Destiny: A Conversation with Gloria Estefan

It's our SEASON FINALE! We're going out with a bang diving deep into so many fans' favorite album, Destiny, with none other than the Diva herself. Gloria shares her memories and stories making the album, and joins us as we go track by track. It's a retrospective and celebration you won't want to miss.

Let's hear from you-- Send us an email about anything Gloria related at LetitLoosePod@gmail.com. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_09 0:00

Hi everybody, it's me, Gloria Steph, and welcome to Let It Loose with Carlos, Rob and Wes. Don't miss it.

SPEAKER_11 0:10

Hi everybody, and welcome back to another episode of Let It Loose, our season finale.

SPEAKER_13 0:16

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_11 0:17

Can you believe? Oh, by the way, my name is Rob. Oh, I'm Wes. I'm Carlos.

SPEAKER_08 0:22

And I'm Laura.

SPEAKER_11 0:24

And today we're doing a really big celebration. We're having a really big party. It's party time. We are celebrating everybody except for Wes's favorite album, Destiny.

SPEAKER_12 0:36

Please.

SPEAKER_11 0:38

Because Destiny is turning 30 years old, which is also my age.

SPEAKER_12 0:42

That is crazy.

SPEAKER_11 0:43

Seven years ago.

SPEAKER_12 0:44

If you only knew how many copies, if you only knew how many different copies of Destiny I have from all over the world, you'll you'll be able to tell that I d don't hate it.

SPEAKER_11 0:54

Let's find out. Um, and to help us have this conversation, we have somebody who really uh worked really intimately with the Destiny album, somebody who's really connected to it, somebody who really resonates with the lyrics and the music and the story of the album. I can't wait for you to find out who it is. Who is it? Who could it be? Who could it be? Uh beats me.

SPEAKER_12 1:19

Beats me. Do you want me to say it? I don't know that I can.

SPEAKER_11 1:22

No one.

SPEAKER_12 1:22

No. Well, it was my vision all along. Well, in my dreams.

SPEAKER_13 1:31

Alright, Miss Cleo.

SPEAKER_12 1:33

Who's Cleo? Oh my god.

SPEAKER_11 1:36

Wes has no sort of point of reference for any sort of pop culture or anything. Today he said, Who's Voldemort? He said, Who's Miss Cleo? I would love to be as offline as Wes is.

SPEAKER_12 1:48

You tell me some stories about Gloria, Michael Jackson, some like pop music. I got you.

SPEAKER_11 1:53

And yet I am the most chronically online person that you'll ever meet. Uh I get I know who Miss Cleo is through and through. Loud I may not, because she's a very American icon. No, icons. No. She's a psychic.

SPEAKER_12 2:08

You don't remember Miss Cleo from back in the day? Oh, yeah, with commercials. Yes.

SPEAKER_11 2:14

I feel like Miss Cleo would have loved the Destiny album because you know, she's always talking about your destiny and following the path of the right love, and you know, he's not the daddy, but whatever. But like I think Miss Cleo would have really resonated with the music and the history and the story of the Destiny album.

SPEAKER_12 2:32

I can't keep a straight face with all of this mess right now.

SPEAKER_13 2:37

Can you imagine if Miss Cleo would have told you 20, 30 years ago that we would be doing what we're doing right now? Would you believe? Would you believe her?

SPEAKER_11 2:48

No. Not at all. Well, because also Miss Cleo was una charlatana through and three. So I would not have believed anything she said to me.

SPEAKER_12 3:00

30 years ago, I was probably like on spend 100 on the Reach CD Maxi single that had been released. You should see it now, how worn out it looks with the cover art. That's a 13-year-old less going through the Reach era.

SPEAKER_13 3:19

That was a fun era though. I think um this episode this episode is gonna be a lot of fun, and I think we should just get right into it. Let's jump right in.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

I'm excited.

SPEAKER_13 3:34

For decades, the world has known her as a superstar, a multiple Grammy winner, Kennedy Center honoree, songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. Honestly, if we listed every award, this episode would become a six-part miniseries. But today we wanted to celebrate something beyond the awards. Because through the music, Gloria Stevon brought people together, different countries, different generations, different stories, all connected through songs that became part of our lives. And honestly, this podcast is proof of that. What started as fans, sharing memories, has become a global community built around music, connection, and shared experiences. So for our season finale, we're celebrating the 30th anniversary of one of the most beloved albums in her catalog. An album that sold over 1 million copies worldwide and earned her a Grammy nomination for best female pop vocal performance. Welcome to the Let It Loose Destiny Deep Dive with the one and only Gloria Stefan.

SPEAKER_09 4:37

Yay!

SPEAKER_13 4:40

Welcome, the Conga Queen!

SPEAKER_09 4:42

First of all, congratulations. Because, you know, I can try to do whatever I want to do and then sometimes never hear back. Um, sales are kind of a gauge, but that really doesn't say it, especially in the streaming world now, because uh we sold a lot of albums, but we didn't know how many times those albums were played.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

Oh, that's true.

SPEAKER_09 5:23

And now we do. So thank you all, uh, all the fans worldwide that gave me so much love and support through the years, ups and downs, whatever happened, you've been there for me. So I truly appreciate this, and I am in awe of what you guys are doing. I know the work that goes into this, so I know more than anyone what it is you're doing, and it takes a lot of work, especially with your busy lives. So thank you.

SPEAKER_13 5:49

It's a labor of love, and we've enjoyed every moment of it.

SPEAKER_11 5:52

Yeah, we're having a great time, and it's also been good because we were friendly, but now we're like closer than ever. So it's been really great to you know that happens. Gloria brought us together, is we use it all the time because it's true, it absolutely is the case.

SPEAKER_09 6:08

I love it.

SPEAKER_11 6:09

But anyway, how has uh 2026 been for you so far? I know you're working on basura, I know that you're in deep in rehearsals. Yeah, how's everything going for you?

SPEAKER_09 6:19

Oh my gosh, it's great, honestly. Well, I cannot complain. Everybody's healthy, so that's number one, and the only important thing that really matters in the world to me. The family's doing great. Sasha is just graduating from middle school with three years of A pluses in every class for three years. That is amazing. That is awesome, it's incredible. So, you know, he's my pride and joy. Uh, Emily doing great, also working. You know, she's got a concert coming up in Spain.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

Yes, I know.

SPEAKER_09 6:53

Super excited about that. But the best thing has been this stretch with the final stretch on Basura. We've been working four years on this. And I was telling Grife last night that it's probably the most uh fulfilling creative project that I have ever done in my life.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

Really?

SPEAKER_09 7:16

And I love that it's at this phase of my life because quite honestly, I couldn't have done it before just because of my time, the kind of time that this takes, and the kind of concentration and focus, and it just wouldn't have been possible before. So to have that opportunity now and to have it together with Emily, which my secret wish was to spend more time with Emily when I invited her to do this, and that's exactly what's happened. And our creative team is a blessing, our producers are beyond great, they've given us so many tools to really, you know, make this what we dream. And I can't wait to put it out in front of the public. May 30th, it you know, it starts, and we're here in Atlanta, Atlanta, which is a very special place for me because A Reach, hello, 96 Olympics. Right, 30 years ago was on this album, no? Yes, it was exactly. I gotta refresh, but um, and I remember that day that we were locked in the stadium since 5 a.m. We couldn't leave because if you remember, there was a bombing at the right, exactly, and uh we we were locked up tight once we were in there. We were in there, and there's some funny stories about that song. When we get to the song, then maybe we could delve into that. But there was some craziness behind the scenes, and uh then father of the bride two months, and I spent here shooting it during the COVID bubble, and I fell in love with Atlanta, and to have this be here now, it's just so many milestones in my life in Atlanta. Yeah, so it's awesome, and I'm I'm really, really happy. Emilio's great, everybody's great. What can I tell you? No complaints. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_12 9:10

So, one of the most beautiful parts of doing this first season of Let It Loose has been hearing from fans all over the world. Share their stories, memories, and emotional connections to your music. What has it been like for you listening to all those stories and hearing firsthand how your songs and you as a person have impacted so many lives across different generations and countries?

SPEAKER_09 9:35

I told you, I get embarrassed, my cheeks get red, I literally blush, and you know, I I've listened I've got to catch up on the last two before this one because I've been so ensconced in this project, and by the time we get home, we're like fried and a half. But every time I listen, you know, as an artist and as a as a kid, I think, uh, the only thing I wanted to do was inspire people in some way. Uh that's what music did for me. It saved me on so many multiple occasions. Other people's music got me through the most difficult times in my life. And that's why for me it's such a privilege that I don't take lightly when I put stuff out into the cosmos, into the universe. Uh and I never really got to hear the kinds of things that you guys talk about. Because, yeah, you know, fans are great. They write me fan letters, I've read them, they're beautiful, I hug them, I love to feel their energy. But the deep dives that you guys go into, I am incredibly shocked at how right you've gotten a lot of this. Because that's good.

