Bahian Singer-Dancer Closes Bowl Festival in Style

The Hollywood Bowl might as well book Daniela Mercury for next summer’s world music series festival right now. There were times during the current season when World Festival 2000, which completed its season Sunday, appeared to have lost its focus, the programming choices--with the exception of a Celtic evening--having the blandness of committee decisions.

But that all changed when Bahian bombshell Mercury exploded onto the stage on Sunday with a passionate intensity that instantly defined what a world music festival can really be like when the right performers are in action. Her appearance was, in every sense, a triumph of both artistry and communication, the work of a singer-dancer who, at 32, can effectively compete with any comparable performer in the world.

One could only wonder why this astonishingly impressive Brazilian superstar, whose appeal reaches far beyond her label as the Queen of Samba-Reggae, has not yet crossed over into the English-language music market.

Imagine a combination of Madonna’s feral sensuality with Tina Turner’s lithe and leggy energy and put it in a package that possesses the elegance of a Catherine Zeta-Jones--and you still haven’t completely described either the full range or the character of Mercury’s stunning impact.

Her singing was driven by the incendiary Bahian rhythms of samba-reggae and axe, and her nonstop dancing balanced articulate, often complex choreography (frequently with two other dancers) with sheer physical exuberance. The songs reached from Caetano Veloso’s mellow “Sou Voce” and the contemporary-events rap of “Itapua Ano 2000” to Carlinhos Brown’s “Rapunzel” and the audience sing-along of “Ile Perola Negra.” Perhaps most telling of all in terms of the range of Mercury’s artistry was her original “Dara,” a superbly sung and danced tribute to the African roots of Bahian culture.

No wonder the crowd, which had already experienced an effervescent appearance by the veteran Jorge Ben Jor, was on its feet for much of Mercury’s performance, enthusiastically applauding the most extraordinary presentation of World Festival 2000. What a climax.