Now that the elections are near and the candidates are ever-so-desperate to win chopo vote, they are going into great lengths to one-up each other in the candidacy race.
Yesterday I was invited to attend a concert in a poor neighborhood of Santiago. The performer was No other than "super chopo" Anthony Santos (king of bachata music).
I had heard of his music but I didn't know how popular he was among the poor crowds of the ghettos. Sorry to use such harsh language but that?s the reality; the candidates spend more money at wining the poor people's vote than the rich?s. Since the poor are in majority, they do everything within their power to manipulate them towards voting for them. The political parties bring top musical acts to poor neighborhoods and entertain the masses for free. Some candidates even provide free shuttle bus service to the concert location so people can attend in larger mass.
Back to the concert:
There was a merengue act before the main event with 3 young guys dancing and singing to heat up the crowd for the upcoming act. The group was called "sin frontera". They were not so bad and kept the crowd alive until the candidates arrived. The candidate for the mayor's position came more than 1 hour late. Quite embarrassing to the entertainment crew who were kept cheering / rooting for the candidates who weren't even there yet. Kept pointing at empty seats.
We were fortunate enough to be seated in the VIP section with the candidates with top police security. The entertainers were also well guarded by policia nacional. However, these measures were lacking to Mr. Anthony Santo's taste. He came up on stage like a mega star but totally dressed in chopo gear. He was wearing a baggy jean pants with heavy-duty boots. A baseball cap, backwards with a white shirt and metal frame glasses. A full blown chopo to the bone. If that was not enough, he was accompanied by a bodyguard in bright red shirt and jeans with an Uzi in hand and a pistol tucked in his pants. Yes guys, a fully loaded Uzi. I mean, what the hell was he thinking about? Was he going to spray the bullets in to the crown in case of trouble?
So this was the scene: Anthony Santos singling among a thousand people on stage (uncle, cousins, friend and even a grand father looking guy). People just hanging around on the stage. There were just as many cameramen as musicians and even people with tiny video cameras to shoot a private video for their own personal collection. The body guard just standing with the performer, looking at him (instead of the suspicious looking people around him) and with his hand on the Uzi. What a view, he had topped all the chopos in choperia race.
Then the concert started without the singer singing a full sentence of a song. He was either too interested in pointing the mic towards the crowd to sing along with him or chanting the political party?s slogans. He even changed the wording of the songs to add candidates names and winning slogans in place of the actual lyrics. He would sing 2 words and then would say in spanish " come on sing along.... let me hear you sing....louder....lets vote for the PRD party on the 16th.... bla bla blah...". A total waste of time and not a single song was sung in its entirety. I would even go ahead to say that not a single lyric was sung in its entirety. He collected money for a BS performance. It felt like if the sound system was malfunctioning, as he would keep pointing the mic at the crown to have them sing along when he was supposed to be singing his own tunes. It was a total bullSh** experience and a total waste of time.
On my 5 thumbs up scale I give him 4 thumbs down.
Yesterday I was invited to attend a concert in a poor neighborhood of Santiago. The performer was No other than "super chopo" Anthony Santos (king of bachata music).
I had heard of his music but I didn't know how popular he was among the poor crowds of the ghettos. Sorry to use such harsh language but that?s the reality; the candidates spend more money at wining the poor people's vote than the rich?s. Since the poor are in majority, they do everything within their power to manipulate them towards voting for them. The political parties bring top musical acts to poor neighborhoods and entertain the masses for free. Some candidates even provide free shuttle bus service to the concert location so people can attend in larger mass.
Back to the concert:
There was a merengue act before the main event with 3 young guys dancing and singing to heat up the crowd for the upcoming act. The group was called "sin frontera". They were not so bad and kept the crowd alive until the candidates arrived. The candidate for the mayor's position came more than 1 hour late. Quite embarrassing to the entertainment crew who were kept cheering / rooting for the candidates who weren't even there yet. Kept pointing at empty seats.
We were fortunate enough to be seated in the VIP section with the candidates with top police security. The entertainers were also well guarded by policia nacional. However, these measures were lacking to Mr. Anthony Santo's taste. He came up on stage like a mega star but totally dressed in chopo gear. He was wearing a baggy jean pants with heavy-duty boots. A baseball cap, backwards with a white shirt and metal frame glasses. A full blown chopo to the bone. If that was not enough, he was accompanied by a bodyguard in bright red shirt and jeans with an Uzi in hand and a pistol tucked in his pants. Yes guys, a fully loaded Uzi. I mean, what the hell was he thinking about? Was he going to spray the bullets in to the crown in case of trouble?
So this was the scene: Anthony Santos singling among a thousand people on stage (uncle, cousins, friend and even a grand father looking guy). People just hanging around on the stage. There were just as many cameramen as musicians and even people with tiny video cameras to shoot a private video for their own personal collection. The body guard just standing with the performer, looking at him (instead of the suspicious looking people around him) and with his hand on the Uzi. What a view, he had topped all the chopos in choperia race.
Then the concert started without the singer singing a full sentence of a song. He was either too interested in pointing the mic towards the crowd to sing along with him or chanting the political party?s slogans. He even changed the wording of the songs to add candidates names and winning slogans in place of the actual lyrics. He would sing 2 words and then would say in spanish " come on sing along.... let me hear you sing....louder....lets vote for the PRD party on the 16th.... bla bla blah...". A total waste of time and not a single song was sung in its entirety. I would even go ahead to say that not a single lyric was sung in its entirety. He collected money for a BS performance. It felt like if the sound system was malfunctioning, as he would keep pointing the mic at the crown to have them sing along when he was supposed to be singing his own tunes. It was a total bullSh** experience and a total waste of time.
On my 5 thumbs up scale I give him 4 thumbs down.