SPEAKER_12 10:49

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_09 10:50

Because there are intentions every time I put an album out, and all you can do is pray that those things get through. And even though it's not for me something final, because I know as an artist that not everybody's gonna get it, not everybody's gonna understand it. Some people will take it their own way. We know we're in a divided world. It's kind of like 50-50 down the middle. We're really in a very unique although it's probably been that way all along. We just know about it now.

SPEAKER_13 11:20

Yeah, like like half of the country knows what love toy really is about.

SPEAKER_09 11:27

Oh my god, I had so much fun doing that song. You know, I have a sick sense of humor, so you can only imagine what was happening behind the scenes on that one.

SPEAKER_13 11:36

Hashtag Cubans DoItBear. Oh my god, it was we would love to hear that.

SPEAKER_09 11:41

One of my favorite songs, by the way, too. It pushed me out of my comfort zone in a way. Uh, and I know we're not talking about that album, but now that you brought it up, the jerks, which were the producing team uh with Emilio on that album, uh, they really had a very clear vision of how they wanted the vocals to sound, even though I always have final say and and did everything that I wanted to, but they really made me try things that I had never done before. And every step of the way you grow, every time you do something that's a little bit uncomfortable. I mean, I tell people that uh right after I had Naiib, I wanted to like lose weight and I wanted to be more loose in the band because I was now the front man kind of. And I took a modern dance class in FIU at eight in the morning so that I would get up and go. And the opening shot from this teacher was a giant gymnasium. We're all in there, they put everybody around the gymnasium, and then they go, Okay, we want each of you to do an interpretive dance down the middle of the friggin' thing of that, and that was I it was horrific for me, horrific. But I did it.

SPEAKER_13 12:53

I always wondered when because you've talked about that, you know, taking those classes before. I just didn't know the timeline, so I didn't realize it was naive.

SPEAKER_11 13:02

But this was already after you've done so many things, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 13:06

You were still feeling that feeling, absolutely, and and I always listen, I like to do things well, so I I knew that in those uh weak points, like dance or whatever. I mean, I can dance naturally, my body just moves to music. There's nowhere that I'm listening to music and I'm sitting still, it doesn't matter where I am, like my body will move along. But I just wanted to get better and have more tools. I, you know, I started taking voice lessons when I could afford them. That you know, naive had already been born when that happened with the incredible Gina Moretta in Miami. She was from La Scala de Milan, and she saved my voice and my life with those lessons. And so I thought, okay, let me take some movement. I took public speaking at the UM to kind of like bring me out of my shell. And communications was my one of my majors. So I just try to each time learn. I learn every day in my life, and I'm excited about learning always. So I always tried to push myself because I had performed for a lot of people and one person, and that one person is harder than to perform like the masses. I just try to get better at all those things. So yeah, it's uh it's been uh it's been a process, I can tell you.

SPEAKER_08 14:26

My parte la voy a hacer in español, inglés. Venga, les gusta. Tenemos un poco para todos. Antes de entrar in materia con Destiny, ¿qué se siente al saber que este álbum cumple ahora 30 años?

SPEAKER_09 14:43

Me parece mentira. Creo que por la velocidad de la vida que hemos vivido, Emilio y yo, and my family, we have tantas that unstañazo. And you today me acuerdo disfrutando cada day in the studio with Destiny and say that I have 50 years in the industry and that this has 30 years, me parece mentira. But it's the time, the time has to be a lot of various things of my cancer de cómo the time. Because in two minutes, 30 years. See, Emily is more than this, imagine.

SPEAKER_13 15:42

Yeah. Have you had a chance um recently to revisit any of the songs or memories from that era?

SPEAKER_09 15:50

I did my homework, baby.

SPEAKER_13 15:51

You did your homework, all right.

SPEAKER_09 15:52

I did. I don't like to be unprepared, and I was actually very happy with what I heard. I listened to the album again because I don't normally listen to my own stuff. I know. Uh the Gloria album, I like when I'm in Vero and I'm gonna go walk or ride my bike. That's a moment where I kind of revisit things just to see. And the Gloria album is what I thought about like a constant movement. But uh I I prepared. I I I dug back and listened to the album, and I was very happy that I still love it. I mean, I it's I've never listened back and gone, oh, so that's a beautiful thing. That's a great thing. It's the best.

SPEAKER_13 16:32

Just the the vocals, the music, the the arrangements, everything about that album is just gold. It's perfection. I I can't pick anything apart because there's nothing to pick apart. It's just absolutely it's it's my favorite album. Um and it's what's funny about um about this specific album is whenever I've done polls or whenever there's been polls of favorite albums, you know, it's it's usually destiny's on top tied with uh with the Gloria album. Those are the two, you know, a lot of people want a gloria part two, just throwing that out there. Everyone's always saying a gloria part two.

SPEAKER_09 17:14

Well, to me, Miss Little Havana was a little bit of a going in that direction, but why? I I want to know what is it for you about that album? Because I I can tell you what was the intention and how that happened.

SPEAKER_11 17:28

Which one uh about Gloria or Destiny? No, that's perfect. We're about to dive into it. We're gonna dive into it. We wanted to know going into the recording process of like what was your vision for the story of that album? Like, what did you envision right going into it?

SPEAKER_09 17:45

Okay, so you gotta think back that we had done Let It Loose, we had done Primitive Love, and that was an era that was very loopy, right? It was just the sound, but we created our own loops, and the the fascinating thing was that Joe Galdo, our amazing, you know, one of the jerks that was a drummer. He played for Foxy. You remember Foxy? He was the drummer, uh, get off was one of their big hits. Get off. Anyway, you can do a deep dive on that later. But it was that era, the 80s was very synthesizer, very, and we were excited about it. But then came Mi Tierra and Abriendo Puertas. And to me, me, me, Gloria, little Gloria Fardo, music has always been very organic. And the first stuff that I ever sang in my life was songs for my grandmother and my mother that were from ancient Cuba. It was a song I used to sing for my grandmother that was from the year 1895. They talked about that. So it was always very acoustic instruments. You know, remember, I played guitar and I took two years of classical guitar, which I suffered through because I really just wanted to sing and accompany myself. But my dad and my mom really wanted me to have that background. I'm happy for it. I'm glad that I got that knowledge. But after doing Mi Tierra and Abriendo Puertas, I wanted to now, at that point in my career, we had already had a bunch of albums. You know how they say the first one breaks through. If you're lucky to get a sophomore album, great. You're not cemented until the third one. Those things are gone now. Like it's a whole other world. But that's how it was back in the day. So I had done all that, and I go, you know what? I I'm going to really bring back all the organic nature of mi tierra and abriendo puertas, but bring it into the pop world in English. So it was, and at the same time, I had had Emily, so this miracle had happened to me, you know, and I really wanted to dig deep on the spiritual side of life. So every one of those songs, even party time, which I love the album version, I'm sorry, way better than the single, because that was the intention of that song.

SPEAKER_12 20:16

You just answer the question, and people ask me a lot. Yes.

SPEAKER_09 20:21

Because what happens is you do this album, you do this thing that you love and adore, and then the record company comes and says, Oh, but we need like a single version, and it has to be more up tempo, and it has to be more like your fans are used to, and it has to be more that way. It's not that I didn't love it, I had a great time doing it. But to me, the intention was what we put on that album. So that's my particular favorite. Don't take it personally. I'm fine with you having other ideas.

SPEAKER_12 20:48

People love remixes from that album. It's like they they want those remixes so bad.

SPEAKER_09 20:53

And and remixes are great, good for them, you know. But I remember having a personal beef at the time that they would like speed up your vocals, and I go, I sound like freaking mini mouse. So we resang, resang a bunch of stuff because I was not having the mini mouse speeding up of a song, but that was very spiritually intended. Every song on that album to me is sharing a belief or a depth, you know. Uh, even in higher, which is a fun song. We're really talking about reincarnation there in that song. So, you know, and Larry Dermer, which did listen to the lyrics now, and you're gonna know. You're gonna see.

SPEAKER_13 21:38

It's it's funny that well, when we get to that, because uh Billboard described it as uh something else, but we'll get to that when well Billboard never gets it right. Clearly.

SPEAKER_09 21:48

It's really hard for anyone to really get stuff right. And by the way, at early on in my career, they hired this um, you know, like a consultant for uh PR. Try to get into things like Rolling Stone. And he literally told me, listen, unless the writer is really snarky and mean, Rolling Stone will not publish an article by a critic. So that's, and I don't read reviews, I don't read my press. I don't follow that because I'm human and it's gonna hurt me when people get shit wrong. So I just have stayed very insular to that kind of thing. Somebody will say, Oh, you gotta read this, then I, you know, I'll acquiesce. But I do not Google myself, I do not read anything that's written pretty much. And, you know, if you're gonna be an artist, you have to be ready to take the good with the bad. And I just don't want to. So I just refuse to read or go into any of that thing. But yeah, that album in general was very introspective. It was very sharing of my personal thoughts and beliefs. And I wanted it to be acoustic. That's why we have the orchestra in there, the strings, the live strings. We have we we kind of married the stuff from mi tierra in the Afro-Cuban sense, especially in the song Destiny, the first song on the album, where we have a guy that's actually kind of like a babalao kind of thing delving into. And by the way, we don't follow that religion in case people get that wrong. I but we respect it, I respect everything, absolutely, but I have an issue with dogma in general, so you know I kind of will stay away from that, but it's such a part of our culture as Cubans, and I wanted to bring that into you know this album. And as we go song by song, then I'll give you a little more uh background, but you know, George Casas, God rest the soul, him and I were huge Beatles fans, so there's like a very Beatles-esque sound on like the heart never we'll we'll go step by. I don't want to blow your border.

