Friday, January 10, 2003 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Prime of Life

At 59, Spanish singer Julio Iglesias has no plans to slow down

After two years away from the Strip, Julio Iglesias returns this weekend to reclaim some turf. "When Sinatra was my age, he had the best time of his career," says the 59-year-old crooner.

Julio Iglesias says he is happy for his friend Celine Dion, who was as important to Caesars Palace in the 1990s as he was in the '80s.

"It's a good marriage," he says of her upcoming three-year stint in the new 4,000-seat Colosseum. "She's going to be very happy there."

But even if a casino would ask him to stay in one place, the 59-year-old Spanish crooner doubts he could do so. "I love to tour and I need to tour," he says. "I'm a singer and I need to express myself. I love to sing."

He was on the phone last week from the Caribbean, where he's working in a home studio on two albums, one of which he will sing in five different languages. In concert he pushes himself even further.

"Sometimes I sing in Chinese and Japanese but they are a little more difficult."

Why make the effort?

"I have to, you know? I play Asia two months of the year," he says. "China is a large country. You can play Beijing and Shanghai and it's (American) rock 'n' roll. But you go to the mountains, they don't understand what you're talking about."

His weekend stint at Paris Las Vegas, through Sunday, is his first on the Strip since August 2000. That engagement marked a coincidental, but symbolic torch passing between generations.

Iglesias was playing Caesars' old Circus Maximus showroom for the last time before it was torn down the next month. His son, Enrique Iglesias, was reopening the 7,000-seat Aladdin concert hall.

Enrique may be the family member who now sells millions of records in the United States, but don't count the father out yet. Sex symbols age like fine wine.

"When (Frank) Sinatra had my age he was in the best time of his career," Iglesias says.

This year marks his 20th on the Strip, where by his count he's done 600 shows since first performing at the MGM Grand (the first one, now Bally's) in March 1983.

By then, the Madrid native was already an established superstar in the rest of the world, one who built his suave image step by step after a 1963 car accident -- which came one day shy of his 20th birthday -- sidelined his progress as a soccer player and law student.

An appearance on "The Tonight Show" was well-timed to his Las Vegas debut, going a long way toward erasing the qualifier in descriptions along the lines of, "the biggest star in the world, outside the United States."

All 14 shows in that MGM debut sold out. Iglesias finally cracked U.S. airwaves in March 1984 with the Willie Nelson duet "To All the Girls I've Loved Before," a song still kept in the public eye by impressionists on the Strip.

Iglesias moved over to Caesars Palace, which soon discovered it had a star who could draw high-rollers from around the world. He performed there two or three times a year, from 1986 through 2000. His opening acts included Roseanne Barr, Rita Rudner and Brad Garrett, now of "Everybody Loves Raymond" fame.

"I can't believe it was 20 years. Time goes so fast," he says. "I love Vegas and I miss Las Vegas sometimes. It's like a part of my life now. I spent some beautiful times there."

The singer admits he is "not very much in the American market now because I haven't done an (English-language) album since `Crazy' (in 1994)."

"Frontieras," due in April, is the one sung in five languages; English and Spanish dominate. His 1998 compilation "My Life: Greatest Hits" was released in both English and Spanish versions, but he hopes this one will "cross over all in the same album."

He says he has no one else to blame for not getting back to the studio sooner, blaming it in part on the "frustration" of U.S. radio. But, he adds: "I prefer to go on the stage. For the last four years, I've been traveling all over the world."

Of course, it has been suggested that a duet with Enrique could be his ticket back to the airwaves. "But he's very independent now. He has has to be independent. It's a very good time for him to be independent," he says of his son.

"I understand my kid very much. He's a lovely, wonderful guy and a great artist. I'm very happy with him, very excited also."

It hasn't been all that long since Iglesias was in those shoes himself, and in a sense he's still wearing them.

"To me, to be a young guy means somebody (who has) energy, who is still enough strong to handle his body," says the singer, who also happens to be the father of seven children; four of them born since 1997.

"When your energy and your brains handle your body (so) you can be onstage singing, you are still a young guy. I believe I'm singing better than before. So I'm very happy for that.

"When I go to Australia or China or Africa and I don't play for four or five years, and I come back on the stage, I say I'm lucky, because they give you another opportunity and now I know I can do better."