Why Gloria Estefan’s “Christmas Through Your Eyes” remains a gay holiday favorite 30 years later

For many gays, the holiday season wouldn’t be complete without a listen to Gloria Estefan‘s 1993 album Christmas Through Your Eyes.

The 11-song LP covers mostly tradition songs with Estefan’s flamboyant flair, such as jazz-inspired versions of “This Christmas” and “Silver Bells.”

But perhaps the most beloved tune is the title track.

With a digital and electronic-sounding opening, “Christmas Through Your Eyes”, the only original song on the album, is a warm melody about experiencing the unadulterated joys of the holiday season.

Give me one more chance to dream again
One more chance to feel again
Through your heart
If only for one day help me try
I want to see Christmas through your eyes.

The song was co-written by Estefan and Diane Warren, who’s worked with the queens of gay icons, including Cher, Celine Dion, Britney Spears, and Beyoncé. Warren’s most well-known collaboration with Cher is the classic ’80s dance hit “If I Could Turn Back Time.”

Need we say more?

Considering that Estefan is a gay icon herself, one could argue this is among the gayest holiday anthems of all-time.

Estefan was at her professional apex when “Christmas Through Your Eyes” was released 30 years ago.

She was coming off an incredible decade-long run performing with her husband Emilio as the Miami Sound Machine, which released multiple top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 throughout the 1980s. The group’s second album, Let it Loose, went multi-platinum.

Then in 1989, the group dropped its name, and Estefan continued as a solo artist. Her first Spanish album Mi Terra was also released in 1993 and went on to sell 5.2 million copies worldwide.

Meanwhile, her Christmas album peaked at No. 43 on the Billboard 200 Pop Album chart and was certified Platinum by the RIAA in the United States for selling over 1 million copies.

Estefan explained her long-standing LGBTQ+ allyship in a 2017 interview about her and her husband’s comedy, A Change of Heart, which is about a conservative straight man who receives a heart transplant from a drag queen.

“We’ve been surrounded by all kinds of people our entire lives. We’re all human beings, and I’m glad that the Supreme Court finally admitted that everyone has the right to love and marry who they want to marry.

Estefan also has a queer daughter, Emily. Though she was unsurprisingly very supportive of Emily, she expressed trepidation about her coming out to her grandmother.

“We’ve been very, very open about the support for the LGBTQ community our entire lives and at the same time, I had a mother with ulcerative colitis that even if I brought up a bill—or something that was not even important—would get very upset. We’re all just families trying to get through the difficult moments in life,” she told Vanity Fair. “Life is complicated, life is tough.”

That is true. But life becomes a little easier when we throw on our favorite holiday tunes. 30 years later, Estefan’s hit remains at the top of our list.

Adding to her holiday legacy, last year, she and Emily (along with grandson Sasha Estefan-Coppola) teamed up for another yuletide album, Estefan Family Christmas, which featured 17 tracks in total, 14 tracks in English and three in Spanish.