SPEAKER_12 24:12

No, this is you're not gonna blow anything.

SPEAKER_09 24:14

We'll listen to what in general terms, yeah. In general terms, it was meant to be very organic, very real, very experimental in its rhythms, very fusion-oriented. And I just enjoyed so much singing that album. That uh I think you can tell. Absolutely. I enjoyed every album singing, but this was just like a little more home. I felt so solid after Mi Tierra and Abriendo Puertas, and so connected to my roots.

SPEAKER_13 24:45

And we really wanted to bring that to the English language, and you could hear it in your voice because I feel that there's something about your voice in Destiny that I mean, your your voice is incredible, of course. We've we've we love it, but in destiny, you just brought something else, just the way that your vocals wrap around these arrangements.

SPEAKER_11 25:07

There's a storyteller aspect to the vocals.

SPEAKER_09 25:09

I was a lot more free. Yeah, what can I tell you? Time goes by and life gets into your music, or else you're in trouble, you know. And uh look, I'm already blushing even from just talking.

SPEAKER_13 25:23

It's funny because you mentioned spirituality, and and I know that Wes has a question kind of in.

SPEAKER_12 25:28

Okay, yeah. So Destiny feels like a very intimate and spiritual album. Were you going through a specific personal or emotional moment that shaped its sound and lyrics?

SPEAKER_09 25:41

You know what? Uh Emily's birth had a lot to do with that because I was in like such heaven being a mom, and I took the time to spend the time with Em. I know we'd done Hold Me Thrill Me when I was pregnant with her, and it was a great moment because uh, you know, I was so enamored and involved with my pregnancy that to celebrate songs that hadn't made me who I am was just such a no-brainer for me. I know that it got a lot of criticism because I didn't change the songs too much, but to me it was more of an homage than a reimagining. I didn't want to reimagine them because I wanted to sing them in the way that they affected me. So I really wanted to do that. And this came on the heels of that, and it was just such a fertile time in my life. Uh as a woman, you know, the age I was approaching, you know, or was I 40 already there, 96. No, I was a year away from 40. And to me, the 40s for a woman are just a magical time because you kind of your your kids are kind of cooked, they're you know, they're kind of on their way. Although for me, you know, being a mother with Emily was a little later than I planned. But I just felt so good in my skin.

SPEAKER_13 27:17

Like I you talk about that a lot. How you really, really enjoyed your 40s.

SPEAKER_09 27:23

Absolutely, and this was on the cusp of it. This was like it was just a very special time as a woman, on top of everything that was happening. Uh and you know, music has always been what makes me happy. So the songs that we created for this album, I was so thrilled to share. And I also partnered a lot writing, like with Qike Santander on one of my favorite songs ever, Steal Your Heart, I'm not giving you up. He he wrote only in Spanish. So it brought out something else in me as a songwriter. This album, it it made me grow, and I just love growing, I love evolving and bringing all these things into like all these vivencias, experiencias. So that's pretty much what was happening at that moment.

SPEAKER_12 28:20

Yeah, it tickles me. I just love hearing that you know, I was 13 when that album came out, and you know, younger generations now that's exciting for me that they're getting you know, going to your music and for the first time and hearing them and their experiences with it, and it's like, wow, that's that's really awesome.

SPEAKER_09 28:42

That means yes, yes, absolutely. That's a beautiful thing because you know they they're living in a kind of different era. So I know from my grandson that they are hungry for depth, they're hungry for organic, they're hungry for a simpler time. Nostalgia is big with them because it always is. Like what you have is not what you're interested. You want to find out, oh my god, the past, it's so interesting, it's so cool. And it's nice that they have that at their fingertips. So that's a beautiful thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 29:19

The thing is not the disco, but I was in a day with Wes, I had 13, 14 years, and in this event that was at your life, your life, the hormones, so I recuer to me, the music, escuch all the discovery to work, it was like a form of catarsis.

SPEAKER_09 29:47

The point is that this for me was the music is a catarsis for me, Laura, and that my music would do this for another person is a privilege and a bend. And when I grab and when I was coming and this is what I swear, that the audience, the person who received it, what you sent to component, to see it. This is a regalo very artist. And this event, the idea of my name, it's a little big, it's also it makes it all worthwhile. Really, it's a little bit.

SPEAKER_13 30:46

All right, I think we're ready for a deep dive.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

All right, here we go. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_13 30:51

So let's let's start with the the title track. And actually, we have a question from Austin uh from Spain, and his question regarding the title track, Destiny, was there actually this is more of a general question, and we have a uh a question from Barbie, but we'll start with uh Austin. Was there uh any song on Destiny that you initially felt unsure about including, but ended up becoming essential to the album?

SPEAKER_09 31:19

Party time, really, oh interesting because to me it was all this spirituality and stuff, but then Emilio writes this song with Larry Dermer, and I trust Emilio, even though at whenever we're even at odds about something, I know that he's got a pulse on stuff. So my headspace was in Destiny Steal Your Heart, you know, uh, I'm not giving you up, uh, show me the way. That's where my headspace was. But when he wrote this song, and I'm hearing it, I go, okay, absolutely. And I there has to be a balance because if we only did stuff that I wanted, I know that some fans would be left out.

SPEAKER_12 32:14

Got it. Okay, that makes sense. See, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_09 32:17

Absolutely, yeah. So that one, but that's why I like the album version more than the single, because it to me fit that process.

SPEAKER_12 32:26

So that's funny that you you brought that up because that's such a that question's brought up so many times, and I love how you you brought that up before anybody else. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 32:36

There you go. As I mentioned, we do have a question from Barbie regarding destiny.

SPEAKER_09 32:43

Is that Cuban Diva? Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_05 32:49

Cuban Diva Barbie from Naples, but now Winter Haven. So I hope you're well. Uh my question for you is a lot of the fans have interpreted destiny in different ways over the years. For some, it's a straightforward love song, while others like me feel that there's a deeper sense of longing to secrecy. And who knows, maybe forbidden love that was woven into it. Absolutely. When you were recording this song, what emotions or storytelling were you channeling? Whose destiny were you changing?

SPEAKER_09 33:26

Okay, what was the last one? Yes, me too. All of the above. All of the above. Uh Destiny, you know, I believe that you can change your destiny, but I do believe that there are certain things in life that you are meant to face. And uh those things are going to appear, no matter how you may not want them to be there, or yes. So it touches on all those things, you know. I if I were only to write from my experience, it would be, you know, a lot less um narrow. Exactly. And for example, Diane Warren, who has written all these incredible love songs, she has never had a relationship, like a love relationship. And her and I were writing that together. And I remember that one of the most exciting lines that we wrote was the more you give, the more I need. We were all super psyched, her and I, about that line. We were sitting together in Emily's playroom in my house, and you know, you have to think about so many things happen, and I tell people, I'm married, not dead. All right. So, yes, absolutely. There's all these intricate emotions, and it's like some basically the idea is that sometimes you're living your life and everything is going all along, and then all of a sudden, this event happens, something happens in your life that you did not expect, and you're totally shocked and surprised by it, and you want to go with it because the feeling is so strong that you cannot, you can't negate it, no matter what happens. So, yes, Cuban Diva, all those things are at play. Uh, and it is a love song because it's a love song about a love so deep that whether it can happen or not, you know, you can't stop feeling it. You can't, you don't want to stop that love having an impact in your life. Absolutely. And then again, in that uh, that's one of the tracks that we really incorporated the the uh Afro-Cuban element of everything, which is really at the core of Cuban music, and we really were excited about putting that into that song, and there's a lot of desire, want, um things that can't be but wanna be, all of that is in that song, and Diane and I really loved writing that together. It was very different for Diane, that song. Because if yeah, because she does like straight-up ballads and but that kind of rhythm was really exciting to her, and it brought out a whole other thing in her writing. She doesn't write with a lot of people, and I feel really honored that uh you know that she is in this album. Uh they invited me to do Reads for the Olympics, and she goes, I want to do an Olympic song. So she kind of became it, got in it, but she killed it as she does because she's an amazing songwriter.

SPEAKER_13 36:55

So you guys, it it's just it's a journey.

SPEAKER_09 36:57

That song is is a journey from beginning intro to end with the well, he's actually saying like a Yoruba prayer, and there's the water element because we are water, we are like 90 something percent water, our bodies, but water is such a cleansing force, and that song is really like a cleanse, it's like the celebration of the physical love that we experience in this life that makes us do crazy stuff, and that is incredibly strong. So he's actually doing a Yoruba prayer at the beginning, and that's why you have the at water element and all these incredible acoustic uh rhythms and drums coming in, and then when that lush entrance is just like super sexy, so good.

