ASTRA'S CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT: Gloria Estefan

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is such an honor to be sitting with such
a musical legend right now.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
My gosh, thank you so much. That's so sweet of you.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
I've been listening to you since I was a little girls. Sure,
and the Miami Sala machine.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Probably in the womb at this point.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
No, no, no, I will say I was dancing to
a lot of your stuff. First off, congrats on Good
Morning America today.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Thank you so much. I wasn't fun, it was great.
You know, I have a history with Good Morning America.
I've played in a lot of their summer series, and
a lot of my fans that have been there through
the years were they are with me, so it was
really special. It's always nice to even though they're in
a new studio and all beautiful, but it's kind of
old home weeks. Some of the guys are still the guys.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Did they honor you with something today?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
They did? I was surprised us. It was three plex
one for my husband Emilio from all the producing that
he's done all these amazing records, and then on sales
and both for La Vesina and the new album Raises,
and like a bunch of sales. I don't know. I
was so surprised. I didn't even get a chest to

(01:02):
see it upside down. But they're gonna have to send it.
We can't take that on the planes.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah. And speaking of Raisas, congrats on the new album.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Thank you so much. It's been eighteen.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Years since you've released a Spanish language album.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
It has indeed not on purpose, It just hadn't happened.
And you know, you have to have an idea and
a concept. And honestly, I didn't even think that album
was going to happen because I've been working on a
musical called Basuda right with your daughter, right yes, for
the last three years, almost a little more probably, And
I was so focused on that that when Emilio a

(01:35):
couple of years ago brings me this song that he wrote,
and he says, Babe, I wrote it. You know, I'm
working with all these artists and they want it, but
I can only hear your voice in this song. And
I listen and I fell in love with it, and
I go, but I can't get away from this. He goes,
do you trust me? I go, yes, absolutely, He goes,
let me write it for you. And he started writing

(01:57):
all these amazing songs and producing them completely. And by
the time I went into the studio when we had
eight or nine songs, I knew them very deeply. So
it just happened and very organically.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
That is so incredible. Now I understand that what he
was writing for you is kind of like love notes.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, he writes love notes to me all the time,
like if he leaves on a trip, I'll find wherever
I'm brushing my teeth, there's someplace that I'm sure to
find it. He writes me a little love notes. So
I included those on the record. But the funny thing
is that he tells me, I wrote you a love song,
and I go, you wrote me a love song. He goes,

(02:35):
but I'm the one that's going to sing it, right,
So you wrote your own love song.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
For me to sing to you act.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
In true Emilia form. But I said, listen, every word
is from my heart too.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
So I love this because you guys have been married
for like almost fifty years now.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, we've been together fifty years. We're going to be
married forty seven September second, and together forty nine. And
then he was my boss.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
F how do you keep the love alive time?

Speaker 2 (03:00):
You know what I have to tell you. First of all,
it feels super fast. I really can't imagine how much
this time has gone back. He didn't even realize that
I had been in his band for fifty years. That's
until I told him they were releasing this album. This
is my fiftieth year. I joined in seventy five. He
goes no, we said it can't mean and I go yes,

(03:21):
and it's gone fast. We're both very different, so we
balance each other out personality wise, but we rarely differ
in the things that really matter, you know. Family comes
first always for both of us. We're always on the
same page musically. Business wise, we love the same things,

(03:41):
you know, so there's rarely cause for arguments.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Obviously, you figured out the recipe to make things work.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
You know what. We are very different, but that difference
works because if we're both like him, would be dead
of heart attacks by now, and if we're both like me,
we'd still be sitting on the couch playing the game
guitar family parties. So it's worked out. Well.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Now, let's talk about the album really quick. What is
one song on the album that gets you in your
feels when you start to sing, oh, oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Well, there's a lot of them because they're all like
super special and important. But I think the song I
wrote for my grandson Sasha, because I've written songs for
all the special people in my life. But I knew
one day I would write one for him, and I
like things to happen organically. So we were hanging out
at the beach house a couple almost three years ago,

(04:34):
and he had to leave to go back to school
and I was still there writing for Basuda. So I
missed him so much that the song just poured out
of me, and I called him and I played it
for him on you know, on guitar on the phone
because I wanted him to be the first one to
hear it. And I promised him, I go, Babe, one day,
I'm going to record this song. But I had no

(04:54):
plans to do a record, And then the record happens,
and I told him it was in English, and I
told him, you know what, I'm going to write it
in Spanish so we can include it in the body
of the album and I'm gonna leave the English for
my English speaking fans. Yeah. And then another song that
in Spanish wandered Timpono's Castilla that Emilia wrote when his
father passed and Johnson Kinda had recorded it a long

(05:17):
time ago, and we wanted to do a really stripped
down version. And I thought, I'm going to write these
lyrics in English because I think it's an important message.
So but all of them, I mean they I all
felt that. When I was singing them, I was like
it was it felt really comfortable. And have to say
when he heard it, he cried. Well, his dad, my son,
and his wife were listening because they would not let

