Friends & Collaborators

During the span of his illustrious, 20-year career in the music industry, Emilio Estefan Jr. 
has drawn warm parise and admiration from an array of prominent players in the entertainment business. 
Following are thoughts and insights about Emilio rendered by some 
of the industry's most esteemed personalities.

Thomas Mottola (President/CEO, Sony Music Entertainment, Inc.)
Emilio Estefan is one the most smartest and most talented people in the entire music business, maybe in any business. He's also one of my closest friends, and I treasure that friendship. 
As writer, player, arranger, manager and producer - Emilio is without peer.
Together with Gloria Estefan, Emilio has helped determine and trasform the course of 
Latin popular music over the past two decades. The worlwide success of Gloria and Miami Sound Machine blew the hinges off the door for Latin performers in every territory, and Emilio took that success to a whole other level by working with a new generation of Latin artists to establish them as global stars capable of transcending language and cultural barriers. 
Emilio's accomplishments are as extraordinary as the man himself.

Oscar Llord (President, Sony Discos)
Emilio is the single most important factor in the development of what has been coined "crossover". Throughout the years, he has moved with ease and effectiveness in both the American and Latin music, where they have scored numerous successes year after year.
One of the things people have recognized is that Emilio and Gloria are ambassadors around 
the world for the whole Latin culture. And Emilio, besides being tremendously talented and a being a very passionate music man, also possesses a public-relations/marketing savvy, and that's what makes him truly unique and one of the industry's great figures. I have been pretty close to the development of the Miami Sound Machine because of being from Miami, and, having a band of my own, we sometimes shared stages. I saw them go from working very small venues to working stadium of 100,000 people. The one thing that really stands out from the personal side is that this man - with all of the success he has enjoyed - continues to be a very humble and very simple person who is always willing to take time to listen to a new songwriter and check out a new artist and give them the best of his experience.

George Zamora (VP/GM, WEA Latina)
I admire his success. He is totally dedicated to the industry, and everything he touches turns 
to gold, basically. He has a great amount of talent as a producer, and he works very, very well with the artists.



Carlos Ponce
Emilio was always the first option to produce my record for many reasons - going into 
a crossover market was one of them. It has been eight years since I've started wanting to 
have a recording career, and I have had a lot of management deals and a lot of record-label encounters, and, ironically, the person who has had the most experience - and has had most success of all of the people I have spoken with - was the only person who didn't try to change me. Instead of telling me, "This is what you should do, and thisis what we are going to do with your image," he was the only person who asked me, "What is it you have to offer to music, and 
I will work around that and decorate it." That was the key to make me want to work with Emilio right away. And there have been great coincidences along the way - like I was a bartender at 
the Cardozo Hotel before Emilio owned it. And then my record-launch party was done at the same hotel a few years later, so it was pretty impressive. I think it's also impressive - the way Emilio has had solid career and a solid family life.

Andy Garcia
Emilio is a true visionary, 
a passionately committed husband and father and an irreplaceable friend.

David R. Glew (Chairman, Epic Records Group)
As a songwriter, producer and record-maker, Emilio Estefan Jr. brought together the worlds 
of Latin music and mainstream pop in a way no one had ever done before. Through the incredible string of hit records he and Gloria have created together, Emilio has never lost touch with his musical and cultural roots - even as his music has touched the lives of millions around the world. It's been my good fortune to work closely with Emilio Estefan Jr. for over 10 years. 
He combines a singular creative vision and incredible musical ability with a sense of strategic planning and total dedication to the success of every project. That's a rare combination in our businness - and the reason why I look forward to my next 10 years of working with this very gifted man.

Quincy Jones
Emilio is genuinely one of the most special human being that there is. He is talented, 
creative mind and also a keenly astute businessman, but, more importantly, he is a dedicated husband, father and friend. That dedication and devotion spills over into everything that he 
does and everyone he meets. Together with Gloria, who is an equally talented artist and devoted wife and mother, the Estefans have, without doubt, been at the forefront of the movement which brought Latin music into mainstream American pop music. 
I don't think that enough words exist to describe how much I love Emilio, Gloria, Nayib 
and Emily Marie.

Polly Anthony (President, Epic Records/550 Music)
The career of Emilio Estefan Jr. is much more than hit records, world tours and international awards. Together, Emilio and Gloria have built a bridge between the cultures of the Caribbean and Latin America and the American mainstream. When a Gloria Estefan song became a Summer Olympics anthem... when "Mi Tierra" topped the Latin Albums chart for a solid year... when President Bush appointed Gloria as public member of the US delegation to the United Nations... these were special achievments in which the entire Latin-American community could take special pride. Emilio has never forsaken his roots. He's given back to his musical community, through his productions of such gifted artists as Cachao, Albita and Celia Cruz. 
And he's given back to the community in which he and Gloria live, by, among other things, helping to raise over $3 million in relief funds Hurricane Andrew swept southern Florida in 1992. It's been my good fortune to have been a "fellow traveler" with Emilio and Gloria Estefan on their amazing musical journey... and we've got many more miles to go together.