SPEAKER_11 37:58

One of the one of the greatest songs ever, I have to say the best intro to an album ever.

SPEAKER_13 38:05

That is the best opener, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 38:07

And by the way, on tour, it was one of the most enjoyable songs for me.

SPEAKER_13 38:12

I missed it by a day.

SPEAKER_09 38:14

Oh my gosh. Ah, I I missed it. I just loved performing that song so much. It was it just it's a celebration of the delicious love that we experience in this physical world.

SPEAKER_12 38:28

When you mentioned water, we got this little cassette in the fan club back in the day, and it was the Y100 interview, and you were saying that one of the instruments he used were like empty water jugs. It's just fascinating. All the instruments and how organic this album was.

SPEAKER_09 38:48

Well, listen, that's how music started. If you think back, our original communication as human beings were skins over, they were drums that were created to send messages through miles and miles. So our first communication was percussion, it was things beating on a skin. And we wanted to celebrate that in this album. So we absolutely used all these things, and then later in the other songs, we'll get into the other influences. But yeah, yeah, that's absolutely part of that song.

SPEAKER_12 39:21

So we'll get into I'm not giving you up. So you mentioned during an interview that I'm not giving you up was first written in Spanish, yes, and you rewrote the song in English for the album.

SPEAKER_05 39:30

I did.

SPEAKER_12 39:32

Fans have always wondered if you recorded a Spanish version, and if so, is there a chance of ever being released?

SPEAKER_09 39:40

You know what? I don't think I did. I don't think I recorded it, but I'd have to dig back in the archives because Quique Santander wrote that song, like the music and the and the lyrics, who's he's an amazing songwriter. Um, I was excited about translating that because Spanish has got just so much more emotion in the lyrics. So my challenge was I want to bring this emotion, and that happened both in I'm not giving you up and steal your heart. I want to bring that same feeling to the English language, and I think you can only do that if you live in both worlds. Yeah, I I don't ever just translate a song, I re-imagine it in the new language because I feel very comfortable in it. And it was a challenge, especially Steal Your Heart, and I'm not giving you up. But they ended up being like uh they took me to another level as a songwriter too. I grew. I grew writing those songs, and uh yeah.

SPEAKER_13 40:45

I I've said this before that you're an amazing songwriter, right? That's why you're in the hall of fame. But there's something, there's something about when you take a song like this Spanish version of I'm not giving you up, and the magic that you create with I you can't say translating because you're doing more than just translating, you are reinvisioning, yeah, you're reenvisioning this song, but the way that you did it in with I'm not giving you up, I don't know what the Spanish lyrics were, but the way that you did it with these two songs, I'm not giving you up and steal your heart, it's just like mind-blowing that that you had access to that vocabulary and that it you just you created something so magical.

SPEAKER_09 41:33

Well, it wasn't just access, I had to find it because I totally understood it in Spanish, and it was so magical that I had to find a way. And by the way, uh, it's very funny because uh, you know, in the English language, there's such a thing, and I've talked about this as being too sweet, they call you saccharin or too romantic. That doesn't exist in Spanish, right? So writing that fine line into still being cerebral and still being in the moment where you are staying true to English, but at the same time bringing this magic of Spanish into that realm, and it was a challenge, but it was a beautiful challenge. I love challenges, I love it. I love something that you know and you're competitive, works me. You know what? I'm not competitive. No, okay, no, I don't care who wins, who loses, whatever. I'm competitive with me. I'm competitive.

SPEAKER_13 42:39

No, I can see that, yeah.

unknown 42:40

Sure.

SPEAKER_13 42:41

I can see you pushing yourself like that.

SPEAKER_09 42:43

Exactly. I always think I can do better, and some songs come complete, like songs that came through me rather than from me. Uh I rarely change a word on those. It just it's right from the get-go. I think we channel those songs from another realm, and because they're supposed to be here, but there is such a thing as craft, and as I've gone later in my life, I've realized that, and especially with this project of Basura, oh my god, that this has been like an eye-opening experience. But uh, there's always a better way, and you know which lines need to be better. It's not that Emilio has an uncanny thing where he'll go, oh, that's beautiful, but that line and that he always picks the one line without you mentioning anything, exactly. So, yes, it's it's a beautiful challenge, and I love those kinds of challenges. To me, songwriting is the key, that's my core. All right. You know, I sing uh since I talk, it's my way of expressing emotion, and it came with me. But in my core, if I had to choose between singing. And songwriting, it would be songwriting all the way. It'd be writing, it'd be birthing new ideas that didn't exist. And most of my songs I've written between midnight and 6 a.m. Because my kids were asleep, my husband was asleep, the phones weren't ringing, the channels are open in the hemisphere that I'm in because people are sleeping. So there literally is a bigger spiritual connection that can happen, and the airwaves are more open because most everyone is just out.

SPEAKER_04 44:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 44:36

So, and the excitement to me was like whenever I was, I had an idea for a song or something. Every time I wrote one, I'd think, I can't do this again. It's like when you have you're pregnant and you have a baby, you think, Oh hell no, I'm not doing this again. And then you do it. And that's how it is with the songs. They the fact that at midnight there was nothing, and then by morning, when the light is coming into the world, there's this new baby. That's just so exciting for me. And that's when most of my songs have been written, quite honestly.

SPEAKER_11 45:10

Speaking of songwriting, you have a song like Steal Your Heart, which is what we're doing next, and No Pretendo, that are, I think, thematically different. How do you take the nugget? I don't know which one came first, and then the Spanish came first. So no pretendo came first, and then you que Santander wrote it. Yes. Okay. Well, think about that.

SPEAKER_09 45:33

I in Spanish, No Pretendo means like I don't take the liberty of thinking all these things about you. In English, that's not at all something that kind of fits into the scheme. So that's why it was I'll steal your heart and set it free. And the the lines are, I don't mean to be the teardrop, and I don't mean to be this, which is kind of the closest thing to no pretendo, right?

SPEAKER_13 46:06

Oh, I just got goosebumps with you just saying that because you're you're talking about my all-time favorite song, period.

SPEAKER_02 46:13

I love that song.

SPEAKER_13 46:14

And like I said, I love no pretendo, it's beautiful, but steal your heart, the way that you just it's magic, magic. I love I'm not giving you up. I think you did such an amazing job with that, but steal your heart, just it's it's on another level.

SPEAKER_09 46:30

Thank you so much. But it's what I feel about love because when I say I'll steal your heart and set it free, it means like I'm gonna make you mine, but I don't want you to be like mine in that sense. I don't want to possess you, I don't want you to be feeling like you're beholden to me or like you have to be a certain way. I want you to be who you wanna be. So, and to me, that's what love is all about.

SPEAKER_13 46:57

It's funny because uh our friend Luigi jokingly said that he wanted me to ask you, why did you write a song about open relationships?

SPEAKER_09 47:06

Oh, you know what? Deep down inside, I believe in that, and you know what? Not in the way that you know you're thinking, whatever. Right. But I really believe that if you truly love, then possession is the last thing that should be involved with that. And I would want the person to feel free, like Emilio, for example. I want him to feel free. Like that's songs like anything for you that I wrote for him. Uh it means like, okay, maybe if we don't end up together, I'm still gonna be here for you because I love you and I, you know, and you're always gonna be that person to me. So I do, I I think the way you're talking about open relationships, that's a can of worms.

SPEAKER_02 47:59

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_09 48:00

Because people are complicated, and it's complicated enough to figure it out with one person, to figure it out with two, but like one of my favorite guilty pleasures is uh sister wives. And and I always knew that it was gonna end up with only one wife because it's just not gonna work, it's too complicated. So, yes, in essence, I think love should be free. I think that we can love many people, and that our souls have infinite possibilities to love, and that we've loved many people along the way, and I think we find ourselves back into our lives together in different ways, like because I think we experience love from different perspectives. But yeah, he's not wrong.

SPEAKER_11 48:46

Absolutely. So love should be free, love is complicated, and yet the heart never learns. Never learns. So we have a this is one of my favorite songs ever, but this is Quentin's, I think, all-time favorite song of yours. Oh, I love that. Uh recorded a voice memo for us that we're gonna play with this question.

SPEAKER_09 49:07

Okay. Come on, Quentin.

