Julio Iglesias Jr.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Iglesias and the second or maternal family name is Preysler.

Julio Iglesias Jr.
Iglesias Jr. in 2014
Background information
Birth name	Julio José Iglesias Preysler
Born	(1973-02-25) 25 February 1973 (age 51) Madrid, Spain
Genres	Pop
Occupation(s)	Singer, model
Years active	1999–present
Labels	EMI
Spouse	Charisse Verhaert ​ ​ (m. 2012; sep. 2020)​

Julio Iglesias Jr. (born Julio José Iglesias Preysler; 25 February 1973) is a Spanish singer-songwriter.

Early life

Julio Iglesias Jr. was born Julio José Iglesias Preysler in Madrid, Spain, the son of Spanish singer Julio Iglesias and Filipina socialite Isabel Preysler.^[1][2][3][4] He is the younger brother of Chabeli Iglesias and the older brother of Enrique Iglesias. His parents divorced in 1979. Iglesias Jr. and his siblings moved to Miami to live with their father. Iglesias Jr. went to college near San Francisco at Menlo College in Atherton, California. He won a chance to participate in NBC's Out of the Blue and he worked for the Travel Channel, where he hosted a travel show that took him to Latin America.

Career

Iglesias Jr., with the help of his friend and manager Darius Jordi Lassus, first got into show business as a model. It was his manager that negotiated an exclusive male modeling agreement with Joey Hunter (at the time he was the president of the Male Model division) at the Ford Models Agency in New York. It was through Joey Hunter, that Iglesias Jr. was discovered by photographer Bruce Weber.^[5] He went on to campaign for Versace. Shortly after, Iglesias Jr. signed on with publicity executive Ruben Malaret who began a press campaign to further gain exposure of Iglesias Jr. to the English speaking entertainment industry. Some of his notable accomplishments was his participation on Oprah Winfrey's talk show and was featured in an advertisement for Gap and he modeled for designer John Bartlett VII on Sixth Fashion Show.

He was offered two soap opera jobs, one at Televisa and one in the ABC soap opera All My Children. Iglesias Jr. also received an offer from the Producers of the Broadway show Grease to star as Danny, but decided to turn down these job offers because he wanted to focus on his music. Iglesias Jr. signed a recording agreement with Epic Records and he traveled to Miami where he began to record his first album, Under My Eyes, with Rodolfo Castillo. Released in 1999, the recording of this album took them to New York City and Los Angeles, two songs released from this English language album are "One More Chance" and "Under My Eyes". Among promotional appearances for the album, Iglesias Jr. performed "One More Chance" at the Miss Universe 1999 Pageant and opened for Cher on her tour of North America. The album failed to gain success in the United States and soon after Iglesias Jr. departed from Epic Records.

Iglesias Jr's. second album, Tercera Dimension, was released in 2003 on the Warner Music Group and featured Spanish pop rock songs with the singles "Los Demas" and "Dejame Volar". Both albums received public interest from the Hispanic media in the United States but attained minority success.

He worked for Hola Magazine, appearing in several photoshoots. More recently he has taken part in a series in Spain called Club de Flo, in which Spanish politicians and celebrities have to present a comedy routine. The show was unsuccessful and cancelled after several episodes. He has moved back to Spain and is living with his mother Isabel Preysler.^[6] He appeared on the Spanish version of Dancing with the Stars called "¡Mira quien baila!" but was voted out in the thirteenth week. He has played the lead role in a drama film entitled The Music of You directed by Lloyd DeSouza.

In 2008, Iglesias Jr. was the winner of the first season of CMT reality Television show Gone Country,^[7] in which artists from other genres of music lived together in a house in Nashville and competed to win a country music contract. His single "The Way I Want You" was released to country radio on 10 March 2008 and was produced by Gone Country host John Rich. Iglesias Jr. also appeared on the ABC TV show the superstars. He was partnered with soccer player Brandi Chastain; they finished in fourth place in the competition.

