He has been dubbed the most successful Latin recording artist ever, so Julio Iglesias is formidable competition on his own. Never mind if he is your father and you were named after him.
Julio Iglesias Jnr is surprisingly quick to dismiss the pressures of being the offspring of the quintessential Spanish serenader who has accumulated sales of 220 million albums worldwide.
Worried about the competition? Ever feel like you are in his shadow? 'No, no, no,' he said in a manner that bordered on cockiness. He is rather confident for an entertainer whose debut album has not even been released yet, but Iglesias Jnr, who has inherited his father's sumptuous charm, has great faith in his future.
'I definitely want to make it as big as he has,' he said of his father's 30 years in the industry. 'I'm ready to fight, and I'm ready to show the world my music.' Iglesias Jnr was in Hong Kong recently to promote his soon-to-be-released album Under My Eyes. 'It is in English,' is what he likes to stress about the album. 'This album just came out in English . . . It was born in English . . . I wrote my lyrics in English . . . I dream in English.' The nervous repetition is perhaps an attempt to differentiate himself from the Iglesias legacy. Both his father and younger brother Enrique have been phenomenally successful in the Latin music milieu.
Under My Eyes, to be released by the middle of this month, is a decidedly pop affair with a hint of George Michael in its sound; there are no Latin- American rhythms here. Iglesias Jnr describes it as pop R & B soul, but 'it has a little bit of everything, it's hard to categorise'.
'He loves my music, I love his music, but we have completely different types of music, and completely different styles,' he said of his 'great father'.
There is a hint of rivalry, however, when he discusses his brother Enrique, who turns 24 in May and who has already won a Billboard music award and a Grammy for best Latin performance. Sales of Enrique's two albums combined have topped the one million mark.