Review: Enrique Iglesias at Metro Radio Arena

May 16 2009 by Aranda Garrard, The Journal

PERHAPS it’s the Spanish accent, his pedigree, or maybe his devilish good looks; whatever it is, when it comes to Latin pop, Enrique Iglesias certainly rules the roost.

Visually Mr Iglesias Jr delivered an amazing stage and light show on Thursday night, but there’s more to ogle about this senor than just his hits. As he launched into Can You Hear Me, the audience were on their feet in a flash.

What impressed me was that he had obviously done his homework on ‘The Toon’ for this debut show. He’d certainly learned the lingo, knew his fan base – and the audience rewarded him with a gold star for it.

There’s no arguing Enrique has some killer pop songs and like his dad, Julio, he has the audience in the palm of his hand. He had them singing the chorus of every song, and sometimes even the verses.

Looking back, there wasn’t a single song in the entire show he sang alone – and this did become a little irritating. After all, no one wants to pay £50 plus for a ticket to hear just the audience sing!

With lingerie missiles, red roses and teddy bears thrown on to the stage, Mr Mojo revelled in his glory. He donned underwear on top of his jeans, had “avid fans” join him on stage, and even videoed his audience. Nice, but it surely had to be scripted and it took a little too long – to the point of absurdity. It took eight minutes during the encore before he even started to sing Hero.

With everything else that was going on, the pop maestro’s real talent tended to get lost in the mix.

However, I still have a soft spot for Mr Iglesias and tracks such as Bailamos brought sunshine flooding to my face, Takin’ Back My Love had me clapping and waving my arms about, and Do You Know? (The Ping Pong Song) still had me hollering for more. In true Geordie fashion though, banter and booze were still top of the list of priorities for Newcastle’s audience.

Support came in the form of former Strictly Come Dancing champ Alesha Dixon whose album The Alesha Show has been a huge success. She was sensational.