SPEAKER_00 49:12

Hi Gloria. This is Quentin Harrison. As you already know, I'm a very big fan of your work. And Destiny is obviously one of my favorite records of yours. But there's a particular track that I'm very interested in getting your perspective on called The Heart Never Learns. Uh, this is one that you didn't write. Uh, you worked with George Hassett and Lawrence Dominion on this particular track. But obviously you bring the lyrics to life with your amazing performance. But my question is, is that both lyrically and musically in relation to the production, I've always felt that the song had such a has such a spiritual and romantic vibe. How were you able to sort of straddle those two elements uh in the song, both um in terms of the lyrical sort of composition of it as well as the production side? Uh and if I can also say before I let you go, uh the lyric from this track that's one of my favorites, is as follows It's the heart that will awaken all the senses, and the senses light up the soul. Thank you for all of the music uh that you provided to all of us, your fans, and just the world, and for being such a uh permanent soundtrack of all of our lives. Take care. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_09 50:22

That's so beautiful. Okay, this song written by George Casas again. Rest your soul, George. George was like my brother, and we had very similar loves, the Beatles, hardcore Beatles fans, which Quentin, I want you to re-listen to this song, and you will identify those Beatles-esque harmonies, but done and then some. There's a zitar, there's these very Indian instruments in there about the spirituality that you're mentioning in the song, and uh it was all very intentional. George had been, and by the way, we're a band, we're brothers and sister, you know. These guys to me were my family. So every personal experience that everyone in the band lived was very much a personal experience of all of us because we were living 24-7 on the road, we were a family. George went through some like serious relationship issues when we were writing this. So I sang it because I felt and I knew where he was coming from with this song. Uh we purposely wanted it to be, it was almost like grand. We imagined, you know, like imagine like this Maharaji on an elephant, like walking in this parade with someone he loves covered in flowers, and that's where you hear. It has a very cinematic kind of arrangement, which was very purposeful, and it was a very big homage to the Beatles, especially the George Harrison kind of when they went to the Maharaji time in their lives. But it's about the fact that the heart never seems to learn. George had gone through some serious things. He'd fallen in love deeply, that went to hell in a handbasket, he fell in love again, that went to hell in a handbasket. And all of these things were a part of it, and I felt him. Like I really felt what he was going through. We lived it together. And that's why that song has both the spiritual intention, the the homage to the Beatles, and the very, you know, painful thing that no matter how much love is a great thing, you keep falling into the same traps over and over sometimes. And the idea is to find a way to break free.

SPEAKER_13 53:14

What a way to open up this album because you're going through that journey of destiny. I'm not giving you up, steal your heart, the heart never learns. And then it's Chummeria time, it's party time.

SPEAKER_02 53:28

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_13 53:31

But again, Gloria's there.

SPEAKER_09 53:34

Absolutely, it's party time, but listen to the lyrics in that song. Everybody knows it's party time where we live our lives in mystery when everything is meant to be. No reason here to wonder why. All that we seek is in the sky. You are the one I want to hold. I feel you deep inside my soul. So even then, in that, there is a spiritual message in the verses, regardless of the fact that because yeah, we can have fun and we can party and we can have a great time, but still in there is that, you know. Uh what's the second verse? Um we live our lives in mystery. When everything is meant to be no reason here to wonder why. Well, yeah, we went into that. What's the other verse in there? Oh, all day the world goes round and round. We can feel the changes coming down. Uh, no, uh, isn't changes coming down?

SPEAKER_02 54:27

No, oh god.

SPEAKER_09 54:31

You are the one I'm all and then, yeah. What well we have, we have the peanut singing for us, Dolly. Let me tell you what's going on behind the scenes over here. We have Heather dancing in the kitchen. Emily trying to, well, she's trying to taunt me because she's been shimmying and trying to get my attention over here. And Emily's friend Groovy, who lives in Atlanta. You're he was in the groove dogs that Emily played in the game. Okay, exactly. So he's here too. So here I am trying to concentrate on you guys, and they're over there back there and trying to stay uh you know, white. We have we have a please come over here and at least just wave. Wave. We want to see come over here two seconds.

unknown 55:13

I think you're fine.

SPEAKER_09 55:15

A release, get over here, damn it.

SPEAKER_02 55:17

Come over here, you guys.

SPEAKER_09 55:19

You gotta see the behind the scenes. Here's Emily was on Destiny also.

SPEAKER_11 55:24

Hi, yeah, hi. Hey guys, how are you guys doing?

SPEAKER_02 55:28

Good, love you.

SPEAKER_13 55:32

All right, so we have a voice note from someone that you may know. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_06 55:41

Hola Mihante, greetings. It's uh Steve Foster coming to you from the tropical city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Hope everybody's well. So, my question for you and for Gloria is party time, which do you prefer? The album version or the single version? I know what I do. Take care.

SPEAKER_09 56:04

Yeah, I answered this before we started officially the podcast. I am I love the single version. Okay, don't get me wrong. It was great. I'm never gonna put out anything that I don't like. But in my heart, the album version was the intention. What happens is you have the intention, and then you've got, you know, the pressure from the record company and what's going on on radio, and then you've gotta create like a kind of dance version and everything. They were both fun, but if I had to choose, it would be the album version. Absolutely, hands down, always.

SPEAKER_13 56:41

Path of the right love?

SPEAKER_08 56:43

Yes, my favorite. Yay, gracias.

SPEAKER_09 56:54

Path of the Right Love is mis creencias espirituales. Por cierto, por cierto.

SPEAKER_08 57:02

No sé si recuerdas, no sé si recuerdas que te pedí permiso para hacer un video animado de la canción.

SPEAKER_09 57:10

Quedó increíble. Pero quería compartir mis creencias in una forma muy abierta, pero también como yo pienso sobre el amor. And this can I wanna kind of bilingual this because I know we're uh Path of the Right Love is like what I believe spiritually, which is that we are all one, we're all connected. There is one love, which is what to me is God, like everything that exists. Um, and I do believe if we share this life, we must learn to share all its pain and strife. Estamos conectados, we're connected. And at the time, I had read this book because I've done a lot, I read a lot of metaphysics, spiritual books, I've read everything, and probably the closest thing to what I believe would be Greek hermetic philosophy. There's a book called The All, which I really like click with. And this song is kind of based on that kind of belief that God is everything, and everything that can possibly happen will, and then it comes back to God. So every possibility that can exist will exist. And I had read a book by this uh Indian guru, Mother Mira, that I really it really touched my soul. So at the end of the song, you hear there's a backwards prayer going on with all these, like almost like if there were monks. And it's it's a general prayer because I wanted to, every time that song got played, that prayer to go out into the universe. And then at the end is a quote from Mother Mira that says, uh, uh, aspire to your inevitable bliss, and all uh blessings will be given you.

SPEAKER_13 59:12

All grace will be given you.

SPEAKER_09 59:13

All grace will be given you. And that's what I feel like that we must aspire to our higher selves and you know who we want to be and who we should be. So that song is all about that and about what I think about love, you know, that everybody talks about it, say the words so very loosely. Where we come from is pure love, which is God, the seed, and we're on our way back home. We're gonna go back there. So it's all about kind of how I believe spiritually that we move in this world and beyond. And it was important for me, and I I really designed it so that every time it was played, a prayer went out into the universe in that song.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:00

Yes in Life by Request.

SPEAKER_13 1:00:09

I like how you snuck that in there. Yes.

SPEAKER_09 1:00:12

I know, so it was a Live by Request. Me encanta eso, it was like a crushed velvet blue, like a vest. Yeah, I guess it was because it was a public chiquit, there were much fans, and the type of thing that really me gotta stay in a little intimate with the fans, but I've screwed. One of my faves.

SPEAKER_12 1:01:02

So Diane Warren was invited to write for the album. Yes, she's one of my most favorites. Well, she kind of invited herself, but that's besides I just love her, and I loved her documentary. I just think she's amazing. Yes. What was it like collaborating with her on songs like Reach, Destiny, I Know You Too Well, and the next track, Show Me the Way Back to Your Heart.

SPEAKER_09 1:01:24

It was awesome. I mean, Diane and I, first of all, we have a sick sense of humor, so I'm not gonna go into it, but let me just say that the song I Know You Too Well, we wrote the parody. We finished the parody before we finished the song. We were in my writing room upstairs, uh, which eventually became Emily's, you know, room. And um it was pretty sick. I can't share that because it's really dirty. But um I think we can fill in the blanks with that.

SPEAKER_11 1:01:55

Yeah, yeah, probably.

SPEAKER_09 1:01:58

What I love about Diane is like Diane is music personified, she does nothing else. Diane has no other life than music. She will go into her writing room writing room every day of her life and come out with a new song. I can't imagine that. I can't imagine, I cannot imagine writing a new song every day, whether it's good, bad, indifferent, whether it gets on something or not. That is her goal. Diane also is deathly afraid of snails. In case you didn't know this, I don't know why I go. Diane, it's something they can outrun you. Like, why are you afraid of snails? She's got a really big beef with snails. And I remember kidding a lot with her because Emily at that time was like two. And I would tell her, Diane, Emily is more mature than you at two years old. I kind of became her therapist for the thing, and she will tell you that that's the case. She's just one of these brilliant souls that has this handle on hooks and writes in so many different genres. She's written for so many different people. She's written songs. Well, we know that she's been nominated, what, 17th?

SPEAKER_13 1:03:16

17 so many times, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 1:03:18

She won the honorary Oscar, but I know she wants the real song Oscar, and she will get it. I have no doubt. Yeah, but I really admire Diane. I love her, I love her, she's crazy, and she knows it. Yeah, uh, and I feel blessed that I'm one of the people that she trusts to co-write with because she doesn't really like co-writing.

