via retrospective curation; in its infancy gloria! was conceived as a remix best-of for her stateside number-one dance-oriented charters (“Tradición” [Tradition], “Turn the Beat Around,” “Everlasting Love,” “Tres Deseos,” et cetera). More often than not, these edits could only be located on their individual maxi-CD singles. It looked to be an ideal post-tour outlet for Estefan, except she wasn’t tired, she was brimming with creativity.
The remix stopgap was politely tabled for something more substantial: a full-on studio affair.
Estefan remained the thematic center/core songwriting presence for gloria! with her scripting six of its 11 sides; she retained her writing-production mainstays too: Lawrence Dermer, Kike Santander and husband Emilio. Despite the tight dynamic of that counsel, Estefan did expand her circle with Randall Barlow, Robert Bladés, Angie Chirino, Pablos Flores, Wyclef Jean (of Fugees renown), and Anthony Moran; on the remixing front, Moran and Flores did have previous work history with her. It also didn’t hurt that Barlow had served within the ranks of the Miami Sound Machine prior to his time spent on gloria!
All said, it was the literal dream team for Estefan.
Much in the same way that she surveyed the post-disco field of play with Eyes of Innocence (1984), Primitive Love (1985) and Let It Loose, Estefan used gloria! to observe the dance trends of the late 1990s and bend them to her will. What’s more, her tried and trusted fusion method had her incorporate a variety of thrilling Latin sonic devices into the construction of the long player.
Over its 16 tracks — 11 original compositions presented in a segued framework but with a five track remix EP attached — Estefan unleashes a heady dervish of old school disco (“Don’t Stop”), salsa (“Oye!”), Afro-Cuban synth-funk (“Real Woman”), freestyle (“Feelin’”), and house (“Don’t Let This Moment End”). Her first top-to-bottom, floor-filling operation has Estefan really getting down, especially on “Don’t Release Me,” a pseudo-duet with Wyclef Jean. Beginning in a chilled out groove, she pulls a Donna Summer bait and switch, throwing the tempo into overdrive a little past the two-minute mark. Their team-up preceded the global smash “Hips Don’t Lie,” Shakira’s own match-up with Jean in 2005. From the Latin pop boom at the tail end of the 1990s on through to today’s coetaneous Spanish language artists, they all owe a debt to Estefan’s pioneering efforts in the English market.
As one-fifth of the headline marquee for the first VH-1 Divas! Concert, to the hallowed halls of a briefly resuscitated Studio 54, the campaign trail for gloria! took Estefan everywhere. Excusing a surprisingly vitriolic dismissal from Robert Christgau of the Village Voice, gloria! secured almost unanimous critical praise and garnered Estefan three GRAMMY nominations: two “Best Dance Recording” nods in 1999 (“Heaven’s What I Feel”) and 2000 (“Don’t Let This Moment”); “Best Video, Long Form” (for her gloria! companion DVD Don’t Stop!) also followed in 2000.
gloria! has lost none of its luster 25 years on from its release; I summarized its enduring appeal in my recent retrospective this way, “The solidity of gloria! lies in its awareness that dance music is fluid, its imagination determined solely by that of its wielder. […] gloria! is nonpareil, a vital, joyful and sensuous love letter to the music of the mirrorball masses signed, sealed and delivered personally — and uniquely — by Mrs. Gloria Estefan herself.”
Alma Caribeña [Caribbean Soul]
Release Date: 5/9/00
Album Number: Ninth (solo)/19th overall*
Chart Placement: US (#50), US Latin (#1), Spain (#1), UK (#44)
Certification: US (gold), US Latin (gold), Spain (2x platinum), UK (did not certify)
Singles: “No Me Dejes de Querer,” “Tres Gotas de Agua Bendita” (with Celia Cruz), “Cómo Me Duele Perderte,” “Dame Otra Oportunidad,” “Me Voy,” “Por un Beso”
Synopsis: Hindsight now allows one to appreciate the incredible pace Estefan ran at in the 1990s; gloria! felt like an outstanding way to seal off that legacy defining decade. She crowned her 23rd year of activity with Alma Caribeña. It yielded her more GRAMMY victories — at both its maiden Latin version and the originating ceremony — in 2000 and 2001 correspondingly for “Best Short Form Music Video” (“No Me Dejes de Querer” [Don’t Stop Loving Me]) and “Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album.” That Estefan kept favor with reviewers wasn’t hard to see given the artisanship of Alma Caribeña, another bold exercise in classic, orchestral Latin pop. Only this time around, she didn’t just turn up the Caribbean references used on prior albums, she spliced in salsa, son, murga, bolero and bachata rhythms for an added kick.
Accordingly, entries like “Por un Beso” [For a Kiss], “Dame Otra Oportunidad” [Give Me Another Chance] and “Te Tengo a Ti” [I Have You] are bursting with aural color. The compositional depth and texture on this outing is even more lavish than Mi Tierra and Abriendo Puertas, each grand endeavors to be clear. Trombones, trumpets, timbales, bongos, guitar — all topped with the sweetest strings — are the merest sampling of the instruments carrying on to provide Alma Caribeña with its dimensional vibe.
