Gloria Estefan

Born as Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García in Havana, Cuba, this Grammy award-winning singer is better known as Gloria Estefan. Considered to be the most successful ever crossover performer in Latin music, this talented singer is counted among the 100 best-selling music artists with an estimated worldwide sales of over 100 million records. Gloria and her family moved to the U.S. when she was very young. Her childhood was rife with problems, and she discovered music as a means of escaping from the harsh realities of life, albeit for a little while. As a high school student, she actively sang and played the guitar. Soon she was invited to sing a few songs for a local band, "Miami Latin Boys." The band leader, Emilio Estefan, was so impressed by her performance that he invited her to join the band and changed the band name to "Miami Sound Machine." Eventually, she married him on September 2, 1978, and performed with the band for a few years before getting her break as a solo singer. Her first album as a solo artist, "Cuts Both Ways," became an immediate bestseller, and soon she had a big fan following. More hits followed, and this crossover singer is the proud winner of seven Grammy awards to date.