Enrique Iglesias an Energetic Crowd Pleaser

A true romantic can give affection just as easily as he receives it. So the most memorable moments of Enrique Iglesias’ performance Saturday at the Shrine Auditorium weren’t musical, and they didn’t come during those long periods when throngs of excited women rushed the stage.

They came instead when the singer showed he was actually paying attention to the immediate needs of his fans.

First, he rescued a young woman who was grappling with security guards, leading her safely backstage without ever interrupting the song in progress.

Then, near the close of his 90-minute concert, Iglesias reached over the more frantic fans up front to pluck an astonished woman from the crowd for a passionate serenade of his hit single “Hero.”

If there is nothing particularly unique or lasting about his music, Iglesias’ concert was nonetheless richly entertaining and exceptionally performed. Slick but not bloodless, the music was never patronizing or willfully shallow.

Many of the uptempo pop songs, including “Don’t Turn Off the Lights,” were largely carried by his seven-piece band and three backup singers, turning Iglesias into more of a band conductor. But as a singer he was fully engaged in the most romantic material.

Iglesias was not the brooding male model type pictured on his latest album cover, but a likable, energetic showman dressed in a purple football jersey and a knit cap. Often sprinting and hopping across the stage between verses, the singer was a natural crowd pleaser.

In that way, Iglesias was far more like his father, Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias, than all the heavy-breathing romantics working under the Latin lover label.

For the younger singer, that category has little relevance to a repertoire that is rooted more and more in mainstream pop and rock.

Iglesias did perform a handful of Spanish-language tear-jerkers from his early career, tapping a pleasing emotional vein. But he seemed just as happy to play the occasional modern rock flourish or a salvageable rendition of Steve Miller’s “Space Cowboy.”

The concert also called for the occasional theatrical moment, as when Iglesias and a female singer traded some risque petting.

But while the most-excited members of the audience were clearly women, Iglesias also drew cheers from men holding their hands in the air and swaying to the music.

Maybe for good reason. “If guys want to get lucky,” the singer said at one point, “you come to an Enrique Iglesias concert.”