Direction comes from a somewhat new writing-production guard in Sal Cuevas, Marcos Flores, George Noriega, and René Toledo; return services from Randall Barlow, Robert Bladés, Angie Chirino, stalwart husband Emilio and former Miami Sound Machine alumni Hernan “Teddy” Mulet feature as well. Strikingly, Estefan herself only logged one writing credit on Alma Caribeña with “No Me Dejes de Querer,” electing instead to employ her keen interpretive powers. Even when paired with legends — the beloved Queen of Salsa Celia Cruz and José Feliciano — on “Tres Gotas de Agua Bendita” [Three Drops of Holy Water] and “Tengo Que Decirte Algo” [I Have to Tell You Something], the songstress holds her own.
Singing has always been a source of equal pride for Estefan, right alongside her writing and interpretive abilities. If “Nuestra Felicidad” [Our Happiness] and “Me Voy” [I’m Leaving] are any indication, Estefan had come into a different sort of soulful space on this record with her voice; it runs the gamut of the emotions, gifting the long player with verve, drama and sensuality.
There was a knowing sense of occasion when Estefan hosted a rapturous pre-launch concert for Alma Caribeña at the Atlantis Paradise Island Hotel Resort, in Nassau, Bahamas on April 19, 2000. Marc Anthony, Celia Cruz, and José Feliciano gave star-studded appearances, but it’s Estefan that made the event really sparkle. The album was released in late May of 2000 and kept up that celebratory spirit, though a commercial cooling in the United States (that had frustratingly begun with gloria! two years earlier) loomed.
The Spanish language and (nearly all) international charts would hold for Estefan.
Unwrapped
Release Date: 9/23/03
Album Number: 10th (solo)/20th overall*
Chart Placement: US (#39), Spain (#4), UK (#76)
Certification: US (did not certify), Spain (gold), UK (did not certify)
Singles: “Wrapped,” “I Wish You,” “Te Amaré,” “Tu Fotografía”
Synopsis: Just a year after Alma Caribeña, and two years before Unwrapped, Sony/Epic sent out the follow-up to Estefan’s 1992 singles compilation: Greatest Hits, Vol. II (2001). Her label home had Estefan’s full cooperation and she provided four fire-new cuts — “You Can’t Walk Away From Love,” “Out of Nowhere,” “I Got No Love,” “Y-Tu-Conga” — to further sweeten the pot. Somehow, Sony/Epic fumbled the advertising rollout and subsequently it was met with muted sales. The lone silver lining to this conundrum was that “Out of Nowhere” landed Estefan a GRAMMY nomination for “Best Dance Recording” in 2002.
Separate from Sony/Epic’s misstep was that something had changed for Estefan; she likely realized that she was being phased out of mainstream access through no fault of her own. The consequence of that development was the fracturing of her once broad listening coalition. Faced with shifting tastes and ageism, Estefan squared her shoulders and continued to create fearlessly.
Unwrapped was the product of this focused pragmatism. Estefan allied with husband Emilio and Sebastian Krys to produce the long player. After choosing to curate and interpret material on Alma Caribeña, she resumed command at drafting a set en masse, this time inviting others to make art with her. Along with Krys and her old friend Jon Secada, Estefan recruited a well-oiled retinue of pensmiths to partner with: John Falcone, the Gaitán Brothers (Alberto and Ricardo), Gian Marco, Tony Mardini, Tom McWilliams, Maceo Morris, Archie Peña, Carlos de Yarza.
Largely autobiographical, Estefan pulls back the curtain just enough to give the LP an intimate feel throughout — “Your Picture” and “Famous” are two of its most revelatory moments
Matching the narrative warmth of Unwrapped is its sonic accompaniment.
Paring down the ornate, preceding six recordings, Estefan goes for a handsome, band-based acoustic slant that encompasses rock (“A Little Push”), soul (“Dangerous Game”), and Afro-Cuban fusion (“Te Amaré” [I Will Love You], “Time Waits”).
Famous — the mini-documentary companion directed by her son Nayib — saw Estefan succinctly comment on the record’s tonal shift, “We wanted to try something fresh and new and very organic; this album is very organic.” Room is made for two distinguished visitors — Stevie Wonder on “Into You” and Chrissie Hynde (of the Pretenders) on “One Name” — who feel like dual bonuses amid a wealth of consistent fare. The keynote tune on Unwrapped is its quietest: “In the Meantime.” Guitar, brushed drums and a lone violin are built around Estefan’s bare vocal; the song divides itself down the middle between insightful storytelling and a probable real life occurrence for her.
“Wrapped,” a beautiful Andean-Peruvian influenced ballad, introduced audiences and critics to Unwrapped as its lead single. America had become disappointingly immune to Estefan’s charms, thankfully, it was a popular choice abroad. That latter arena had Estefan move on “Hoy” [Today], an alternative Spanish variant of “Wrapped” that found additional amity with those radio and retail outlets.
If Estefan was bothered by chart indifference, specifically in the United States, when Unwrapped arrived in stores on September 23, 2003, she didn’t let it show. Rather, she took the album out on the road in 2004 with her fifth (and penultimate) concert show Live & Re-Wrapped to acclaim.
Today, Unwrapped is acknowledged as an imperishable catalog gem.
Sample Gloria Estefan: ’93 — ‘03! below:
[* Editor’s Notes: Estefan’s career started with the Miami Sound Machine’s debut album Renancer [Reborn]/Live Again (1977); her solo turn began with Cuts Both Ways (1990). I provide a dual album count including her solo and Miami Sound Machine output, excluding compilations. For specifics on Gloria Estefan’s American certifications, please visit the RIAA.]
