Congratulations to Cuban American musical artist Gloria Estefan, the first Hispanic female inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Gloria Estefan on becoming the first Hispanic woman to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame: “Every song comes differently”
Gloria Estefan is making history by becoming the first Hispanic woman to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
“To be the first of anything at this age is fantastic,” Estefan told “CBS Mornings” on Wednesday.
For Estefan, songwriting appears to come naturally. She’s sold over 100 million records worldwide, has garnered eight Grammy Awards and is the voice behind smash hits like “Anything for You” and “Rhythm is Gonna Get You.”
Estefan said that creating music has never been easy for her but once she’s been able to put her thoughts and emotions down, the words come easily.
“The minute I finish writing a song, I think I will never be able to do this again… Each one is different. Every song comes differently,” she said.
By her side for the last 47 years is her husband, Emilio Estefan Gómez, a fellow musician and producer. Together the two are credited for paving the way for other Latin artists like Shakira and Ricky Martin and helping them crossover into mainstream pop.
Estefan said that she and her husband became their own “cheerleaders” and took the industry head-on.
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Well, at least they used Hispanic in the title instead of “Latina,” though she used that terminology herself.
I’m sure Gloria’s “political correctness” which includes a past riddled with attacks against the Cuban American community [She’s been hailed as a “moderate” as opposed to an “intolerant, right-winged fanatic”], her fundraising for the DNC and using Che-loving Santana as a musician in one of her lousy albums, etc…was helpful in persuading the election committee to induct her into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Well, the Estefans have their priorities, and the entertainment business is not a level playing field, meaning your politics do matter and can either help you or hurt you–and all the players know that. Also, they weren’t just dealing with Gloria’s career, because at least Emilio was shooting for a bigger role in the “Latin” music business, which obviously involved non-Cuban “Latin” performers.
It’s like operating in the Latin American Studies field in academia, where it is very hard to get anywhere unless you have or adopt a leftist stance (which explains the politics of quite a few Cuban-American academics). In other words, we’re talking about operating in a contaminated environment and playing by its rules, which typically entails becoming contaminated yourself.
It turns out that the great Ernesto Lecuona was previously inducted into the same Hall of Fame, where he no doubt belongs, but there’s no comparison. Lecuona composed popular music of the highest level which was inimitably his own, while Estefan’s work is much more run-of-the-mill (which has worked very well for her, as it has for any number of other pop music celebrities). Obviously, that’s my personal opinion.
The president of this Hall of Fame, Nile Rodgers, said that the group chosen for induction represents diversity in terms of musical genres, ethnicity and gender. Maybe I’m cynical (and with plenty of reason), but that sounds like a quota system at work, as opposed to a strictly quality-based approach.
Maybe, I’m cynical too, but it certainly sounds that way. “Hey you may not be very good, but you’re the right skin tone/gender.”