Gloria Estefan was born in Cuba and migrated to Miami at age two, fleeing the dictatorship of Castro. She had a hard life as a child, having to care for her father and other family members while her mother worked as a school teacher. Despite this troubled upbringing she still managed to gain a partial scholarship to the University of Miami in 1975, hoping to pursue a career in psychology. Always having a passion for music, she was encouraged to become a member of the Cuban/American group Miami Latin Boys. After contributing her own songs and coming more and more out of her shell, thanks to group keyboardist and leader Emilio Estefan, Gloria’s husband. After a year and a half in the group, the name was changed to Miami Sound Machine and the record success within Central and South America began to happen. In 1984 the smash single Dr Beat reached the number 10 spot on the US charts, establishing them in the English speaking record market.

All class

After much success with follow up singles and albums, the band became known as Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine, recognising her importance to the group. In 1989, Gloria released her first solo album Cuts Both Ways which spawned the hit singles Anything For You and Don’t Wanna Lose You. She was now an established solo artist and touring to promote this success. Sadly in 1990 while sleeping on her tour bus, she suffered horrific injuries to her back. There was little hope of a full recovery but, after a year of physical therapy, she astounded the world. She released the album Into the Light and ventured out on a 29 country world tour. Her Greatest Hits album was released in 1992 and several honours and awards followed, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a Grammy Award.

Boys will be boys.

She also sang at the closing ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and ventured into acting with her debut appearance in Music of the Heart alongside Meryl Streep. More recently she received an Award of Merit at the 2000 American Music Awards.

Gloria Estefan – Everlasting Gloria! is a collection of video clips from the talented Latino singer. There is a good range of songs from her catalogue and after an opening introduction by the singer at the start of the feature, she also makes comments prior to many other songs.

Track listing...

This is a nice collection for fans and a great introduction for those unfamiliar with her recording career. The video clips are all entertaining and well made so most should be pleased. Fans can also now purchase this release as the double pack under the banner Now See Hear which contains this DVD release along with the CD Greatest Hits. This is great value as the CD contains many more of her hits not included on the DVD.

This DVD is NTSC formatted, so viewers should have that capability if they wish to enjoy this release.

Being a collection of video clips, this is presented in full frame and video quality varies, but not greatly. For the most part the video quality is superb with only a few minor problems. Picture is sharp at all times and colours are, dare I say it - Glori-ous! The only real problems with this release are the occasional instances of aliasing, grain and edge enhancement, but for such a wide variety of source material, these problems are all at acceptable levels. The dual layer occurs at 29:50 and is barely noticeable.

'80s hair AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!

Audio is equally as good and is offered in a choice of PCM Stereo or Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. Both are very nice indeed. Sound is clear throughout with no synch problems. There are also no problems with background noise, distortion or dropouts. Surround use is extensive and used well to emphasise the music and while separation is not outstanding, it is well suited for music videos. The subwoofer gets a workout on many of the bass driven songs and adds greatly to the overall sound.

Included in the extras are a biography, a discography, a discography of hits and a video discography. All are worthy additions and a welcome sight compared to many music releases lately that haven’t even included a discography.

Overall this is a great release for fans. The video and sound quality is superb throughout and there is a nice but small selection of extras. If you are not a fan then this is a great introduction to this talented artist.