Latin Superstar Gloria Estefan and Rock Legends REO Speedwagon Headline Seventh Annual Musical Celebration October 10 - 11, 2008
This summer the white-sand shores of Aruba are getting even hotter as the island paradise is getting ready to host the Seventh Annual Aruba Music Festival, featuring arena rock legends, REO Speedwagon (October 10) and Grammy Award-winning queen of Latin music, Gloria Estefan (October 11). Sand, sun and music lovers will revel is this two-day festival that promises to enhance an already perfect island getaway. Aruba’s visitors will get the opportunity to dance to the incredible rhythms and beats of Estefan’s infectious Latin grooves as well as enjoy rocking out to the iconic anthems of REO Speedwagon, all the while savoring Aruba’s famous near-perfect weather, amazing land and water to-do’s and some of the friendliest folks in the Caribbean. Columbus Day weekend in Aruba is a must-do this year as two extraordinary performances at the Aruba Entertainment Center are sure to leave Aruba’s first-time guests and loyal visitors alike singing the island’s praises a little louder in 2008.
As one of the biggest stars to emerge in 1980s, Cuban-born Gloria Estefan predated the coming Latin pop explosion by a decade, scoring numerous hits throughout her over 30-year career in music. Starting her rise to the top in the late 1970’s as a member of the renowned Miami Sound Machine, Estefan and the band fused pop, disco, and salsa and earned a devoted following. With the release of 1985’s Primitive Love, the Miami Sound Machine burst onto the mainstream music scene scoring three Top Ten pop hits with the infectious “Conga,” “Bad Boy,” and “Words Get in the Way.” For 1988’s triple-platinum Let It Loose, the group reeled off several Top Ten hits including “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You,” “Anything for You,” and “1-2-3.” 1989’s Cuts Both Ways was credited to Estefan alone and generated her second number one hit, “Don’t Wanna Lose You.” Estefan’s 1991 Into the Light again topped the charts. In 1993 Estefan returned to her roots with the Spanish-language Mi Tierra, and earned her, her first Grammy Award. On the follow-up, 1994’s covers collection Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me, she also nabbed a hit with a rendition of the disco classic “Turn the Beat Around.” Another all-Spanish effort, Abriendo Puertas, was released in 1995 and earned her another Grammy. The 1996 release, Destiny, featured “Reach,” named the official theme of the 1996 Summer Olympics. In 1999, she also made her feature film debut alongside Meryl Streep in Music of the Heart and recorded the film’s title song as a duet with NSYNC, which scored both a pop hit and an Oscar nomination. A new Spanish-language album, Alma Caribeña, followed in the spring of 2000. Several months later, Estefan was awarded a Grammy for Best Music Video at the first annual Latin Grammy Awards. Gloria released 90 Millas in 2007 to rave reviews. Estefan, along with her producer husband, Emilio, truly rule the Latin music world and Gloria continues to reign as the most successful crossover artist in Latin music history, with international record sales close to the 50 million mark.
Among the undisputed arena rock kings of the early 1980s, REO Speedwagon was at the top. REO Speedwagon first formed four decades ago in 1968, via a pair of University of Illinois students. In 1974 the band released Ridin’ the Storm Out, their first album to chart on Billboard and spawned a concert standard with the title track. The band’s melodic songs, as well as power ballads have made them true rock legends. At the end of 1980 the band released what was to catapult them to big-time success, Hi Infidelity. It became one of 1981’s biggest albums, spawning one of the most renowned power ballads in music history, “Keep on Loving You,” as well as such popular hits like “Don’t Let Him Go,” and “Take It on the Run.” Hi Infidelity sold nearly 10 million copies. REO Speedwagon continued to score further hit albums including 1982’s Good Trouble, 1984’s Wheels Are Turnin’ and singles like “Keep the Fire Burnin’,” and the number one hit ballad “Can’t Fight This Feeling.” Their 14-track 1988 compilation The Hits proved to be a steady seller over the years. REO has continued to release music including 1990’s The Earth, a Small Man, His Dog and a Chicken and 1996’s Building the Bridge. In the late ’90s a resurgence in the popularity of arena rock resulted in REO launching successful co-headlining tours alongside such acts as Styx, Fleetwood Mac, Journey, Peter Frampton, and others. With the release of Find Your Own Way Home, their first studio album with new material in more than a decade, the band feels its energy rekindled and its purpose renewed.
