Enrique Iglesias can keep his Grammy

Latino recording star Enrique Iglesias can keep his Grammy. Three days after shock-jock Howard Stern first aired a purported recording of Iglesias, suggesting he was profoundly tone-deaf, the 25-year-old vocalist appeared on Stern’s morning radio show to prove he can sing.

And while some listeners called in to complain that the performer still waffled on some high notes, the 25-year-old son of veteran Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias sang well enough to pass the test, at least as far as Stern was concerned. "I was trying to find out if he was Milli Vanilli. He is not. He sings his own records. He came in here and proved it," Stern said, referring to the dance-music duo stripped of their best-new-artist Grammy, following the 1990 revelation that other performers sang on their records.

Iglesias, who won his own Grammy last year for Best Male Latin performance, booked himself on Stern’s show after the ribald radio personality broadcast a tape of what was purported to be an off-key Iglesias, caterwauling his way through his hit single Rhythm Divine. The tape was said to have been taken from an "off-the-board feed" of Iglesias’ voice, while he was lip-syncing to his record during a live television performance in Europe.

His label, Interscope Records, subsequently issued a statement saying that singers appearing on TV overseas routinely perform to a "full-playback" of their music, in which any actual live vocal coming from the artist is not transmitted.

After listening to the tape on Stern’s show, Iglesias said he couldn’t be sure if the tape were authentic, but said if it were him, he probably was just clowning around with the sound engineers. Then, accompanied on acoustic guitar by a member of his band, Iglesias sang a short bit of Rhythm Divine, with Stern assuring the audience that the singer was not using any voice-enhancing equipment.

Afterward, Iglesias gamely imitated the recording in question, then sang a bit of his new single, Be With You. That song, along with Rhythm Divine and last year’s international smash hit Bailamos, are all cuts from his first English-language album, Enrique, which has sold about six million copies since its release in November.