Juanes has 6 million pre-CD downloads

(Noticiascadadía/Agencias).- Universal Music says he has sold more than 6 million digital songs — from legal Internet vendors and mobile phone downloads — from the CD before its Tuesday release.

At a news conference Monday, the 35-year-old guitar hero said he has often been asked if he could translate his records into English, and that his response was always: "I can play my guitar in English, but my songs will always be in Spanish."

He noted music fans throughout the Spanish-speaking world have long listened to music sung in English, often without knowing what the words meant.

"The language of music is universal," he said. "It's like what goes on with us, that we've listened to music in English for years and maybe we don't understand it, but we like it."

Universal said the 6 million pre-launch sales was a record. Spokeswomen for the Recording Industry Association of America and the Nielsen music ratings company did not respond to requests for confirmation Monday.