As the winner of CMT's reality show, the son of renown singer Julio Iglesias will record a single with John Rich of Big & Rich.
- Mar 11, 2008
AceShowbiz - Julio Iglesias Jr. who lives up to his father's name has won the CMT reality show "Gone Country". The Hispanic singer who is also known to be the brother of Enrique Iglesias, has beaten other contestants such as Bobby Brown, Carnie Wilson, Diana DeGarmo, Sisqo, Dee Snider and Maureen McCormick and therefore, entitled to record a country single with producer John Rich of duo Big & Rich.
The finale of the show that air on CMT on Monday, March 10 at 11:30 P.M., sees the contestants taking the stage at the Wildhorse Saloon whereupon Iglesias Jr. was crowned the winner. Rich who is the sole determiner of the winner that night granted him a recording session for a single called "The Way I Want You" that Iglesias Jr. wrote with James Slater and Tammy Hyler. The single took impact on radio outlets on the same day.
Before choosing Iglesias Jr. as the winner, Rich talked to Billboard on the potential of him opting the 35-year-old as the winner. Rich said, "His only weakness is the language barrier and I am not sure that is so much of a weakness, really. He doesn't know a lot about country as far as modern country, (but) he knows a lot about old country because of his dad."
Rich added on how he would judge the competition, saying "We have been looking for a bridge to bridge that gap between the Hispanic community and country music for forever. We could really use a couple of artists that speak their language and speak our language and bridge the two together. If he wanted to stick with it and take a serious run at it, he could do something."
Iglesias Jr. recorded his debut album with Epic Records in 1999 with the title "Under My Eyes" that failed to garner major success in U.S. His second album "Tercera Dimension" (2003) also received the same fate in the States market although he eventually become one of the popular singers among Hispanics.
The video of "The Way I Want You" can be watched on CMT.com.
