Fiesta at the White House!

On Tuesday night, President Obama and the First Lady hosted the third concert in a series of White House musical events, this one celebrating the music of Latinos in America. Accordingly, “ In Performance At The White House: Fiesta Latina” brought together some of the country’s best Latin music performers to the South Lawn, including our own Jose Feliciano, along with Mark Anthony, Gloria Estefan, Thalía, Aventura, Los Lobos and Sheila E., with hosts George Lopez, Jimmy Smits and Eva Longoria.

The day was filled with rehearsals, sound-checks, White House protocol and countless visits with the media, all part of the excitement that was building towards the evening ahead.

Then finally after cocktails in the East Room, official photographs and with a breathtaking backdrop of the White House’s South Portico behind him, President Obama opened the evening with a word from the stage saying, “Latin music, while hard to define because it comes in so many forms — from salsa to merengue and Bachata to reggaeton — speaks to everyone in a language they can all understand.

“It moves us, and it tends to make us move a little bit ourselves…In the end, what makes Latin music great is the same thing that’s always made America great. The unique ability to celebrate our differences while creating something new.”

With that, an evening of music and laughter began, with George Lopez as our host and Gloria Estefan inviting Jose to join her in singing her recent hit, “No Llores.” The program continued with Marc Anthony and then Thalía, who spontaneously invited the President to leave his seat to dance with her! Sheila E. and her Daddy played their own version of “Duelin’ Timbales” on “Oye Como Va” and Jose again took the stage, this time to perform the classically inspired “En Aranjuez Con Tu Amor.”

The evening was well paced, moving quickly from Bachata to Salsa to the finale, where all of the artists assembled again on stage to celebrate the thrill of Latin Music– and every invited guest present, was on their feet as well, dancing into the night!

(The photos shown here were taken from my seat with just my little iPhone but are included here to show you some of the beauty of this special evening. Jose stole the show(!) and you can watch it by going to our video page! — Love, Susan+)

• Posted by josenews at 18:01:22