Gloria!

Performer: Gloria Estefan
Artist: Wyclef Jean
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Personnel includes: Gloria Estefan (vocals); Ira Siegel, Gary King, Rene Toledo (guitar); Kenny Anderson, Eddie Calle (alto & tenor saxophones); Tom Timko (alto & baritone saxophones); Douglas Michels, Randall Barlow (trumpet); Herman "Teddy" Mulet (trombone); Paquito Herchevarria (piano); Lawrence P. Dermer (keyboards); Tony Collucio, Peter Schwartz, Giuseppe D., Bobby Guy, Craig Snider, Juan Jose Quinonez (keyboards, programming); Frank Cornelius, George Perry Sr. (bass); Ernie Lake (drums, programming); Duke Mushroom, Bashiri Johnson, Edwin Bonilla, Lajos Ariel Bares (percussion); Gordon Chin, Lester Mendez, Doug Beck, Kike Santander, Dave Lee (additional programming); D.J. Laz (scratches); Wyclef Jean. Producers include: Emilio Estefan Jr., Tony Moran, Lawrence P. Dermer, Kike Santander, Wyclef Jean. Engineers include: Javier Garza, Dave Saronson, Tommy Uzzo. "Heaven's What I Feel" was nominated for the 1999 Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. "Don't Let This Moment End" was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. On her follow-up to 1996's largely acoustic, relatively subdued DESTINY, Gloria Estefan turns in an upbeat, lighthearted direction, populating GLORIA! with buoyant dance rhythms and vibrant arrangements. The sound recalls Estefan's musical origins with Miami Sound Machine, augmented by contributors ranging from Estefan regulars Pablo Flores and Javier Garza to Soul Solution and the Fugees' Wyclef Jean, who raps on the sensuous "Don't Release Me." A mixture of disco, funk, and Latin music infuses the entire album, with Spanish vocals on "Oye" and "Cuba Libre" paying tribute to Estefan's musical heritage. Overall, GLORIA! is rife with an appealing sense of loose playfulness and one danceable, salsa-spiked song after another.

Entertainment Weekly (6/5/98, pp.84-85) - "Not since 1987 has Cuba's crossover queen made an album so unrelenting in its fusion of disco with salsa....[GLORIA! includes a] laudable lack of ballads..." - Rating: B Q (3/01, p.118) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...A salutary reminder to those who believe that sultry salsa-pop fronted by a smoldering sexpot is a recent invention..." Vibe (6-7/98, p.168) - "...Estefan has evolved with an increasingly graceful, organic flow....Estefan aggressively struts through the tune, streaching her creamy alto vocal range to heights worthy of a fierce, larger-than-life true diva-heights..."

Gloria Estefan began her career as the lead singer for Miami Sound Machine, which found great popularity in the 1980s with its salsa-tinged dance music, and she went on to be a Latin crossover success story. Estefan has since gone solo and experimented with romantic ballads, Latin-inspired pop, and smooth Afro-Cuban Spanish-language albums, but her greatest strength lies in irrepressible, danceable party music.

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