Julio Iglesias Jr. to deliver lifetimes — his and his father’s — of cool, classic tunes at the Des Plaines Theatre
The singer has a self-preservation technique he wanted to share.
“I actually ice my throat. After a show and before a show, I chew on ice,” he said.
“That actually helps me, because it kind of relaxes my vocal cords. Everybody thinks it’s the opposite, the cold water messes up your vocal cords. And, for me, it’s the other way around. Cold water — supercold water — actually makes me feel good.”
When Julio Iglesias Jr. feels good, so does his audience. The son of Spanish pop crossover legend Julio Iglesias, Iglesias Jr. will prepare his smooth pipes for back-to-back concerts in the suburbs next week.
On Wednesday, July 22, Iglesias Jr. will perform with his five-piece band at the Des Plaines Theatre. The night before he’ll be singing at Hillside Commons for the entertainment series Summer Nights in Hillside.
He plans to be in fine throat for both concerts.
“As long as you get your night’s rest and you don’t overdo it and you get to sleep early, you’re good,” Iglesias Jr. said.
For someone who came of age in chic Miami in the 1980s, he knows about this sort of thing.
“Everybody always asks me that — ‘So you lived in Miami during the ’80s?’
“I’m like, ‘Yep, I saw “Miami Vice” live,’” said the charming Iglesias Jr., who looks a decade or two younger than his 53 years.
Iglesias Jr. was born in Madrid, Spain, like his father, and as a boy moved with his brother, Enrique, and sister, Chábeli, to Miami.
He remembers going on tour with his father for months at a time when he was as young as 6.
Julio Iglesias is recognized as the bestselling Spanish artist in history with more than 300 million albums sold, a 1988 Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album (“Un Hombre Solo”) and a 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy.
While music has surrounded Iglesias Jr. all his life, he also had turns as a model, actor and television personality.
He’s credited by the Internet Movie Database with more than 97 appearances on a multitude of shows, in English and Spanish. In the mid-1990s he was a musical guest on both the “Late Show With David Letterman” and “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.”
Iglesias Jr. still has a hand in enterprises outside of music. He’s a co-founder of the Suaji Brand of sneakers, which are made in Spain.
“I’ve always had the chance to do so many things in my life,” he said. “For example, I’ve done a lot of TV, a lot of acting. But now, in the last 15 years, I really have concentrated on just doing music. And for the last 10 years what I do is I travel the world and I sing all of my father’s best songs from all of my dad’s music history, from when he started writing music till now.
“I sing in Spanish, I sing in English, I sing in French,” he said. “That’s what I love to do. I love to sing those songs that I grew up listening to that are a big part of my life.”
He sings hits by his father such as “Abrazame,” “Hey,” “La Vida Sigue Igual,” “When I Need You,” and one that reached the country charts in a duo with Willie Nelson, “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before.”
Iglesias Jr., who will return to his homeland for a 25-date Spanish tour starting in October, also will perform pop hits such as “Me and Mrs. Jones,” and tunes like “Careless Whisper” from his 2023 album, “Under the Covers.”
“The fact that now I get to sing those songs that I’ve been listening to my whole life — it’s great for me, it’s amazing, it makes me feel young. It’s so nostalgic, to sing all these great songs that I grew up listening to,” he said.
“And when I listen to the people singing with me, the audience, it just truly makes me super-happy.”
While he puts his own stamp on the classics, Iglesias Jr. will deliver that nostalgia to Des Plaines and Hillside listeners. He receives joyful feedback all the time, worldwide.
“People in general will tell me, ‘My mother used to listen to your dad, and it brought me those memories, and it’s just amazing,’” Iglesias Jr. said.
“Anybody that loves just great music, that loves my dad’s music, they’re really going to enjoy this, because it is going to bring them back in time.”
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When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 21, as part of Summer Nights in Hillside
Where: Hillside Commons, 4950 Washington St., Hillside, hillside-il.org/
Tickets: Free
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 22
Where: Des Plaines Theatre, 1476 Miner St., Des Plaines, (224) 354-2333, desplainestheatre.com/
Tickets: $56.75-$108.75 at etix.com