Una Noche En Madrid

Album review

Although Fonovisa Records is best known for regional Mexican music, the company has also recorded some artists who don't focus on regional Mexican music exclusively. The most famous example is no doubt Latin pop superstar Marco Antonio Solís, who is Mexican and has ranchera influences but is a pop vocalist first and foremost. Solís has a huge following all over the Spanish-speaking world, and that includes the European country where the Spanish language originated: Spain. This hourlong, 12-song CD focuses on an October 12, 2007, concert at the Palacio Municipal de Congresos in Madrid, which is certainly an appropriate place for him to perform given his stellar work with the late Spanish pop icon Rocío Dúrcal (who, sadly, died of cancer in 2006). A 27-year-old Solís is in excellent form throughout Una Noche en Madrid (A Night in Madrid), offering the enthusiastic madrileño audience expressive performances of major hits like "Si Te Pudiera Mentir" (If I Could Lie to You), "Antes de Que Te Vayas" (Before You Go), "Tu Carcel" (Your Jail), "Ojalá" (If Only), and "Si No Te Hubieras Ido" (If You Hadn't Left). Una Noche en Madrid is far from the last word on live performances of Solís' well-known hits; if this Madrid concert had included performances of every Solís song that made its presence felt on the Latin singles charts, it would have been an extremely long concert. Nonetheless, Una Noche en Madrid is a consistently rewarding document of Solís' October 2007 appearance in the Spanish capital, and it's a disc that fans of romantic Latin pop will be delighted to have in their collections.

© Alex Henderson /TiVo