SPEAKER_12 1:03:42

I remember saying that in the documentary, yeah. And then that's the first thing I remember, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 1:03:46

Yeah, she's insular, like she's in her own world, and I get it because I'm also a very like interior kind of writer. A lot goes on in my head, and I'm sitting there writing, jotting things down, whatever, but the main process is not exterior. Emilio's a very exterior kind of writer. He will have, like at in his at this moment, he had like five different writing rooms, he had five different writers, and he would pop in and say, Okay, he he's written all these hooks and things and ideas, and he'll give them to that one, he'll give them to that one. Part of it is his ADD. He can't sit in one place for more than half an hour or he'll get bored. So we are very different in the way we write, but he has also, like Diane, this uncanny way to know what people are gonna like, you know? And I listen a lot to to his opinion. So it's beautiful. Everybody has their own process, you know. And Diane and I together are dangerous. That's all I can tell you.

SPEAKER_13 1:04:53

Yeah, well, yeah, I know. There's a there's there's there's proof, there's a picture.

SPEAKER_09 1:04:59

Oh, that's it. Oh, right, the double birdie.

SPEAKER_13 1:05:02

Yes, I I will tell you this. I don't know if you're gonna like this or not, but that there's a sticker of that picture, and it's going all over the world. Anytime that we're pissed, we just send that sticker to them to whomever.

SPEAKER_09 1:05:17

That makes me very happy. It makes us very happy too.

SPEAKER_11 1:05:21

Yeah, it is absolutely, but complete opposite. We're gonna talk about Along Came You now. Oh, yeah. Um, and first of all, Emily's debut recording.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:33

Yes, right?

SPEAKER_11 1:05:35

Yes, but um, what does that be that song, the songwriting process of that? How does that, as a mother, as a songwriter, how does that song resonate with you still?

SPEAKER_09 1:05:46

Okay, so I don't like to push things. It's never been where I'm going, oh god, I have to write a song for my kid. That never was the case. Naive's song happened very organically after my accident, and I was very Frustrated with the news, which hello, we're in the same friggin' place. So I was very frustrated, and I realized that it doesn't matter what's going on. The bottom line is we're here for each other, and I'm gonna take care of you. And it talks about lately my son, I've been, you know, confused, I've been afraid, I've been all that, and that's still the case. But um when Emily was born, I just had such a blessing to be able to spend every minute with her. And when she was four months old, one day, you know, I I had just finished feeding her, and I put her in her little, you know, seat, and I propped her on my bed, and I was just enjoying the beauty of her, and she was so expressive and just with every the day she was born, she's smiling into the camera in her picture. Like she was there. You know how some babies they're looking away, they're kind of they look like they're still not here. Emily was here, like if she came with a purpose, and I was looking at her, and I I grabbed my guitar and I sat there with her in front of me and I wrote the song. It was maybe half an hour to write the entire song, and it just poured out of me because I had experienced so much love in my life, and I experienced so many things, but then here comes this little miracle, and I'm feeling all these different emotions and things, and that's what that song is about. And then I wanted to put a lullaby in there, so I purposely chose it's it's like a kind of a Zulu, yeah, a Zulu kind of uh a tulatu la sana umama u yes uh because from the Cuban tradition of kind of like again that drume negrita, which again became for me uh, you know, an inspiration for Sasha's song, uh, in the way that we did it, uh and it just poured out of me. It I wish I could tell you that I planned it. I didn't. It was one of those moments that just uh it was all about the emotion. And and I brought her into the studio with me when I was recording it. So I was holding her, and they would always, you know, they always try to put a really nice vibe in the studio when I'm recording. So they had lit a candle in my vocal booth, and I had the thing, and I was holding her, and she said, happy, because she was happy birthday, and she was like really little. She thought, Oh, a candle, it's happy birthday.

SPEAKER_13 1:08:51

I love that.

SPEAKER_09 1:08:52

We were recording her, so I wanted her to be in the song. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_13 1:08:57

So I remember the first time that I'm listening to the album, along came You Comes On, and it's such a just relaxing song. I ended up falling asleep. It's a lullaby, it's a lullaby, it's so relaxing, so you know, puts you in this mood. I fall asleep. Here we go now. I could tell you when it woke you up, it sure as hell woke me up. So, next song is higher and we're tremendous. We actually have a message or a voice note from Eduardo.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:41

Hola Gloria, greetings from Thailand. This is Eduardo, and I would like to ask you a question about higher. I want to know what was the creative process behind it and the intention of putting together those quite introspective lyrics with the Afro-composor rhythm. And please tell us about the rap section that is still today, I don't think I'm able to repeat. Thank you. Love you always, Glow.

SPEAKER_09 1:10:05

Oh my gosh, that's so sweet. Okay, it's a conga. And again, a conga and all those Afro-Cuban rhythms come from a very spiritual place. So, again, since this album was all about spirituality and depth and whatnot, even though this was a funky down conga, it's about reincarnation. This song, higher is how each we feel like we should, every time we experience a life, we should learn from it. We should experience, you know, what is it? Uh, I met a man today. What is it? Um he was a liar, he walks a wire. Uh remind me, because right now I can't remember the lyrics, but it it is about experiences and how you'll go back to the end of the line. Like if you don't learn the lesson, you're gonna have to come back and relearn it in some way.

SPEAKER_13 1:11:02

That makes so much sense.

SPEAKER_09 1:11:04

I never ever noticed instead of listening to the. I was too busy shaking my ass. Exactly. There you go. But you can shake your ass and still have a message behind you. One thing does not negate the other. Uh wow, what is the first verse on that? Does anybody remember? Uh mama, do you remember first of fire? Um there is um, no, wait, oh no.

SPEAKER_13 1:11:30

That uh girl today have to tell from what I just listened to a while ago. I have to put my command on. Wait, hold on.

SPEAKER_09 1:11:37

I think I have it here. Hold on, let me look it up. Let me look.

SPEAKER_13 1:11:40

I saw a girl today. Could tell from what she's saying. She was a liar.

SPEAKER_11 1:11:44

Is that the first one?

SPEAKER_09 1:11:45

She was a liar, which means like she's she's lying, so she's already taking a chance.

SPEAKER_13 1:11:51

I try to make her see that this was not the way of getting higher, right?

SPEAKER_09 1:11:56

She turned away, and I say, Hear me now, yeah. So it's all about trying to be better in this life, and when you're not, nothing wrong. You're just gonna have to start all over because you didn't learn the lesson. So what that song is about, and it's interesting that you know that look 30 years later, 30 years later, we're learning. It's fun to discover stuff when you don't, you know, realize yeah, that's what that song's about, but it doesn't mean you can't, and then the part of the rap was really it's early on, like for mixing rap into things, and it's very kind of Jamaican-y kind of rap. But he's also talking about that kind of thing. If you listen to what he's saying, he just says it very fast and with an accent, so it's really hard to get.

SPEAKER_11 1:12:52

Yeah. Our our next song is I Know You Too Well, which is my one of my favorite songs ever. And I can picture myself seven years old in my childhood bedroom singing this song like I had a husband with a secret. There you go. Oh my god, it's one of my favorite songs ever. But despite that, uh, we have a voice memo from Cece who wanted to ask you. Corrales. Corrales.

SPEAKER_09 1:13:20

Yeah, go Cece. Come on, Cece.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:27

Hi Gloria, it's Cece from New Mexico. I was just wondering what were the vibes like when you and Diane Warren wrote I Know You Too Well. And also how long did it take you to write it? I spoke about I love you.

SPEAKER_09 1:13:44

Oh, I love you too, Cece. Uh, I talked to you about those vibes. We started with this song, and you know, we had this idea for the hook, and we're sitting there in what ended up being Emily's room later, but it was my writing room, and we started writing it. We were really happy with what was happening, and then we just veered off into parody land, and parody land was very dirty. So uh we finished the parody first, and then we went back to the song. But you know, it's nice, it's about when you recognize that something's wrong in a relationship, but you can't quite pinpoint it, and they're not being honest with you, but you know it, and you're trying to have them feel you're trying to bring out the truth from them. So that's what that song's about. We wrote it very fast, it was really very inspired. We wrote two songs very fast that song and the parody. Yes, I'm not gonna tell you what the parody is. You're gonna truly be very disappointed or like it even more. I don't know, but not going there.

SPEAKER_12 1:14:58

So the final song, well, the Spanish version of the final of the final song. So puede ciegar, the Spanish version of Reach was released as a part of the collaboration with several Latin artists on the Olympic album. Can you walk us through that version, how that version came together, and whether there were ever discussions or recordings of a solo version? It's something that fans have been curious about for years.

