Maps of Music

Unwrapped (2003)

Where the lyrics of Unwrapped take you, and where it was really made.

Unlike her other studio albums, this one was recorded live, and its back cover shows Estefan's own back.

Key places

Recorded live in Miami (2003)

Recording site The Hit Factory Criteria — Wikipedia gives Crescent Moon Studios in Miami as the studio for this album. The pin sits at the city center, not on the building itself. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Unwrapped: tenth studio solo album and twenty-fourth album overall by Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan
• Released in 2003, on 22 September 2003 per release date
• First English-language studio album by Estefan since 1998's gloria!
• Departs in sound from Estefan's previous works
• Recorded live, unlike any of her other studio albums
• Less reverb on Estefan's vocals, to create an intimate feeling
• Acoustic, designed to feel like an unplugged album
• First Estefan album without a brass section

Background

• Estefan launched the American tour Live & Re-Wrapped Tour to promote the album
• The tour followed her Live & Unwrapped performances at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas
• Remix EP Unwrapped: Remixes released under the album name
• The remix EP was a bonus promo CD sold with the Live & Unwrapped DVD during pay-per-view broadcasts
• The remix EP was also sold at shows on the Live & Re-Wrapped Tour

Recording

• Recorded live in the studio setting described on the page
• Wikipedia lists Crescent Moon Studios in Miami as the studio

Cover

• Theme of unwrapping herself to the world appears in the lyrics, recording, and artwork
• Picture on the back cover is Estefan's own back
• Pink line running down beside the title "Into You" marks the scar from her back surgery after she broke her back in 1990

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Disc 1

Disc 2

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García in Havana, Cuba, on September 1, 1957; her family fled to Miami in 1959 after the Cuban Revolution.
• Began as lead singer of the Miami Latin Boys in 1975, renamed Miami Sound Machine when she and her cousin Mercedes Navarro joined.
• Studied psychology at the University of Miami, graduating in 1979.

Career

• Miami Sound Machine's 1985 single "Conga" became her signature song; the 1987 album Let It Loose included the Hot 100 No. 1 "Anything for You".
• Went solo in 1989 with Cuts Both Ways, which produced the Hot 100 No. 1 "Don't Wanna Lose You".
• Suffered a spinal fracture in a tour bus crash near Scranton, Pennsylvania, in March 1990, then recovered fully and returned with Into the Light (1991), whose "Coming Out of the Dark" reached No. 1 on the Hot 100.
• Mi Tierra (1993), her first Spanish-language album, won the Grammy for Best Tropical Latin Album; she later won it again for Abriendo Puertas (1995) and won Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album for Alma Caribeña (2000).
• Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 and a Kennedy Center Honors in 2017.
• Her Broadway jukebox musical On Your Feet! (2015) is based on her life with husband Emilio Estefan.

Members

• Emilio Estefan, her husband and longtime producer, co-created much of her catalog.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Writing for USA Today, Elysa Gardner found that Unwrapped "reaffirms [Estefan's] status as one of pop's most resourceful survivors."
• Gardner added that Estefan keeps an affinity for mixing Latin, folk, adult-contemporary and world music textures into a robust but digestible stew.
• AllMusic editor David Jeffries felt that Unwrapped "stumbles over itself trying to put Estefan's emotional lyrics up front."
• Jeffries wrote that the album feels like an exhausting open-mic night at the coffee shop.
• Jeffries called the album a good setup for the expected "return-to-form" album.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Stevie Wonder played harmonica and sang on "Into You," while Chrissie Hynde appeared on "One Name."
• "Hoy," which became one of Estefan's most successful singles, was written by Peruvian singer-composer Gian Marco and contains several Peruvian folk music elements.
• The picture above the "I Will Always Need Your Love" lyrics shows Gloria holding hands with her husband Emilio, for whom the song was written.
• The hand pointing to the lyrics to "You" is Gloria's daughter, Emily.
• The remix EP Unwrapped: Remixes was a bonus promo CD sold with the Live & Unwrapped DVD.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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