(05:39):
him listen by himself because they like to horn in
out everything. But no, they were all crying. They really
loved it. And the pass the cry test. I always
call my sister whenever I write a new song, and
unless she cries, I know there's it's not perfect.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
So if she doesn't cry, it doesn't make it to
an album exactly.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
So far she's never not cried.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Oh I love that. So you're you really are deep
with the family with all that much, very much, that's incredible.
Now of course we got to talk about it. Of course,
with the music you've inspired so many artists, A lot
of Latin artists like Shakira Cam, like Aveo j Lo
have any of them reached out to you to talk
about the new album yet or.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
They've been so incredibly generous because I know I never
would have asked for this, but my team goes, we
have this idea that maybe the track listing can be
released by some of the people that you've worked with,
and I go, don't bother them. I hate to bug
people for anything. Oh it's never a bug though, And
they said, well, I know how busy they are and

(06:37):
what they're doing, so I didn't think any of it
was going to happen. And then all of a sudden,
we got Shakita Camiao, we got Oh my god, I
don't want to forget anybody, Carol King, Sam Smith, Eva Longoria,
Cyndi Lauper. Oh, I can't. I need the prompting because

(06:58):
I can't forget at anyone. Of course, my grandson did
his song, and Emilio did Gwander Dimbodos Casti, and each
day we posted a new song from the track listing.
So they were very lovely. And now Billboard Magazine just
did this whole spread and there was such beautiful comments

(07:19):
from again Cindy Laber Shakda just amazing. They're so generous and.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
There was any opportunities of doing a collab with any
of these artists.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
Oh, listen, I always love collabs. I think in fact,
Emilia's prepping something for my social media that people haven't
really seen. And especially if there are people that are,
you know, younger than forty, they're not going to know
all of these amazing duets and collabs that I did
with people. And he's making like a little recount of it.

(07:49):
He has to do it in pieces because if not,
it would be too long. And every time you work
with somebody, you learn something new and a new baby
comes out. So I'm always up to doing something, and
it just sometimes people are putting on an album or
you know, I didn't ask anybody on this album because
I was really trying to get it done in between.

(08:12):
Although I do have a couple of really cool collabs
on remixes for Lavesina, And then you say that's going
to be cheated, cheated? Can I say the collabs on
we have to wait? Yeah, I gotta wait. But they're
they're women, They're incredible, and they took the songs to

(08:33):
it a whole other.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
Lovel Are they big names that we're going to know
off the time.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
I think so, I think you'll know. I mean, they're
definitely like groundbreakers in their genres.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
That's incredible. I can't wait for that. Now. A few
months ago, I know you're up at the Empire State Building. Yeah,
they were honoring you. How was that experience?

Speaker 2 (08:50):
That was so exciting? First of all, I've never been
up to that spot that.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
They don't let Yes, I know, right, we did that
too with the Hollywood Hamilton. The k they brought us there.
We got to flip the switches well, which I'm sure
you did.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
I did you picked certain cot be in King Kong's hand?

Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yes? How incredible is that? Right now?

Speaker 2 (09:08):
It was really cool. It was a wonderful experience. And
I think the last time I had gone to the
Empire Stable and was when Emilia and I were just
married that we went as tourists.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Full circle moment there, Yes, it was.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
And what a view, right lord?

Speaker 1 (09:25):
You see the entire city you like you can see
Miami you practically, I think you can.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
But it was really special. You know, that's iconic. It's
a New York star rightly. The Empire Stabuilding, You've done
an amazing job with the exhibits and the thing.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
The color scheme that was blue, green, and hot pink.
Did you pick those?

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (09:45):
What did they signify?

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Well, the blue and the green, the ocean, the palm trees,
you know, the green nature is very important to me.
And the hot pink absolutely South Beach art deco, you know.
So it was a nice combination.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
Of little Miami feel and New.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
York history because you know, Miami is very young compared
to New York City, right, and the most historic area
is the Art Deco area that's from like the late twenties,
so that had to be included in there.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
Of course. Now a lot of people I saw that
your song Conga has been blowing up all over TikTok,
because that's how you can reach the people under forty.
By the way, can you stell out Conga anyone on
the dance floor.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
I don't know if I'm gonna help Conga then, but
I can certainly sing it because nobody can sing that fast.
Nobody can sing like you, Nobody can sing that fast.
I can tell you that is true too, that is
and and wait to see. We just did something that's
going to come out soon that I did like it
was on speed Gonga. It's a very special version of it.

(10:45):
But uh, yeah, we're I mean, I'm happy that it's
still kicking in that you hear it in movies. Chipmunk move,
Chipmunks have sung Gonga.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
I do have a TikTok idea to do with you
after this conga if you're down for it.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
All right, because I mean I think I could keep
up with the speed here, can you? I think I
can think? All right.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
I grew up listening and singing it and dancing to it.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
I can't wait to hear we got to do it.
Let's do it. That's dood.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
Now we got to talk about Broadway because I did
see your show On your Feet back in like twenty fifteen,
twenty sixteen.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, that was one of my all time favorite Broadway
shows I still do this day. Talk about it great.
And back to the whole Basuda thing. Are you going
to be bringing Barsuda to Broadway?