Jose Behar (President/CEO, EMI Latin)
Emilio is the kind of guy that, once you bring him on board on a recording project - aside from knowing you are going to get an incredible record - you get instantaneous credibility.
With Carlos Ponce, who is breaking big in all of Latin America and the US, it was a matter 
of signing Carlos and then bringing Emilio on board, which again, gives the artist credibility. 
So, Emilio has a great sense of what the masses want. He is somebody I feel very fortunate to have been able to work with. We have had great success with Secada, and "Voces Unidas" is a record - artistically - I will be very proud of for the next 100 years. He also is somebody who I feel very privileged to have as a friend. And, personally, for years I have always gotten a kick out of Emilio, because, whenever we were finishing a conversation, he would say to me, "Oye, trabajando pa' tì ["Listen, I am working for you"].
And I always would tell him, "You're the only guy who has $400 million under his pillow, and 
I have $29.52, but you're trabajando pa' mì".
So, this is an ongoing joke, to the point now where we've made this phrase of his pretty famous among everybody here at EMI Latin. We're always telling each other, "Oye, trabajando pa' tì".
It's histerical, and I think it gives you a sense of his humbleness, that here is a guy who is on top of the world, but yet he puts himself in a position of "trabajando pa' tì". And if you really, really did not know him well, you would almost buy him saying "trabajando pa' tì".
In fact, he says now he is writing a song called "Trabajando Pa' Tì".

Nora Bulnes (President, Selecta Magazine)
Emilio is not only charismatic, but very confident in all of the projects that he carries out. 
I met him at the beginning of the [Cuban] exile, when we were all going through very difficult moments. He had a group formed by three or four musicians whose music was unique and rhythm had a contagious feel to it. He played in all the fund-raisers, galas and fashion shows that I used to organize. His group ascended to become an orchestra, and the rest is part of history. He has the insight to create works of art out of music and the determination to keep them going, even when the tide is against him. But, above all of the success, he and Gloria have remained down-to-heart, proud of their Cuban heritage and roots. They have never forgotten their roots and the people who helped them.

Ralph Mercado (President, RMM Records)
Emilio is one of the most influential guys in our business. I first got a taste of his talent when 
he did a video of "Sazòn," for one of our artists, Celia Cruz. He is a great innovator.

Frank Welzer (President, Sony Music - International Latin America)
When I think of Emilio, I wonder what our businness would be like today if he had decided 
to remain an ad executive with Bacardi. No Gloria, no Secada, no "Miami sound" and a very localized, fragmented Latin music businness. If he didn't create it, he had an influence on it. 
The best part is that I consider him not only a part of the SOny family, but a close, personal friend. Emilio has made Miami what it is today - the mecca for Latin recording artists. Everything he touches turns to gold, platinum and Grammys. He is a magnet for artists, the most recent example being what he has done with the new Shakira album. He has preserved Shakira's uniqueness and taken her sound to the next level. He has just completed Ana Gabriel's album for release early next year, and he is working on Soledad's new album, which will also be released early next year (1999).

Jorge E. Pinos (VP, International Department, William Morris Agency)
Emilio is a good businessman. He plans his goals way ahead of time, and he achieves them. 
I have known him for 20 years, and I knew him when he and Gloria were barely starting. In terms of helping the other Latin artists in the US market, he has been one of the pioneers of the crossover, per se. Gloria Estefan is really an act that crossed over into the Anglo market where you have Anglo people buying her records. He has also helped other Latin artists perform in nicer venues. It is partly due to him. We booked the shows and put him in those venues, but we were able to open up new markets for a lot of [Latin] people. Emilio is a very caring guy, and whenever I had a problem, he would always call and say, "Whatever you need, I will be there for you." He has always been that way with me. I am like his brother.

Dick Clark
The first time I ever met Emilio was when Miami Sound Machine was making their national television debut on "American Bandstand". What struck me about him was he was brilliant, 
and I didn't realize how brilliant at the time because nothing much had happened. My attitude changed as the years went by and I suddenly realized that he may appear to be the absent-minded professor, but he is organized and he's choreographed not only Gloria's future, but the whole enterprise that they have together. It is a beautiful thing to watch. He is like the Wizard of Oz, only there is substance behind curtain. He is the man who has brought to the fore a form of music that was inherently his background, anyway, and now all of the rest of us have suddenly discovered the influence of Latin music, which is so obvious. Latin music is a very important piece of the music picture, and he knew that from the get-go. He was smart enough to see the rise in a segment of the population, that their appetites were not being satisfied and that they were becoming an important economic force. And nobody knew how to market them. 
Emilio just didn't target this market, he wrapped his arms around the whole thing. What I would point to with the most admiration is how extraordinary organized he is.

Phil Ramone
You could say Emilio and I first met when I called him to tell him I had to pull my car off to the side of the road when I heard Gloria's "Conga" for the first time. I was working on a musical starring Plàcido Domingo, and I asked Emilio if Gloria would do a duet with Plàcido. This was the start of a wonderful friendship, and our families have become very close.
When we work together at Crescent Moon, he will always stop in the control room for updates and playbacks, but his energy is so endless, he'll go running on the beach, calling in comments on last night's mix or vocals on his cell phone. Emilio is the ultimate ambassador; he shows up 
at the studio with what I call the "universal tour". It may comprise both Spanish - and English-speaking press, dignitaries, or just plain folks who love him and Gloria, but he is equally concerned about everyone. He is able to talk business one minute, then discuss why the clave could be louder to drive the groove, and then ask about your well-being without missing a beat.
He and Gloria always have time for their friends. I consider him a brother, and I love him very much.



Jon Secada
I have been working now with Emilio for about 12 years, and he has definitely been my mentor as a manager, producer and innovator. As a songwriter, I really didn't develop until I started working with his publishing company. My music really kind of took off when he gave me the idea and vision to do and try different things. He is an ideas man, and, at the same time, he is a great businessman in an industry that obviously [is about] more than just talent. Sometimes, I can't believe how much he does and how he can keep it all together and keep things in perspective. The company is the result of his talent and his vision, and it's still growing. 
It's something that I am proud of, and I am just very happy I'm still working with him.