One from the heart

Charity events can bring out the best in people by tapping their compassion and generosity. Wednesday’s all-star concert at the Gibson Amphitheatre to aid land-mine victims in Colombia also had a wonderful side effect -- it brought out the best in contemporary Latin pop music.

“Colombia Sin Minas” featured seven of today’s top performers, led by Juanes, the charismatic singer-songwriter who spearheaded the musical relief effort for his war-torn homeland. He was joined, individually and in various duets, by a host of his peers who normally would not share the same stage, much less the same microphone. They included acclaimed singer-songwriters Alejandro Sanz from Spain and Juan Luis Guerra of the Dominican Republic, who delivered the evening’s most moving and joyful moments, respectively.

Stripped of commercial considerations (wow, no beer endorsements), overblown show-biz egos and orchestral arrangements to match, the all-acoustic show exposed the essence of several excellent songs, from familiar hits to hidden jewels. What was left was their poetic cadence, alluring melodies and skin-tingling soulfulness.

We shouldn’t need a tragedy to get such a pure performance. These artists believed in the music as much as the cause.

It was a night of torn blue jeans and T-shirts, many emblazoned with the event’s logo, a guitar as the tree of life. Throughout the evening, the sold-out audience was shown videotaped interviews with Colombian children who had lost arms, hands and legs in land-mine explosions. Seeing their disfigurement along with their smiles and expressions of hope for the future was far more effective than speeches or pitches, which were wisely kept to a minimum and to the point.

One boy named Fabian recounted how he found “el artefacto” (the device) and brought it home, where it went off. “At that moment, I closed my eyes,” he said. “And when I opened them, I no longer had my hand.”

It felt like “one’s dreams all come crashing down,” the boy continued. But he encouraged other victims to “not be sad because life goes on.”

Colombia’s Carlos Vives acknowledged it was hard to sing after hearing that. But he went on to offer a spirited version of the uplifting “Quiero Verte,” which opens with the line that translates as “I want to see you smile, I want to give you my song.”

Rounding out the lineup were Puerto Rico’s Luis Fonsi, Italy’s Laura Pausini and Venezuela’s Ricardo Montaner, a delightful surprise with his humor and better-than-expected vocals.

The serious context imparted new purpose to old songs. When Sanz sang “Lo Ves” (You See), a torch song from an early album, one line seemed uncannily aimed at the evil of hiding bombs that injure innocent children: “Because that’s the way the devil is; he plays with you from his hiding place.”

The night closed with all the artists onstage joining Guerra in his optimistic anthem “Ojala Que Llueva Cafe” (Would That It Could Rain Coffee), which wishes a shower of blessings and abundance upon the land.

Somehow, it didn’t sound corny or ridiculous when a casually dressed Salma Hayek, the night’s MC, said at the end, “Together, we Latinos can conquer all.”