2 February 2002
His papa Julio Iglesias, the Pepé Le Pew of shiny-floor light entertainment Euro-pop, had stunk and slunk his way skunk-like to number one in Ireland in 1981 with ‘Begin The Beguine’. Now here’s one of his many children carrying on the family business of monetising the Latin lover stereotype through the medium of overwrought balladry. And business is booming, baby!
The ridiculous video (below) captures this song perfectly. ‘Hero’ is hysterically over-the-top melodramatic bluster. Young Iglesias starts off all hushed and trembly in the Westlife manner, over some flat-pack acoustic guitar plucking and bossa nova beats. By the end it’s all sweeping strings, gospel backing vocals and your usual contrivance of big emoshuns. Just who are the suckers who handed over their hard-earned for this tripe? Well, if Westlife are for first-dance wedding songs and the long haul of marriage, ‘Hero’ sits upstream from there: a younger Westlife fan, wondering if the other Westlife fan they fancy fancies them. Of course they do! You both like Westlife and ‘Hero’: you two deserve each other.
