Gloria Estefan Says She Has 'Psychic Ability': 'I Would Just Have This Certainty About Something'

Gloria Estefan might have some special powers.

In her new Time to Walk episode for Apple Fitness+, the Latin pop singer revealed that she has "a psychic ability."

"You know, throughout my life, I got these flashes. I would just have this certainty about something, that some people might call a psychic ability. And I kept getting this recurring feeling that we're going to be famous all over the world," she says of Miami Sound Machine's success.

At that time, she says, they were "a little gig band."

"One night, I ventured to tell Emilio [Estefan] and he's going, 'Really?' I go, 'I don't know how, I don't know when, but I'm just certain. In fact, I think we're going to be famous outside the U.S. before we ever are famous here.' One day, we're rehearsing in our garage and all of a sudden, 'Dr. Beat' comes on the radio and we go, 'What?' We’re jumping up and down like fools going, 'How did this happen?'" Estefan, 66, recalls.

Estefan continues, "We found out that somehow the song had been exported to Europe through the record pools. It was No. 1 in Holland, top 10 in England, and it had come backwards, and the radio station in Miami had then played it because it was at the top of the charts in Europe.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, Estefan also touched on her and Emilio's determination to keep their Latin sound.

“When we were already working on the song 'Conga,' we had to convince a record company to let us record in English. We had the material. We knew we could do it, so we're pitching our idea and the execs that were there at the time, they're going, 'You can't compete on a worldwide level. This is a one-shot deal with 'Dr. Beat.' It was a phenomenon but, if you really want to cross over, you got to get rid of the percussion. You got to get rid of the horns. You got to change your name.' And Emilio and I are looking at him going, 'Really? That's who we are,'" she says.

Estefan adds, "So, if that's who we are, that's who we want to be a success as, not water down our culture or our sound or our music just to try to be someone else.' I go, 'If I do that, and we're a success, I'm not going to be happy the rest of my life. We know this going to work.'"

The "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You" singer's instincts were right.

"'Conga' was the song that came through nationally for us in the States and, sure enough, it became one of our biggest-selling albums in history. We became a huge hit and put Miami, musically, on the map all over the world because our name was Miami Sound Machine," she explains.

The singer-songwriter also reflected on how she gave herself just 10 days to grieve following her 1990 bus accident where she was "totally dependent" and "could not sit up, lay down, wash my face, brush my teeth by myself."

"I would cry several times a day, and then 10 days after, I said, 'OK, you need to get with the program.' And that's what I did. I spent the next months just trying to get back my mobility and my independence," she says.

Listen to the full episode here.