RSS Feed (xml)
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Jennifer Lopez was born on 24th July 1969, in the Bronx borough of New York City to Puerto Rican parents Guadalupe Rodríguez and David López. The family was devoutly Roman Catholic and instilled a strict work ethic in the children. They also stressed the need to speak English and assimilate into American culture.
When she was a teenager, Jennifer spent much of her time sneaking out to meet her first love, David Cruz, whom she was with from ages 16 to 25. She attended Catholic school and was a good student and natural athlete. From the age of 16, she financed her own singing and dancing lessons.
After auditioning for countless gigs, she landed a guest spot on the American Music Awards. After that, she became a "Fly Girl" for the television show “In Living Color” in 1990, after being rejected twice. Because of tension with another dancer, she left the show after her second season.
In April, The Learning Channel announced that Lopez and Anthony had signed on to do a reality show. The show, which is under development and has no launch date yet, will "deliver a slice of [Lopez's] life that audiences have never seen before, as she takes on her career and launches a new fragrance while trying to juggle her new responsibilities as a first-time mom," TLC President Angela Shapiro-Mathes said.
Gloria Estefan was born on 1st September 1957 in, Havana, Cuba.She is early years were not easy. Her father Jose was among the Cuban exiles who participated in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, the unsuccessful attempt to oust Castro from power. Jose spent a year and a half in a Cuban prison, and during this time Gloria and her mother lived in a Cuban ghetto near the Orange Bowl in Miami.
Misfortune continued to follow her dad. He was badly poisoned by the defoliant, Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam. When her mother went out to make a living, Gloria had to act as nurse and tend to her invalid father. Her one source of comfort was the guitar she had been given when she was 12. She would sing to herself the Top 40 tunes of the day, alone in her room for hours on end.
In 1975, at the urging of her mother, Gloria sang some songs at a wedding which was being entertained by a local party band, The Miami Latin Boys. The band leader, Emilio Estefan, was so impressed by her smooth alto voice that he hounded her to join his band. She reluctantly agreed, but only to sing on weekends. No longer all boys, the band was rechristened The Miami Sound Machine.
She needed 400 stiches to close the 14-inch incision. But within one year of the accident she was performing on stage again. During that time of excruciating pain, Gloria received thousands of letters, telegrams and floral arrangements from well wishers. In 1992 she was able to return the favor by organizing a benefit concert (Hurricane Relief) which raised three million dollars for the victims of Hurricane Andrew.