SPEAKER_09 1:15:26

Well, we thought this was such a perfect collaborative song because uh, you know, we wanted other people's take on it. It had been great for us in English, it was the Olympic song. And uh I just thought that it was a no-brainer to have all of these incredible artists really like cheering people on. Because that song, by the way, it was daunting. When they asked me to write an Olympic theme, in my mind, it was like, oh, Olympic theme, like what the hell? I can't, like, I didn't feel that I was like cut out to do something like that because I knew it had to be this extravaganza and this great thing. So then I thought to myself, you know what? I am going to tap into what it took me every day to get out of bed after my accident. Because to me, that was an Olympic achievement. The day I was back on stage, March 1st of 1991. I felt after at the end of that show, I don't even remember the show. I remember starting the show, and I remember Emilio coming and picking me up in his arms after the show. But it was such a euphoric, forget euphoria the the show for me. It was euphoric. I don't think I will ever feel that ever again because the accomplishment in my soul was so incredibly difficult and great for me. So then I thought, you know what? I'm just gonna write a song that anybody could pick up their guitar and sing it like a folk song and write it from the perspective of what it felt to me to get past this incredible hurdle. And I know that for that was my tie-in to the Olympic athletes because these athletes, for four years of their lives at least, usually it's their entire life since they're kids, but when they're aiming for an Olympics, for four years, this is like they are they have to sacrifice their food, their life, their work, uh, and all for this one moment in time that may end up really bad. And it's in front of the entire world. So I was really able to lock into those feelings in mirroring it with what I had to go through every day after that accident to talk myself into getting out of bed because I knew that if I didn't get out of bed that day, the next day it was gonna be that much harder. And if I didn't take those two extra steps, the next day I was gonna go backwards. And I had to kind of auto do an auto-hypnosis. So that's what that song is about. And you know, uh talking about like some days are meant to be remembered, I'm channeling that day that I got back on stage and was able to reclaim my life. So anything that is really gonna have legs and is going to resonate with people has to come from a very real place. What do I know from the Olympics? But I do know from what I had to go through every day. And that's what that song was focused on. So the Spanish version, we wanted it to be inclusive and have all these amazing artists be a part of this kind of like almost like you can do it, you can do it, you can do it. And it turned out that way because I remember there was he passed, sadly, but there was a young man that was in a wheelchair, he was from Mexico, and he asked me to use that song for his documentary. It was this guy that really overcame a lot of odds, and ultimately he succumbed, but it inspired him to you know move forward, and it inspired so many people. I've heard from so many people that it inspired them to retake, you know, get a new lease on life, try to, okay, I can do this. So it it's a very special song, and from the depths of my pain and you know, agony after that accident of having to find my way again. And that's why it's it's a very real thing. Of course, the video was all about the Olympics, and funny enough, you know, I'm standing on that giant thing in the video when we were shooting it. That giant thing fell over, and there was somebody napping under it, but thankfully it was in sand, and when the thing fell on them, it just squished them down. But oh my god, it was it was I was there that day.

SPEAKER_13 1:20:24

Oh, that was at Crandon Park, right?

SPEAKER_09 1:20:27

Yes, oh my god.

SPEAKER_13 1:20:29

I had never I hadn't met you at this point. I still hadn't met you yet. That was my dream to meet you. I go to I, you know, Crandon Park has uh, I think it's like two um parking lots. It's like parking lot A, parking lot B, and I we pass parking lot A and we see a sign that says film crew only or something like that. And I thought, I was like, how funny would that be if Gloria's filming a video?

SPEAKER_02 1:20:55

You didn't know it was me?

SPEAKER_13 1:20:56

No, and we go to the next parking lot, we spend the day at the beach, have fun, go home, put on channel seven news, and sure enough, the situation with what had happened that day.

SPEAKER_09 1:21:10

When I was a kid, I used to go to that zoo. I have pictures of me in that little zoo where they would press the little dolphins out of the plastic. I used to love the smell of the little plastic thing.

SPEAKER_13 1:21:21

So you can imagine how disappointed I was when I found out that you were we were in the same beach. I was like, that was my opportunity, but the opportunity came at the right time. Destiny, destiny, actually, baby. But what what a journey, you know. Well, what a way to open this album, what a way to close it, so inspirational, and everything between just it's it's a musical journey, it's it's a gift that you've given to us, and one that so many around the world cherish. And I hope my hope is that people, this new generation or generations to come continue to discover this album because it's one that just ages like wine. It's just it ages so beautifully, and and the way that you just it was so tastefully done. Um, so there were so many intentions there that you could tell, it's obvious, and we're so thing I do is intentional.

SPEAKER_09 1:22:18

Every single piece of music that you have heard in one way or another is intentional. There has never been a moment where I went into, because I wouldn't allow it, into the studio and create some things. Some things may hit closer to home, some things may not be your cup of tea, but it's always been intentional and always comes from a very real place, and it always comes from this journey that I've been living that everything becomes a part of my music, and that will always be the case. You will never hear anything that is just done because I had to, or because I had to fulfill a commitment, or because it was you know requested of me. No, I I I refuse to do that because then it stops being art, it stops being connective, and uh everything's been intentional. So the fact that you guys really pour through this stuff and care enough about it to even ask or to you know it's a beautiful thing. I appreciate that very much.

SPEAKER_13 1:23:24

We thank you. I mean, I what better way to end this season than with an album like Destiny, one that's so special and one that's celebrating 30 years this year. But we have reached the end of the show, and it's time for us to do our final let it loose. So we're gonna go, we're gonna each share our let it loose. Gloria, you'll go last. And we're gonna start with Laura.

SPEAKER_08 1:23:52

Okay. Yo quiero aprovechar el let it lose para agradecer a Carlos, a Rob y a Wes por confiar en mí y darme la oportunidad de colaborar in este proyecto. Porque cuando Carlos comentó la idea, que él tenía muchas dudas, enseguida me ofrecí por si necesitaban a alguien con mi perfil. Pero al final es muy diferente compartir aventuras y desventuras, porque hay algún percance hemos tenido, a trabajar juntos. Hay que saber adaptarse a las personas, a sus métodos y procesos de trabajo. Y Carlos y yo teníamos mucha relación de antes, igual que con West, pero Rob y yo apenas nos conocíamos y tengo que decir que ha sido bastante fácil coordinarnos y llegar a ese punto en común entre todos. Así que estoy súper agradecida por su confianza, por su amistad, porque hayan pensado y decidido crear este canal para unirnos todos los fans, dejarnos conocernos mejor, a veces de manera individual or personal, ando agradecerte a ti, Gloria, por todo el apoyo desde el día 1, por tu sentido del humor que todos aquí adoramos. Agradecerte tu tiempo, sabemos que tu agenda es una locura, and la paciencia, porque seguro que en muchos momentos dirás, madre mía. Y decirte que siempre has sido una inspiración en muchos aspectos, no solo por tu música, también como persona, ando lo que nos enseñas cuando das tus entrevistas o cuando, por ejemplo, hoy en la conversación that we have.

SPEAKER_09 1:25:32

It's so beautiful. Qué lindo, gracias, Laura. You send me the most lindo is creating relations with personas who am what one ask and it's a family. I love it.

SPEAKER_11 1:25:57

I'm still in it.

SPEAKER_13 1:25:59

You can see. I'm still in it.

SPEAKER_11 1:26:02

All right, Ron, it's your time. It's my time, and I'm not gonna look at her while I say this. Oh god, specifically glorious Stefan. Um because I was walking home today from work and mi tierra came on shuffle, and I am not a I'm a little bit of a crier, but I'm not much of a crier lately. But I I started to get teary because I I thought about four-year-old me. And I thought about that kid who made this song, Mi Tierra, and this album Mi Tierra, his entire personality. And and the fact that it it taught me what it was to be Cuban American, it taught me what it was to be proud of where I came from. And I texted my mother, like, can you believe that this person, this little kid, is gonna talk to his hero today? And I started weeping.

SPEAKER_09 1:26:52

Okay, cry, damn it.

SPEAKER_11 1:26:54

I don't want to make you cry because I can't look at you. Um but the fact of the matter, that like everybody says don't meet your heroes, but like, don't meet your heroes unless they're glorious, Stefan, because every every single interaction I've had with you, and today in particular, has just been proof in the pudding that I chose the right diva. When like when God assigns you a diva at birth as a gay person, he gave me you, and I I could not be prouder to be a fan and to be on this journey with these three people who are my family. Um I'm so grateful to you for every single song you've ever given me, and the fact that you've been in my life for my whole life. I don't have a memory without you in it. Um and that starts with me, Tierra, and I I I I'm at a loss for words. So You're killing me. You're killing me, don't cry, please.

SPEAKER_09 1:27:52

You're killing me. Crying is good, you know? Crying is good. I that's okay.

SPEAKER_12 1:28:03

All right, Wes. That's gonna be a hard one to follow up on. But um Yeah, very very similar. Yeah. You know, this past year has just been amazing because, you know, I haven't, you know, little seven-year-old me listening to the watching the homecoming concert over and over again. Um never in a million years would I have thought that you know would have been able to do what I've done with uh better um the party that you invited us to um in in last May was phenomenal. I was walking around Carlos and he he can vouch for me. I was like, I kept walking around like I felt like I'm not even supposed to be here. This is just unbelievable. And just those just this entire year has just been amazing. And you know, going to Chile and meeting Staban, who's been a friend of mine online for 25 years for the very first time, and going to the concert, you know, with him and seeing you was just it's been unbelievable.

SPEAKER_09 1:29:11

Oh my gosh, you guys are killing me! I can't take this.

