Connie Francis News

The Latin pop queen has announced that her soon-to-launch new tour--her first in more than eight years--will also be her last. In a statement on her Website, GloriaEstefan.com, she says she will retire from touring once her Live and Re-Wrapped Tour wraps.

"Music has been one of the most beautiful things in my life and will always be a very big part of who I am and what I do. And although I will continue writing and recording and doing everything else that comes with this incredible way of life, this next tour will be my last," Esefan writes on her site.

Nearly paralyzed in a 1990 tour-bus accident, the Grammy-winning singer says she has really never been a "performance-type" person and would prefer to stay home with her kids and husband, music mogul Emilio Estefan, and recording in the studio than crisscrossing the country.

"I am the happiest when I am creating music...and when I'm in the studio," she says.

"Maybe I haven't been 'out there' on the road as often as you expected or would have liked me to be. But I know you understand, especially those of you who have children, how fulfilling it has been for me to be able to balance this unique and beautiful career with taking care of my family."

Gloria Estefan released Unwrapped, her first English-language album since 1998, last September and made a guest appearance on American Idol in April, where contestants sang her hits, including "Conga," "Words Get in the Way," "Can't Stay Away from You," "1, 2, 3," "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You" and "Turn the Beat Around."

She will kick off her 27-city Live and Re-Wrapped Tour, on July 30 in McAllen, Texas. The trek will make stops in such cities as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New York, before wrapping up in her hometown of Miami on Sept. 24. She also plans to schedule dates in Europ, Asia and Latin America.

"I'm not retiring or anything of that nature," she assured the women of ABC's The View. "I'm definitely going to be doing everything I've been doing. I think touring is one of the least things that artists do."

On her Website, Estefan says that she would like to make a movie about the life of pop legend Connie Francis , famed for a string of hits in the late '50s and early '60s, including "Where the Boys Are."

Estefan also wants to try her hand at writing.

"I have already started writing a "book" in my head," she says. "Now I want to be able to put it on paper and communicate with all of you on an even deeper level."

As a warm-up to her swan-song tour, Estefan, backed by her Miami Sound Machine band, sang a medley of her hits and paid tribute to more than 1,000 U.S. servicemen with a concert at a naval base in Norfolk, Virginia last week.

The performance was taped by Estefan's television production company and Telemundo and will air as a TV special titled A Tribute to Heroes on the Spanish cable network sometime in September.