Cuban American singer Gloria Estefan became an international sensation in the ’80s thanks to a string of irresistible hits with her band Miami Sound Machine. With her subsequent solo records, she continued to play a key role in popularizing Latin music in the United States. • She was born Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García in Havana in 1957. She moved with her family to the United States when she was 16 months old, following Fidel Castro’s rise to power. • While attending the University of Miami in 1975, she met future husband Emilio Estefan, Jr. and joined his group, Miami Latin Boys, who soon became Miami Sound Machine. • The group’s international breakthrough came with 1985’s “Conga,” an infectious dance track that reached No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. • Credited to Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine, 1987’s Let It Loose (Anything for You in some parts of the world) became the group’s most successful album, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 chart and spawning four Top 10 singles, including “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” and the No. 1 smash “Anything for You.” • Estefan broke her back in a 1990 tour bus accident but came back strong with 1991’s Into the Light, which went Top 5 on the Billboard 200 and yielded the No. 1 hit “Coming Out of the Dark.” • She released her first-ever Spanish-language album, Mi Tierra, in 1993. It won a Grammy for Best Tropical Latin Album and was the first No. 1 on Billboard’s newly established Top Latin Albums chart. • Estefan collaborated with *NSYNC for 1999’s “Music of My Heart,” which appeared in the film Music of the Heart and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. • Also in 1999, she gave her second Super Bowl halftime show performance, appearing alongside Stevie Wonder and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. • On Your Feet!, a jukebox musical based on Estefan and her husband’s lives, premiered in 2005. • In 2018, Estefan made history as the first Cuban American to receive a Kennedy Center Honor.