returns with a brand new single and album (available to digitally download 21st May)Album ‘Insomniac’ out 18th June on Polydor RecordsEnrique Iglesias is back with his eighth studio album. Three years and countless sleepless nights in the making, Insomniac is proof positive that the Madrid-born, Miami-raised singer is not about to rest on his laurels. After selling 40 million albums and winning countless accolades including Grammys and American Music Awards you might have thought Enrique could afford to approach the recording process with a certain amount of insouciance. Not so: Insomniac is the result of three years non-stop travelling (between Los Angeles, Miami and Sweden), writing, recording and pressing the delete button, only to begin all over again until he was 100% that his vision was perfectly realised.

Enrique also spent a lot of time deciding what that vision should be…how cool that vision should be. He admits: “I guess at first I did want to consciously make a record that had a cool sound to it. But then I said to myself: f*** that. I don’t want to take myself too seriously. The truth is, I just want to write songs that I like.”

The album’s first single is the addictive pop gem Do You Know?, in which a ping pong ball makes a rare, and very special, appearance as a percussion instrument.

Other album highlights include Push, a hip hop flavoured collaboration with rapper Lil’ Wayne, and Ring My Bell, a moody track written in Los Angeles.

In its final incarnation Insomniac contains 12 songs in English and three in Spanish, as well as the contribution of renowned producers such as Sean Garrett, Max Martin and Anders Bagge. There are an additional 20 tracks that were recorded during those lengthy sessions, but ultimately abandoned. “I could have made a second album if I wanted to,” Enrique explains. “But I don’t think those songs will ever see the light of day. If they’re called b-sides, then they shouldn’t be on the album.”

Enrique has just completed shooting the video for Do You Know? in Los Angeles and is heading to the UK at the end of May.Enrique Iglesias

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