POP MUSIC REVIEW : Roberto Carlos, Forever Young

Roberto Carlos doesn’t have a great voice or a dynamic stage personality, but he’s been able to maintain headliner status in the Latin pop world for parts of four decades.

The secret: highly accessible material and a likable, Everyman manner that charms his fans--even if his conservative style bores anyone looking for passion or challenge in music.

At the Universal Amphitheatre on Sunday, the ever-youthful Brazilian demonstrated his continuing appeal as he performed more than two dozen of his hits, backed by a 14-piece orchestra and vocal trio.

Roberto Carlos deals in a wide array of styles, but the arrangements are invariably sugar-coated by a mellow and sometimes downright corny romanticism.

He was at his most interesting Sunday when he was the most intimate: accompanying himself on acoustic guitar on the ballad “Details” and singing with considerable feeling on “The Day That You’ll Love Me,” a tango classic immortalized in the ‘30s by Carlos Gardel, arguably the greatest Latin popular singer ever.

He ought to pay more attention to some younger artists, like Emmanuel and Luis Miguel, who deal in a similar conservative pop style, but still find room to experiment and grow.