Enrique Iglesias releases first bilingual album

NEW YORK — Enrique Iglesias has always lived a bilingual life, but musically, his English and Spanish worlds remained separate.

The Latin heartthrob would release an album to satisfy his Spanish-speaking fans, and then another for the English pop world. But this week, with the release of "Eurphoria," he has finally combined both for the first bilingual album in his 15-year-old career.

"This album has everything. Is undoubtedly the most eclectic album I have ever done," Iglesias said in a recent interview.

"I didn't plan it to be this way, but I think that mostly, when you have both languages, when you have collaborations with artist of genres totally different from those I have done, that has made the album to be so diverse musically," added the Spanish superstar.

Iglesias, 35, was born in Madrid and raised in Miami. He said that artistically, he needed to create a bilingual production.

"I was raised speaking 'Spanglish.' I have always written in English and in Spanish, I think in English and in Spanish, I dream in English and in Spanish. The timely moment didn't arrive before ... (But) this moment asked me for it creatively," he explained.

He already has two hits off the album: "I Like It," with Pitbull and Lionel Richie, and "Cuando Me Enamoro," a duet with Dominican superstar Juan Luis Guerra.

"I didn't know (that they were going to be so successful) ... You put out a song and sometimes you get it right, sometimes you don't," he said. "The most important thing is that you like it and I followed that lead. Thank God, after seeing people's reaction, I think I got it right."

The album, which Iglesias worked on for three years, includes tropical ballads, reggae, dance and pop. Iglesias, whose hits include the pop songs "Hero" and "Bailamos," also recorded songs with Akon, Nicole Sherzinger, Usher and Puerto Rican duo Wisin & Yandel. Each of these collaborations, he said, "had its grace and its magic."

"With Juan Luis Guerra I always wanted to work, ever since I was a little boy ... With Wisin & Yandel I have a friendship ... we have worked together and we know in which direction we want to go," he said.

"The rest are all people I am friends with, simply phone calls: 'Hey, would you like to collaborate?"

One of his favorite songs from the album is the reggae "One Day At A Time," with singer Akon.

"It was one of the most difficult for me," he confessed. "Is a song that I wrote with (the album's co-producer) RedOne a few times because I wasn't happy with the melody ... I didn't get it right until the third time!"