I'll start the hostilities.

The first Glo album I bought was... gloria!

I LOVE Gloria! It's not like she's blessed with a big, booming voice, but she IS blessed with the ability to write tender love songs and deliver them as honestly as Karen Carpenter delivered her and her brother's. I always regarded Estefan as the Modern Day Karen Carpenter. There's a similar timbre between the two.

Despite her nasal performances in English, she sounds absolutely brilliant on her Spanish albums, especially "Mi Tierra." Plus, she's smart, talented, survived a paralyzing automobile accident and raised two good kids. Additionally, she's been married to Emilio for years. It says a lot for the kind of person she must be and of the values she represents.

Musically, though not QUITE Karen Carpenter, a close second, I would say. At least, this is what I hear when she sings. She's worked very, very hard over the years and has amassed a HUGE repertoire of consistently good music. Clearly, she will go down in the history books as one of American Music's most important forces where she helped fuse the influence of Spanish music together with American Pop. I applaud the excellence of her artistry and the affects it has had on modern musical culture. She's one of a kind.

SECOND THREAD TITLE: Gloria Estefan is THE real queen of Miami!



F*** Mariah, Beyonce, and every other female artist that stole Gloria's butterfly symbol-wearing idea and never gave her credit for it!



THE classic that still has bite!^ But of course, I've play THIS classic a lot more often in recent years:

Madonna who...? Hagdonna would sell all her stuff for a jam like this:

Goth Glo!

I'm 36 and has there ever been a moment in time when Gloria wasn't an Icon?...LOL...Gloria is like Family to everybody. You expect to see her at the Family Reunion with a plate of something.

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Back in 1998 When VH1 had the audacity & nerve to do its first Divas special and select only a handful of women, that list would have been incomplete without Gloria.

Here's some songs from her new standards album

Before Selena. Before Shakira. There was GLORIA!!!

Her homecoming tour was incredible, and the Miami Sound Machine were TIGHT!!!

She was on PBS, I think last weekend, performing some standards

She'll be on The Talk one day next week. Check your listings.