King Hamad awards medal to singer Julio Iglesias

King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa has bestowed Bahrain’s Medal of Competency upon Spanish singer Julio Iglesias in recognition of his outstanding artistic achievements. The superstar has given two concerts in Bahrain are part of the Spring of Culture Festival, an annual event where a large range of international artists perform. Andrea Bocelli is also performing in the event hosted by the culture ministry. “HM King Hamad praised Iglesias’ remarkable songs in several languages and highlighted the significance of fine art in promoting cultural and artistic standards,” Bahrain News Agency (BNA) reported. The singer said that he was grateful for the award and that the Andalusian origins of his mother, Maria Del Rosario de la Cueva y Perignat, made him feel at home whenever he visited Arab countries. Julio Iglesias, short for Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva, is one of the top 15 bestselling music artists in history and has sold over 300 million records worldwide in 14 languages and released 77 albums. His next four concerts will be held in April in Chile where he broke a record for an audience in 1977 when more than 100,000 people gathered for his concert at the National Stadium in Santiago. According to the discography on his website, Julio became in 1999 the most important foreign artist in the history of Brazil, performing for more than 150,000 people in the “Parque do Ibirapuera” in Sao Paulo, the country’s most famous park.