When Grammy-award winning Miami pop star Jon Secada comes to Vero, he typically shoots over the Wabasso Bridge and heads for the home of Gloria and Emilio Estefan.
He never even makes it to Costa d’Este, never mind Ocean Drive or the mainland.
A week from Monday, though, he’ll be here for all of Vero, launching his new book at the Vero Beach Book Center.
“A New Day,” his autobiography, is scheduled for release the next day, published by Penguin’s Celebra imprint that features prominent Hispanics; it published the Estefan’s 2008 cookbook.
With luck, the Estefans will be a part of his book signing, even if it’s not in person.
“Hope to get an ‘after party’ going as well,” said the book center’s marketing director Cynthia Callander late last week. If so, a chorus of Happy Birthday would be in order – Secada will have just turned 52 two days before his Vero visit.
Along with being the godparents of Secada’s 12-year-old son, Jon Henri, the Estefans are Secada’s mentors. They worked together for 18 years before parting ways in 2004; Jose Estefan, Emilio’s brother, remains his business manager.
Secada has his own production company now. “I run my own ship,” he says. “But I’m very close to them still.”
In April, he sang with Gloria at a Cleveland Clinic benefit concert in Las Vegas, closing the concert with “Coming Out of the Dark,” the song they co-wrote with Emilio that launched Secada’s career. A year later, in 1992, he released his first album, “Jon Secada.” It sold 6 million copies and won him a Grammy as Best Latin Pop Album.
Later this month, at Miami’s South Beach Ritz Carlton, Secada will perform at a tribute to Gloria Estefan when she is inducted into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Secada is taking a break from the recording studio to head north to Vero next week; he is currently working on a CD that will include “I’m Never Too Far Away,“ his single released in 2012. The year prior, he released a Spanish-language album, “Otra Vez.” He is also working on a Christmas album and a PBS special is coming up next year. In January, he performs with Gino Vannelli at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.
Secada has sold 20 million albums in his career. He hit the top of the charts in the early 1990s not with Latin music but with American pop tinged with R&B. They were songs he himself wrote in English, not Spanish, like “Just Another Day” and “Angel.”
He went on to perform with dozens of stars including Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Sinatra, Pavarotti, and Ricky Martin.
Writing the story of his life “has been an enlightening, fascinating experience,” says Secada. “How I got to this country, being a Cuban-American and being an immigrant, seeing what my parents went through to move forward and have a better life. My father in particular taught me that happiness is neither constant nor permanent. You live trying to be happy but understanding that whether it turns out positive or negative, you can always look to a brand-new day.”
Secada’s late father was jailed for trying to leave the island nation when Secada was only a toddler. For the next five years, little Juan – his birth name – and his mother lived in a tough downtown Havana neighborhood.
He was a “shy, pudgy mama’s boy,” viewed as an outsider for his family’s political beliefs: his father had openly opposed the Castro regime. Eventually, he was released from jail and, with the proper papers, the family boarded the flight to Madrid. There, while his father left for the Canary Islands to work as a cook, his mother cleaned houses, coming home to 8-year-old Juan and a one-room apartment with a bathroom shard with their neighbors.
With his exotic Afro-Cuban looks and Cuban accent, he was more a curiosity than an outcast. It was there that he began fostering his love of music, particularly of the pop sounds taking hold in Spain.
At ten, the family moved to Costa Rica, and finally to Miami when Juan was 12.
None of them spoke a word of English. While his parents found factory and restaurant work, he was enrolled in a bi-lingual school. “TV was my best English teacher,” he says of the hours he watched soap operas and game shows while alone at home.
He also listened to the radio, imitating the singers like Stevie Wonder and Elton John until no trace remained of his accent.
Secada credits one particularly tough P.E. teacher with finally getting him in shape. He signed up for chorus at Hialeah High, wowing the choral director with Johnny Mathis’ “Misty.”
“Who are you and where did you come from?” she demanded, then encouraged him to audition as a soloist.
In his junior year he auditioned for “Godspell” and won the role of Judas, not a bad study for his future Broadway roles: He played the lead, Danny Zuko, in “Grease” in 1994. And in 2003, he played the difficult role of the bisexual, German-accented Master of Ceremonies in “Cabaret” – eight times a week, while his wife Mari and their two young children stayed behind in Miami.
“I’ve always talked about how important that show was, and how much it changed me in my career,” says Secada, whose portrayal earned a rave review from New York Times critic Clive Barnes. “It took such rigorous discipline. I graduated to a whole different level with ‘Cabaret.’“
Post-“Cabaret,” he took on the role of Joseph in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream coat.”
“I would do it again in an instant,” he says of his roles on Broadway, strenuous as they were. No word on whether the Estefan’s on-going Broadway-bound project might have a role for him. “I’m excited for them. It’s going to happen. They’ve been working on developing this show for a long time.”
Secada earned his B.A. and master’s degree from the prestigious University of Miami music program. Meanwhile, around Miami, he became the “go-to” male vocalist.
It was just as Latin music began its crossover ascent nationally. Spearheading that rise were the Estefans and Miami Sound Machine. Emilio, recruiting for his fledgling company, convinced Secada to not only anglicize his name and sound, but to abandon his contract with CBS to sign a management, publishing and production agreement with Estefan.
Secada had co-written two songs on Gloria’s “Cuts Both Ways” album when in March 1990, a truck plowed into her tour bus, breaking her back. The album she recorded post-recovery, “Into the Light,” would feature “Coming Out of the Dark,” co-written by Secada.
That song, a massive hit, launched Secada’s career. “Even more significantly,” he writes, ”in Gloria I had found one of the most important mentors of my life.”
As for where that hoped-for book signing after-party might be, one would think Costa d’Este might be a good choice.
“I really need to see that hotel,” says Secada.
