Enrique Iglesias. AP FILE PHOTO
MADRID, Spain—Grammy-winning Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias, whose mother is from the Philippines, on Tuesday urged his fans to give money to help victims of the devastating Typhoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan).
“HELP THE PHILIPPINES! People in the Philippines need our help right away! Please consider donating to Haiyan disaster relief. You’ll feel good that you did,” the 38-year-old wrote on his official website beside a link to the web page of the American Red Cross.
Iglesias, whose hits include “Hero” and “Cuando Me Enamoro,” is currently on tour in the United States.
He is the third and youngest child of veteran Spanish singer Julio Iglesias and socialite and magazine journalist Isabel Preysler, who moved to Madrid from the Philippines when she was a teenager.
Preysler, dubbed “The Pearl of Manila” by Spain’s gossip magazines, and Julio Iglesias split in 1979 after a seven-year marriage. She is currently married to former Spanish finance minister Miguel Boyer.
The United Nations fears the typhoon may have killed over 10,000 people. It estimates that more than 11.3 million Filipinos have been affected, with 673,000 made homeless, since Yolanda—one of the most powerful typhoons ever—smashed into the nation’s central islands on Friday.
The typhoon struck one month after the Philippines was hit by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that destroyed the homes and livelihoods of around 350,000 people.
Since bursting on to the music scene in 1995, Enrique Iglesias has become one of the biggest-selling Spanish artists of all time, selling over 100 million albums worldwide.
Originally posted at 9:08 a.m. | November 13, 2013