'King of Bachata' rides Latin power to huge crowds

Romeo Santos doesn't need a crossover hit. With a direct bond to the Latino community, the New York-born singer has already won success that most US artists would envy.

With his gyrating moves and prodigious skill at engaging audiences, the 33-year-old sex symbol has brought a wide new audience to bachata, a danceable but often melancholy genre previously associated with the poor of the Dominican Republic.

The "King of Bachata" on Sunday wrapped up an arena tour with three nights packing the 18,000-capacity Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The shows come a year after Santos startled the uninitiated by selling out two shows at 50,000-seat Yankee Stadium in his native Bronx.

The phenomenal size of his fan base is witnessed on YouTube, where Santos has had around 4.5 billion views of his official or fan-loaded videos, compared with just under 4.0 billion for pop superstar Taylor Swift and 2.8 billion for Katy Perry.

Santos's overwhelming success on YouTube attests partially to the video site's popularity in Latin America but is still extraordinary for an artist whose name drew blank stares among the non-Latino patrons at a hip bar a short walk from the Barclays Center.

The son of a Dominican-born construction worker and a homemaker mother from Puerto Rico, Santos grew up bilingual but sings almost only in Spanish.

Instead of seeking to break into the English-language market, Santos has tapped stars to contribute to his own songs, with his latest album featuring cameos by two leading rappers, Drake and Nicki Minaj.

- Choice words for Donald Trump -
Hundreds of Santos fans -- known affectionately as "Romeistas" -- cheered on the heartthrob by waving Dominican and Puerto Rican flags, many sold by entrepreneurs outside the Barclays Center.

Santos voiced pride that a predominantly Latino audience could again fill one of New York's major venues.

But his tone switched to defiance as he brought up Donald Trump, the real estate tycoon and Republican presidential candidate who outraged many Latinos by describing undocumented Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers.

"I don't usually get into politics or religion, but I have to say one thing -- Fuck Donald Trump," Santos said to thunderous applause from the crowd.

Santos has also shown his social consciousness by speaking out against homophobia in "No Tiene La Culpa" ("Not at Fault"), a song about a macho father who puts down his gay son.

- Sex appeal -

But Santos's appeal is less about politics than sex appeal. Performing for nearly three hours, Santos straddled his microphone, as well as a woman from the audience, and repeatedly turned his back to show off short, refined twerks of his bottom.

Santos' best-known song is the suggestive "Propuesta Indecente" ("Indecent Proposal"), which recently became the first song to spend 100 weeks on the Latin singles chart of US industry reference Billboard.

To accompany his romantic songs, Santos invited women on stage where he kissed one full on the mouth and tucked another under pink satin sheets on a bed.

He asked the name of a curvy woman who came on stage. "Annabelle? Tonight, you're 'Baby,'" he told Annabelle, who managed not only a kiss but a quick graze of his crotch.

In a recent interview with Billboard, Santos compared his shows to a movie in which sex was only one plot element.

"But sex is a very powerful tool, and it's what sticks in people's minds," he said.
source: AFP