Speaker 2 (11:23):
We absolutely have that as a plan. Like everything Broadways
about real estate, who's in, well, what's available? But no,
very much. The plan probably early twenty seven because we're
opening in the Alliance Theater May thirtieth of twenty six,
now coming up for the off Broadway run and then

(11:43):
hopefully we'll be prepping it to hopefully be by early
twenty seven.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
Can you tell us what it's about?

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Absolutely? Okay, in Paraguay, it's like an area of Auson
Sion forty five years ago. It's beautiful lake and governments
started sending their trash there because they were selling it. Yes,
so there is one of the largest landfills in all

(12:10):
of Latin America. And this guy environmental engineer went into
the area to try to help, but it's just too
big and the problem is insurmountable. So he was a
musician and he thought, Okay, if I can't help these
people this way, then maybe I can help them this way.
And he brought his violin and he started giving lessons

(12:31):
for free to the kids there, and somehow he created
helped create with the kids an orchestra, but they didn't
have enough instruments for everybody that wanted to play the instruments.
Real good ones don't survive because they have ash storms
and from the fires when they burned things on Argentina,
the ash comes over, they have floods. It's insane, they

(12:55):
what they experience there. So they one of the kids
that lived in the streets and would refurbish the trash.
That's how they make a living. They live off the grid.
They started making the instruments out of trash.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
How do you make instruments out of trash?

Speaker 2 (13:10):
It's incredible. It takes an oil can, for example, pound
it out, drum, make too not just a drum, make
cut out the shape of the violin front and back,
you know, put another piece to solder it together. They
used they used coins for the pegs, the tuning pegs.

(13:31):
It's it's like mind mind blowing. It's incredible. So we're
doing the inception story of how it all came together,
how the idea came about, and and we've written like
over twenty songs Emily and I, and we're so excited.
We're super excited.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Oh I can't wait for it to come here to
New York. I might have to go down to where
is it Atlanta.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
Or it's going to be in Atlanta, Georgia.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
Yeah, you'll get the previews first.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
That would be great. Yeah. I think the official opening
night is June twelfth, but we will be in previews
May thirtieth.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
Oh my goodness. That's awesome. And then you're also working
on another project.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Gabby's Dollar is the movie that's done. It's about to
come out. Yeah, I shot it last summer and I
hadn't really watched the show itself, Gabby's Dollars because my
kids netflix. It is the cartoon now it is on Netflix. Yeah,
it had nine seasons. I know. It's there's a Gabby,
actual Gabby, and it combines live action with her. She

(14:34):
kind of like leads kids through it and when they
pop into the dollhouse there's these little cats and she
becomes an animated character. So they have taken that to
the nth degree with DreamWorks Animation, Like it's nuts. And
when they approached me about it, I didn't really know
too much about it, but it did some research and
then I found out Christian Wig is in it too,

(14:56):
besides the original Gabby.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
It's awesome.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
I was I was floorida, I'm a huge How was
it working with her? Fantastic? Fantastic. I mean probably our
little animated creatures had more, you know, screen time together.
But she was wonderful and she's just I mean watching
her outtakes like she just goes and we had to

(15:20):
control our laughter because the scene is there and then
she's taking it to places you never imagine. It was
really wonderful.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
Your Grandma, I am. I love it.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
I love that because I'm a grandma so secret rely
I related completely to that vibe, that energy, and Grandma
Gig is the one that built built the magical dollhouse
for Gabby. So it goes back in time and then
to present day and it's It was a lot of
fun to do.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
And that movie is coming out at the end of September.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yes, Ryan Craigo director. When I spoke to him, he
really had so much enthusiasm and joy for the project,
and you know, it was very contagious. I really wanted
to be a part of it.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Awesome. We got to remind everyone they have to grab
your new album, Raisas, which is out now. But before
we go, one of the tracks is titled how will
You Be Remembered? So I want to ask you, Gloria Stefan,
how do you want to be remembered?

Speaker 2 (16:14):
I wrote a song about it, Remember Me with Love.
I wrote this years ago, and really that's all I
want to when people remember me, to have a smile
on their face, or you know, still be listening to
some of my tracks and just know that I loved
what I did, and I really wanted to share that
joy and empowerment through my music, through my lyrics, and

(16:36):
that's all any artist can hope for.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
Well, congratulations to you and best of luck to you
on this album, and we want more music to.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
Thank you so much. We music coming because Basuda is
kind of like a Gloriou stuff an album good with
my daughter, you know, I love it injected in there
in such an incredible way. She's the best musician.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
I thank thank you so much for joining.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
Thank you, thank you,