Salsa Fiesta

Good luck having a career like Rubén Blades. The world famous Panamanian salsa singer and songwriter has been in over 35 major Hollywood movies, is a lawyer (with a master’s in International Law from Harvard University), and received 18 percent of the country’s presidential vote in 1994. The dude gets...

By Sebastian del MÃ¡rmol

June 9, 2011

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Good luck having a career like Rubén Blades. The world famous Panamanian salsa singer and songwriter has been in over 35 major Hollywood movies, is a lawyer (with a master’s in International Law from Harvard University), and received 18 percent of the country’s presidential vote in 1994. The dude gets around. But mostly, he’s one badass salsa singer. Blades, 62, still has the greatest selling salsa album, Siembra, of all time, his collaboration with bandleader Willie Colon (not bad for a Panamanian performing Cuban music). His songs mostly tell the story of social struggles. If you want, however, the salsa known for its romantic slant, you’re probably a fan of Puerto Rican salsa giant Gilberto Santa Rosa. What Blades has to say about matters of society, Santa Rosa has to say about matters of the heart. He’s known as the “gentlemen of salsa” and his ballads make salsa-crazed ladies swoon all over Central and South America. He still holds the record for the most number-one albums on the Billboard Tropical Albums chart. After decades of admiring each other’s work, Blades and Santa Rosa decided to join up and go on the Una Sola Salsa (One Single Salsa) tour. They duo stops at the James L. Knight Center for one night only on Saturday.
Sat., June 18, 8 p.m., 2011

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