Gloria Estefan will tour several South American countries beginning April 9, 2009. Photo EFE


Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan will meet her South American fans on a greatest-hits concert tour that will take her around the region starting in April.

“I spent 15 years of my life traveling and we’ve been trying to get to Latin America forever,” Estefan said Monday at a press conference in Miami’s luxury Icon Hotel. “So, to me, it’s a nice full circle.”

The tour will begin on April 9 in Uruguay and go on to Chile on the 14th, Argentina on the 18th, Peru on the 21st and Ecuador on April 23. “After so many years of planning to perform there, but because of logistics, you know, and a lot of political upheaval in Latin America, getting everything harmonized and being available to do it was just too difficult,” Estefan said.

With regard to the repertoire the singer-songwriter will perform, she said it will include some early numbers from her decades-long career.

This will be the first time she has ever given concerts in Uruguay, Argentina and Chile. These five Latin American performances are just the beginning of other concerts not yet confirmed, but she did let it be known that negotiations are underway for appearances in Panama, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

Meanwhile she confirmed that her daughter Emily will take part in the South American tour. “She’s the best musician of the family,” she said of her daughter who plays piano, drums and electric guitar but is very shy just like mom was.

In her own case, the seven-time Grammy winner said that she spent at least 10 years trying to get used to being “the center of attention” and if she hadn’t met her husband, producer Emilio Estefan, she would never have had a musical career. EFE