Return of La Reina de los Niños
Written: Jan 13 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: For children and grownups of all ages, Tatiana is back with more Latin magic.
Cons: She's still not back hosting a TV show, as she used to.
The Bottom Line: For Spanish-speaking people, for people learning Spanish, for children, for the young at heart... the magic is in Tatiana's music.
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| dtobias's Full Review: El Regalo by Tatiana |
She's not very well known outside the Latin American community (despite the trendiness of Latin celebrities in recent years), but Tatiana is famous in her native Mexico and elsewhere in the Spanish-speaking world. Since her start as a singer and actor in the 1980s, Tatiana's career trajectory has had its ups and downs, but at the turn of the millennium she was riding a wave of popularity that had been rapidly growing since her move in the mid 1990s into children's entertainment. She hosted a weekly show, El Espacio de Tatiana, on Mexico's Televisa and the U.S.'s Univision, and had released a series of very popular CDs featuring Spanish-language children's music both traditional and new. And, unlike some children's tapes and CDs that can cause adults with the misfortune to be in earshot to have an intense urge to commit acts of violence against the record or its performer, her music is very listenable by young and old alike. No cloying purple dinosaurs there!
Unfortunately, some very troubled times were ahead for her. In 2001, soon after giving birth to her second child, she left her husband, Andrés Puentes, who didn't take this at all well; he began an aggressive campaign to harm her any way he could. The conflict was a constant feature in Latin American gossip rags, making several publications' end-of-year "Top 10 Celebrity Scandals" lists. To name just one of the many bizarre things that happened, at one point Andrés released to the Internet some supposed nude photos -- not of Tatiana, but of Tatiana's mother, who had resumed her role of overseeing Tatiana's career, as she had done before she got married (Andrés was her manager as well as her husband while they were together). And he continually threatened to sue anybody who had anything to do with the continuation of her career (even including charities for whom she performed in benefits!), since he had managed to get her to sign contracts, early in the marriage, giving him 50% ownership of all her artistry. Lawyers profited very nicely from the flurry of suits, countersuits, injunctions, restraining orders, and other legal actions related to this conflict, some of which continue to this day.
All of this wasn't good for her career; between raising her children, appearing in court, and hiding from threats of violent reprisals from an enraged husband, she had little time and energy to perform even when somebody was willing to brave the threats of legal action by engaging her. Her TV show went off the air, her record contract wasn't renewed, and some of the gossip columnists questioned whether her image as a wholesome entertainer of children could ever survive all of this.
They needn't have worried. Her fans stuck with her, knowing that the ugly conflict in which she's been embroiled is not her fault (aside from some bad judgment of who to marry in the first place). Every time he opened his mouth, her soon-to-be-ex husband made this more clear. And now, with most of the legal issues resolved, she can get on with her career. About a year ago, she made her return as a recording artist with the first volume of a 2-CD set of Disney songs -- the second volume is out now. But that wasn't all she was recording; now she has released El Regalo, a 15-track collection with the variety of music her fans are accustomed to. With two current albums out, a wide-ranging tour of performances, and a starring role in an upcoming Mexican telenovela (soap opera) as a mermaid (she's always had a fascination with mermaids), her career is back at full strength. About the only thing she's not doing is hosting a weekly TV show, and she's had offers of that sort in both Mexico and the United States.
Like her earlier children's albums, El Regalo ("The Gift") has good music, good singing, and a few weird sound effects and character voices such as the Martians in "Los Marcianos Llegaron Ya" (which appears in two versions as tracks 1 and 13 -- those Martians just won't go away), but not so many that they get annoying. Tatiana does most of the voice effects herself. Other songs include the Spanish version of the Sound of Music classic "Do Re Mi", which comes up with a set of Spanish lines to replace the English-specific female deer, needle pulling thread, and other punnish references that make translation of such a song very difficult. (I don't know who did the translation; the booklet only credits the original songwriters, Rodgers and Hammerstein.)
The final track is "Tradidance II"; I think the Roman numeral refers to it being a successor to the "Potpourri tradi-dance" way back on her 1996 Brinca II CD; it's another medley of old tunes in dance style.
Anybody who liked her earlier works should be excited that she's still as good as ever. Anybody who hasn't yet discovered her music will find this CD a great entry point. If you or your kids are learning Spanish, this is a great way to practice your skills understanding the songs, and singing along to them.
Track list:
1) Los Marcianos Llegaron Ya
2) Ganador
3) Alibombo
4) El Baile de La Ranita
5) La Reunion de Los Juguettes [nice catchy tune!]
6) Baila Con El Hula-Hoop
7) A La Luz de Las Estrellas
8) Sonrie [soft, slow ballad, the sort that really shows off how well a singer can sing]
9) El Twist de Mi Colegio [energetic dance tune to wake up anybody who got bored by the preceding slow stuff]
10) Mis Abuelos Mitoteros
11) El Osito Lindo
12) Do Re Mi
13) Los Marcianos Llegaron Ya
14) Ding Dong Dang
15) Tradidance II
Recommended:
Yes
Great Music to Play While: With Family
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Epinions.com ID:
dtobias
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Daniel Tobias
Location: Boca Raton, FL
Reviews written: 167
Trusted by: 96 members
About Me:
A programmer and Internet developer who's been a "computer geek" for over 20 years now.
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