More Passion Than Usual on the Fiesta Stages

The AT&T; Fiesta Broadway on Sunday was the weakest in the event’s eight-year history in terms of first-rate music acts. But if you want to know what the festival was all about, just remember one name--Thalia.

For years, the Mexican singer-actress was just one more face in countless, dreadful TV soap operas, a teenager who could barely sing or act but for some reason became extremely popular, even in places like Russia, the Philippines and Indonesia. And at this year’s Fiesta Broadway, which took place in a 36-square-block area downtown, Thalia was crowned as the fiesta’s first-ever queen.

As it turned out, she was the day’s big surprise. This was a new Thalia, a top-rate performer who showed that she has what it takes to be taken seriously.

Curiously enough, it was during her first few songs--singing over recorded tracks--that Thalia was at her best. Instead of the same old crowd-pleasing cheesy pop, she offered a selection of well-written, mid-tempo, cumbia-tropical dance pop, singing with above-average conviction and emphasizing her new status as a bona fide bombshell.

Less successful was her first-ever mariachi set--she just doesn’t have the range required for the demanding ranchera style (which was well represented elsewhere by 17-year-old local favorite Nydia Rojas). But after her amazing transformation from concoction to contender, Thalia might well have more surprises in the future.

Closing act and fiesta grand marshal Marco Antonio Solis, back-in-form Puerto Rican merenguera Olga Tanon, Puerto Rican salsero Eddie Santiago, Panamanian dancehall rapper El General, Los Angeles-based Venezuelan salsa bandleader Rudy Regalado and a handful of others were also top-rate.

But, paradoxically, the modest nature of the lineup gave the festival, which featured music on seven stages, a more passionate touch than usual.

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More than in the past, it looked as if a sincere effort was made to have acts perform live instead of singing to recorded tracks. And up-and-coming artists seemed more enthusiastic, as if aware of the fact that this year they were the stars.

The size of the crowds and the security logistics can make it difficult to navigate the area and find such necessities as water, but the main problem with Fiesta Broadway every year is that television dictates the pace of the event.

On Sunday the Telemundo Network (Channel 52 in Los Angeles) took over the main AT&T; stage, and it felt as if the celebration was not meant for the crowd but for the television audience that will see the hourlong special later in the year.

Victims included the audience, which had to cheer when instructed, the acts (Regalado, for instance, suffered through a false start because the TV crew wasn’t ready for him) and the fiesta itself, whose vitality was compromised by artificiality.