In 2014, he joined the band Latin Lovers with Nuno Resende and Damien Sargue.^[8]

In 2015, he performed a concert (complete show) for the first time with his father Julio Iglesias in a tour in Romania, on 22 May at Sala Polivalentă in Cluj-Napoca and 2 July at Sala Palatului in the capital Bucharest.^[9]

Personal life

Iglesias is a Catholic and descendant of the religious Filipino-Spanish clan Arrastia from the Arrastia family of Lubao, Pampanga the Philippines.

In October 1999, he legally changed his name from Julio José Iglesias to Julio Iglesias Jr.^[10]

In May 2011, Iglesias Jr. became engaged to Belgian model Charisse Verhaert (born 1982) after 7 years of dating. The religious wedding took place on 3 November 2012 in Aldea del Fresno, Spain.^[11][12] In August 2020, a petition for divorce was filed in the Miami Court.^[13]

From October 2022 to July 2023, Iglesias Jr. was in a relationship with Brazilian model Vivi Di Domenico who is twenty years his junior.^[14][15] In August 2023, he revealed that he is dating Cuban-Italian model Ariadna Romero.^[16]

Discography

Albums

List of albums, with selected details

Title	Details
Under My Eyes	Released: 1999 Format: CD, Cassette Label: Epic
Tercera Dimensión	Released: 2003 Format: CD Label: Warner Music Latina
Por la Mitad	Released: 2008 Format: CD Label: Capitol

Singles

List of singles, with selected chart positions

Title	Year	Peak chart positions	Album
		AUS [17]
"One More Chance"	1999	46	Under My Eyes
"Nothing Else"		—
"Por la Mitad"	2008	—	Por la Mitad
"The Way I Want You"		—
"Geronimo"	2012	—	Single only
"My Love – A Piece of My Love" (featuring Abel the Kid and Snoop Dogg)	2013	—	Single only
"Vous les femmes"	2014	—	Latin Lovers
"La camisa negra"		—
"Smile" (featuring Abel the Kid)		—	Singles only
"Amo di te" (featuring Anamor)		—
"I Wonder" (featuring Abel the Kid and Rasel)		—

References

1. "The Iglesias dynasty: two generations of hot Latin talent". HELLO! hellomagazine.com. Archived from the original on 16 November 2007. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
2. "The Filipino People's Ancestry: Julio Iglesias Jr. and Chabel Iglesias in Traditional Filipino Clothing". Pinoy Blog Machine (Beta). 3 October 2007. Archived from the original on 27 January 2009.
3. "Preysler Family" (PDF). geocities.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 March 2009.
4. R. Arce. "Filipino People's Real Ancestry". Filipino Cultured.
5. "Julio Iglesias Jr. Summary". tv.com. Archived from the original on 14 January 2011. Retrieved 27 November 2009.
6. "Julio Iglesias Jr. Cantante / Nunca he tenido celos de mi hermano Enrique". EL DIARIO – Montanes. Retrieved 28 January 2007.
7. "Julio Iglesias Jr. wins CMT's "Gone Country"". About.com:Country Music. Retrieved 10 March 2008.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
8. Latin Lovers, nuno-resende.net, 11 April 2014
9. "Julio Iglesias și Julio Iglesias Jr., primul concert împreună" (in Romanian). Observator. 14 May 2015.
10. Julio José Iglesias ya es Julio Iglesias Jr.
11. "Julio Iglesias Jr. se casa!". Archived from the original on 2 July 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
12. "Exclusive: Julio Iglesias Jr marries his model love Charisse Verhaert". HELLO!. 7 November 2012.
13. "VERHAERT, CHARISSE VS IGLESIAS, JULIO, JR". UniCourt. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
14. "Así es Vivi di Domenico, la modelo brasileña que ha hecho volver a creer en el amor a Julio Iglesias Jr". HOLA (in Spanish). 13 October 2022. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
15. "Julio Iglesias, Jr., y Vivi di Domenico: los detalles de su ruptura". HOLA (in Spanish). 16 June 2023. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
16. "Julio Iglesias Jr. debuts new girlfriend, model Ariadna Romero". HOLA. 11 August 2023. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
17. Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 135.

External links

• (in French) Official Site Latin Lovers Archived 17 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine
• Julio Iglesias Jr. at IMDb