“For the last six years the Aruba Music Festival has brought some of the music industry’s top talents to our shores to entertain visitors and local Arubans alike. We anticipate that this year’s exceptional lineup that includes Gloria Estefan and REO Speedwagon will truly be another rousing success for the island,” said Minister of Tourism and Transportation, Edison Briesen. “With our perfect weather, innumerable activities and uniquely rich culture, the seventh annual festival is just another one of the reasons to make Aruba traveler’s vacation destination of choice this year.”
“The Music Festival has become an annual event for many individuals visiting Aruba,” said Festival Producer Lee Tofanelli. “We start getting information requests in January and February from people looking to make their vacation plans for the year. The Music Festival annually draws visitors from over 20 countries, which gives it a very international flavor and helps add to the excitement.”
Tickets for the 2008 Aruba Music Festival are available in several categories: Gold Circle seating (limited availability), preferred seating, or general admission, and can be purchased through www.ticketweb.com. To learn more about the Aruba Music Festival, please visit www.aruba.com or call 1-800-390-4936. The Aruba Music Festival is produced by Lee Tofanelli and Associates, Inc. of Vineland, New Jersey.
Air-inclusive hotel packages, inclusive of concert admission for the 2008 Aruba Music Festival, are available for purchase through several tour operators or via a travel professional. Primary host hotels for the Seventh Annual Aruba Music Festival are the Hyatt Regency Aruba Resort & Casino, the Occidental Grand Aruba, the Aruba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino, the Radisson Resort, Casino & Spa and the Renaissance Aruba Resort & Casino.
Entertainment
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 
Kavey Yarzagaray, Ryan Maduro, and Yair Britten make up a new musical ensemble. They recently entertained at a private cocktail reception at Ocean 105 and contributed with their music to the opening party of Casa Tua in town.
Restaurateur Daniel Kameijer and his crew including Marcel van Berkum, Carsten Goetz, Chef Erwin Husken and Chef Michael Van Dorst welcomed their many friends to the first anniversary party of Screaming Eagle restaurant with bottomless flutes of bubbly Veuve Clicquot and X-rated liquor.
If you love the popular musical, you’ll be absolutely charmed by the Occidental Grand Aruba’s entertaining rendition of Grease, now being presented in the resort showroom. The Occidental Grand Aruba invites you for a visit into the world of Rydell High, Chicago in the 1950’s, the heyday of the American youth subculture, the greasers.
As the adolescent greasers explore love, friendship, teenage rebellion, and sex, the audience will laugh as the cigarette-smoking macho boys provide silly antics from start to finish while the gum-chewing Pink Ladies egg them on. The performance is engaging, all the way to the end when Sandy presents her transformed self during the last number—badaboom!!! With her mile-high hair and tight, black cat suit, Sandy will knock Danny’s—and the audience’s—socks off!
Viva Las Vegas, CirCaribe, Grease, Best of Broadway and Latin Explosion are five full scale theater productions unfolding at the Occidental Grand Aruba in the great ballroom, every night at 9 p.m.
The resort’s talented Fun Club crew puts on a different show every night, starred by an amazingly-talented cadre of performers from Venezuela, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba and Aruba. The shows are emceed by Omar Chaves the fun club director who does a fabulous job bringing it all together, with dance Captain Eduardo Parraga as the lead dancer and Prima Ballerina Violeta Petrova, from Bulgaria, who is the Choreographer.
The dizzying costumes, the lights and the jazzy remixes of the world’s most popular songs allows the dancers, mimes, acrobats, stilt walkers, fire eaters and aerial artists to wow audiences every evening on the Occidental Grand Aruba’s big stage.
