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 Entertainment | August 2005 
Latino Superstars Bring 'Big Tour' to America
 Chuy Varela - SFGate.com
| | There'll definitely be some hip wiggling with this trio of Marc Anthony (left), Chayanne and Alejandro Fernández. |
One of the summer's hottest shows, the "Big Tour," features Latino superstars Marc Anthony, Alejandro Fernández and Chayanne jetting across the United States doing 15 concerts in 30 days. Teaming three performers, whose individual styles cover salsa, Latin pop and Mexican ranchera music, is perhaps pop music's answer to the classical world's Three Tenors. In fact, now considered one of the world's great voices, Fernández was the third tenor in a recent performance with Plácido Domingo and José Carreras.
The trio stops in the Bay Area Saturday at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View. The press has been nothing but positive since the tour got under way in Houston on Aug. 17 at the Toyota Center.
Fernández, 31, was still ecstatic from opening night as he spoke in Spanish about that show the next day.
"The people of Houston were very gracious to us, with a distinct vibration and soul. It was an impressive chemistry that gave this tour a great send-off."
"What I bring to this show," he said, "is my Mexican music and pop hits. But it's the way we mix it up that I think people will enjoy."
The crowd was on its feet for the entire three-hour program, which concluded with the three singing the Roberto Carlos classic, "Amigo."
The son of legendary ranchera singer Vicente Fernández, Fernández has a 20-piece mariachi and pop group in tow. Just nominated for a Latin Grammy in the best male pop vocal category for his "A Corazon Abierto" album, he hosts an hourlong set on the tour with impromptu drop-ins by Anthony or Chayanne.
"I've taken a path that has been traditional," he explained, "but I have tried to help evolve my Mexican music. People like it, and it has brought good results. My influences were passed on to me by my father when I was real young, but I've tried to create my own style over the years."
The Mexico City-born Fernández released his first album in 1992 and has 13 to date with a new one due at the end of October -- a live album recorded in Madrid earlier this year.
"The album includes collaborations with Amaia (Montero) of La Oreja de Van Gogh (the Spanish rock band), Diego El Cigala and numerous musicians. It will be released as a CD/DVD package. The recording is 100 percent acoustic and came out with a feeling and quality that is marvelous."
Like his father, Fernández also has a second career in films and recently portrayed Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata in a film by Alfonso Arau. "Studying the character of Emiliano Zapata, I believe, made me stronger, more righteous and more dedicated to all the things I do," he said. "The nobleness of his heart taught me a lot."
At a time when the entertainment industry is hungry for sales, the Big Tour is filling 19,000-plus-seat theaters and arenas across the country, attesting to the buying power of the country's 40 million Latinos. However, while Fernández is a larger-than-life icon of his generation, he exudes a rare humility for someone of his stature.
"I began my career with the obligation to uplift this Mexican music to the highest level possible and take it around the world. I thank the public, and God, for giving me the strength and ambition to forge forward. Sure it's been hard trying to have a life within a public image like mine, but I've gotten used to it, and while it has its pros and cons, it also has a lot of career satisfactions," he said. |
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