SPEAKER_12 1:29:15

Oh my god. Good lord, unbelievable.

SPEAKER_09 1:29:18

Yeah, is that you now?

SPEAKER_13 1:29:22

Yeah, I I don't know if you've been trying this whole time. I yeah, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to um all right, so here we go. Let's start with the wall.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:33

Let's all play together.

SPEAKER_13 1:29:34

All right, so um I had to write mine down because I wasn't sure if I was gonna get through it. So um my let it loose is a huge thank you to so many people. Uh to everyone in Let It Loose Land who gave us a chance and listened to our show uh from so many corners of the world. We're so incredibly grateful. Um to everyone here. Here we go.

SPEAKER_09 1:30:07

Okay, I need a drink for that one.

SPEAKER_13 1:30:11

To everyone here in this video, uh, the let it loose crew and Gloria, you all know that uh I went into this scared and intimidated, and each of you had faith in me even when I didn't have faith in myself. Um thank you for pushing me for not taking no for an answer, um and even for making me eat raisins in my picadillo.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:44

Yes, raisins, vindicated, she is Gloria.

SPEAKER_13 1:30:48

Thank you so much for trusting us. Um I hope you've felt all the love coming from around the world because it's been very real, and we love you to the moon and back.

SPEAKER_09 1:31:01

And I love you to the moon and back. And I mean there's just so much that I could say, but first let me say thank you because the fact that anyone would care to even do something like this is such a miracle. Um in my child in my little Gloria Heart as a kid, I never could have imagined something like this being possible. And uh, you know, I I look at social media with trepidation, but of all the beautiful things that have come from social media, this is one of them. It's connection. And sometimes social media can disconnect. But this is connection because you're all talking together, you've created a family that I am so appreciative of and so thankful for. For an artist to have their music be able to touch people's lives is the ultimate privilege, and I thank you for that. I don't take it lightly, I think about all of you and the ones that I know that I can name, like you in this podcast, and so many fans throughout the years that from since they were little, I know now as adults and are indoctrinating their kids, which thank you very much for that, by the way. Agradezco tanto this opportunity to compare ideas, to compare pens, de so that when you create something, alguien looks like they're appreciando, because one looks, but you never know if what you're intending is going to reach you. And the fact that you have given me that beautiful blessing of knowing that it reached you and that it impacted your lives somehow is the biggest privilege and blessing that I could ever hope for. You know, I told you from the get-go, do it. Because if it's something you want to do, just do it, do it. Don't ask permission, don't worry about what's gonna come. If it's something that you want to do, do it. And I so appreciate the love, the support of not just me, but my entire family, because you all have been supportive of my whole family and everything that we do. And uh, I want you to know that I I feel it, it it really impacts me and it fuels me for everything that I do. And even with this new project, knowing that you're going to be able to hear it and know that it's coming from the heart, not only my heart, but Emily's heart, because the fact that we are together in this, the fact that I dreamed when I was pregnant with her, that one day I would write with my daughter, or that I would sing with my daughter, not knowing what per little person was coming, and that you have all been so supportive of her and of my son Naeeb and of my grandson and our whole family of Emilio and everything that he's done. There's nothing but thanks coming from me and love, so much love, so much love to all of you. I appreciate you. I thank you for the sacrifice that you make in your lives to do this because I know what it takes, and I really am ultimately thankful for all of us being in this together because I know we've gone through many lives, like I told you. I think we've been connected through centuries, and the fact that we are now here together is so special for me.

SPEAKER_13 1:35:13

You're not tired of me over already?

SPEAKER_09 1:35:16

Never are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_13 1:35:19

I live for you guys, even when I try dancing with you and I almost knock you over. That was great.

SPEAKER_09 1:35:25

I love everything, I love everything you guys have done for me and about me, and even just for yourselves, because I'm hoping that that's the ultimate message, that it can become a part of your lives and that you make the life that you want for yourselves. Because I certainly have done that thanks to you, and I appreciate that very much, and all of you out there and let it loose land. Thank you so much. I can't thank you enough. What can I tell you? There's no words, there are no words, and I will continue to honor you by still being in it every moment and by offering you only what is from my heart, absolutely, and we love you for that.

SPEAKER_12 1:36:10

Thank you so much. And you know, I have to add something to that was I couldn't get through my but I have to add it so you know, Gloria, that guy right there, all three of those people, but Carlos, you know, when I brought this up to him, you know, he said no because he was shy, right? Remember, yeah, and you believe and he said no because I was shy. And you told me in Chile, what he said he was shy, but I mean, I I caught him at the come up with this idea, and I never imagined, you know, that this would happen. And I was like, I couldn't do it without him, there's no way. But this guy has made he even asked me for my work schedule to work around me to make all of this work because you do the important work, baby. Yeah, and when I have the crazy, crazy schedule, which is all over the place, but he has made everything for me like perfect this past year. I can't thank him enough.

SPEAKER_13 1:37:13

We have a good team, we have a good team, and how beautiful that we can share this.

SPEAKER_12 1:37:18

Yep, he's he's beautiful.

SPEAKER_09 1:37:20

He's just beautiful. I'm so appreciative.

SPEAKER_12 1:37:23

It's been it's been a blast.

SPEAKER_09 1:37:25

I know your lives are complicated. Carlos has a huge family that he's gotta take care of. You are taking care of the world, Laura. Gracias por todo lo que tú has hecho. Rob, thank you so much. The fact that I've been in your life since you were a little kid. You know how special that is to me? I mean, you can't even imagine hearing those words, what that does to my heart. It makes it grow like like uh what was that?

SPEAKER_11 1:37:54

The lore with uh the Grinch, his heart grew three sizes.

SPEAKER_09 1:37:58

That one, the Grinch, my heart has grown 10 sizes. Oh my god, it's out of my chest, and I so appreciate you, all of you, and thank you, thank you so much for taking the time. Time is you know important in the in the world, we don't have a lot of it. So the fact that you dedicate it to me is so appreciated, and thank you, thank, thank you all, and you're gonna do another season, right?

SPEAKER_08 1:38:31

You have to ask Carlos about that.

SPEAKER_09 1:38:33

You know what? Let me say this. I even if you decide that you can't do this, what you have done already is just such a gift to me that I appreciate it, and I also understand how things are difficult. So no worries if you don't, but thank you for what you've done.

SPEAKER_13 1:38:52

Here's the thing there's no way that I would want to miss out on what we've created, what we've accomplished, and just seeing ever since we started this show, all of a sudden, everyone started coming out of the woodworks, and everyone started, you know, posting videos and all this, you know, throwbacks and memories, and to see the fandom kind of come to life again has been one of the most special, most special things that I've seen. And absolutely, there's gonna be a season two.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:29

That's okay.

SPEAKER_09 1:39:30

And you've got that suda, baby. You're gonna analyze a lot from that thing. I can't wait, and I'm not like a new album, but with Emily and I together. So imagine all these years that you've followed me. Now you're gonna have a whole new music from Emily and I together. And we're so excited for that.

SPEAKER_12 1:39:53

Can't we? We're going to we cannot wait. Wow, that's awesome! And that's what I wanted.

SPEAKER_11 1:39:58

I wanted us to build a community to bring our communities tighter together. Um, and I think that's what we've done with this first season, and I'm so grateful. Um, I'm gonna wrap up this episode with just gratitude. Uh, I can't believe that all this happened, and what a perfect album for Gloria to be a part of. Our next album breakdown is gonna be such a flop because Gloria won't be on it.

SPEAKER_09 1:40:23

Like, what the hell you can send me questions if you have like something.

SPEAKER_11 1:40:27

Um, if you like this episode, please give us five stars. If you didn't like this episode, what the hell is wrong with you? Because Gloria Stephen on our show. So, like, hello, you like this episode because you're a Gloria fan.

SPEAKER_09 1:40:39

By the way, where the hell do you put those stars? Because I've been trying to put the five stars.

SPEAKER_13 1:40:43

You have not rated us.

SPEAKER_09 1:40:45

I can't find where to freaking rate you.

SPEAKER_13 1:40:49

You have you have an assistant on the other side of the computer.

SPEAKER_09 1:40:52

He couldn't either.

SPEAKER_13 1:40:53

I the Where do you do that?

SPEAKER_02 1:40:56

Where do you rate?

SPEAKER_11 1:40:58

Once you figure out where to put five stars, give us five stars, follow us on social media, email us at let it losepod at gmail.com, and let's keep the conversation going while we're on break. Um, because our community is growing and growing and growing, and we're so grateful to all of you, and we're so grateful to Gloria for being with us for as long as she's been with us, and to our team. What a great first season. I um I'm so grateful. Thank you, everybody.

SPEAKER_09 1:41:32

Thank you all. I love you.

SPEAKER_13 1:41:34

Thank you, cheers so much.

SPEAKER_10 1:41:38

Thank you for listening to Let It Loose, a Gloria Estef fan podcast. Let It Loose was produced by Carlos, Rob, and Wes with graphic design by Laura. Thank you to Gloria for bringing us all together.