The Amarte Es Un Placer Tour (English: Loving You Is a Pleasure Tour) was a concert tour by Luis Miguel to promote his album Amarte Es Un Placer. This tour had a length of 8 months and ran through Mexico, US, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela, Brazil and Spain between 1999 and 2000. It was the highest-grossing tour ever made by a Spanish-speaking artist, as well as the most extended.[1] The tour consisted of 99 concerts,[2] and was attended by approximately 1.5 million fans.[3] These two records have been broken by another tour of the same artist, the Mexico En La Piel Tour.
History
To promote Amarte Es un Placer, Luis Miguel began his Amarte Es Un Placer Tour on 9 September 1999 in Gijón, Spain.[4] In Madrid, he performed three sold-out shows,[5] and spent a month touring in Spain. His performances in Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Tenerife, and Marbella were among the country's highest grossing shows of 1999.[6] Miguel then toured South America where he performed in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, and Venezuela.[7][8] In Argentina, he drew more than 50,000 attendees per show at his three concerts in Buenos Aires,[9] and more than 101,800 spectators attended his five shows in Chile, the largest audiences of the year for an artist.[10][11] The first leg of the tour ended on 11 December 1999 in Maracaibo, Venezuela.[12] A concert was planned for the San Jose Arena in California on New Year's Eve, but was canceled because the gross income would not meet Miguel's requirements.[13]
Miguel commenced the second leg of his tour at the Centennial Garden in Bakersfield, California on 1 February 2000.[14][15] Two days later, he performed at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, California for five consecutive nights drawing more than 24,000 spectators. In the same month, he performed four shows at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and grossed $1.4 million.[16] He also appeared in Minneapolis on 12 February and in Fairfax on 14 February.[17][18] Following his concerts at Radio City Music Hall, Miguel performed 21 consecutive shows at the National Auditorium in Mexico City beginning on 24 February; beating the previous record of 20 set by Mexican group Timbiriche, and set the record for most attendees with an overall count of 255,000 patrons, another record for the artist.[19]
Miguel returned to touring in the United States on 24 March 2000, performed in several cities including Miami,[20] Chicago,[21] Atlantic City,[22] and Houston.[23] He later presented five shows in Monterrey, Mexico from 13 to 17 April 2000,[24][25] and after a few more performances in the US, ended the tour in San Diego on 6 May 2000.[26][27] Miguel had the 23rd highest-grossing tour in the country with more than $15.7 million earned from his 44 shows in the US.[28] The tour was recognized by the William Morris Agency as the highest-grossing tour by a Spanish-speaking artist.[29]
Miguel was accompanied by a 13-piece band during his tour which included horns, keyboards, guitars, and three female backup singers.[17][30] His hour-and-a-half show consisted mainly of pop songs and ballads from Amarte Es un Placer and his earlier career, as well as medleys of boleros from the Romance-themed albums.[31] During his concerts in Monterrey, he was joined by Cutberto Pérez's band Mariachi 2000 and performed live covers of Mario De Jesús Báez "Y" and Rubén Fuentes "La Bikina".[32] The shows included a large live-screen behind the stage and featured fireworks and confetti.[17]
Critical reception
The Dallas Morning News writer Mario Tarradell found Miguel's show at the Starplex Pavilion in Dallas to be underwhelming. He panned Miguel's performance of the first bolero medley as "rushed" and "erratic" and observed that the artist "spat out the lyrics, swallowed a few of them, and displayed a childlike hyperactivity in the midst of lush ballads". Tarradell also remarked that Miguel displayed a bizarre behavior during the concert such as using high notes on power ballads (which Tarradell deemed as "totally unnecessary") and was confused by Miguel's decision to do an air guitar while "Bésame Mucho" was being played.[30]
Of Miguel's performances in Los Angeles, The Orange County Register editor Daniel Chang commented that he "delivered a classy show that was as much fun to watch as it was to hear". Chang noted that Miguel "emotes a contagious energy through dramatic facial expressions, fetal-position-like contortions and physical outbursts in time with the music" and complimented his dance moves and the visual sets.[33] Regarding his concert in Houston, Michael D. Clark of the Houston Chronicle said that Miguel "proved, once again, that it isn't necessary to change languages to reach U.S. audiences". He observed that Miguel seemed "determined to balance the upbeat with the overwrought" in contrast to his previous concerts, which were dominated by ballads. Clark was disappointed that the boleros were sung in medleys which did not allow any of them to stand out.[23]
Jon Bream commented in the Star Tribune that Miguel's presentation in Minneapolis was "one of the most ambitious concert spectacles ever presented at the theater" and that the singer had a "captivating presence", but added that Miguel's music was "not particularly distinctive". He likened Miguel's uptempo songs to Earth, Wind & Fire albeit without the "rhythmic and jazzy sophistication", considered his ballads to be "conservative pop, bathed in synthesized strings with Chicago-like horn filigree," and felt let down by Miguel's choice to perform his boleros in medleys.[17]
On 24 October 2000, WEA released the Vivo live album and video from Miguel's concerts in Monterrey.[34] AllMusic editor Perry Seibert gave the video album two-out-of-five stars and criticized its lack of subtitles, closed captions, and supplemental materials, but stated that it should not "dissuade fans of Latino music from checking out this entertaining DVD from Warner Bros".[35]
Broadcasts and recordings
Luis Miguel performed three sold-out shows at José Amalfitani Stadium gathering a total of 150,000 spectators.
Was launched a CD and DVD, titled Vivo, the CD was released on October 3, 2000, while the video album was released on October 24. It was filmed at the Auditorio Coca-Cola concert hall in Monterrey, Mexico, where Miguel performed from 13 to 17 April 2000, as part of the second leg of his tour. Vivo is the first Spanish-language live album to be released on NTSC, PAL, and DVD formats. The audio version was produced by Miguel while David Mallet directed the video album. Miguel's renditions of "Y" and "La Bikina", which he specifically performed during the concert shows in Mexico where he was joined by Cutberto Pérez's band Mariachi 2000, made available as singles for the album.[36][37]
On the first leg of the tour, in Argentina Canal 13 aired a 90-minute special with the complete show of November 5, 1999 at José Amalfitani Stadium, with a 50,000 sold-out.[44] Also in Chile the November 20 show at Estadio Nacional was fully recorded, for a partial 60-minute transmission a few days later by UC13.[45]
^The October 9, 1999 concert at Estadio Olímpico de la Cartuja in Seville was originally scheduled to take place on September 24, 1999, but was postponed due to "logistical problems".[51]
^The shows of April 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 in Monterrey was recorded and later released in a DVD as Vivo.[36]
^The April 25, 2000 concert at Magness Arena in Denver was originally scheduled to take place on February 9, 2000, but was cancelled and postponed due to "family problems".[58]
^The May 5, 2000 concert at Cox Arena in San Diego was originally scheduled to take place on January 28, 2000, but was postponed due to "logistical problems".[59]
^ abTarradell, Mario (20 April 2000). "Unlucky in Love – Fan might have caught Luis Miguel on bad night". The Dallas Morning News. A. H. Belo Corporation.
^"Luis Miguel se presenta Vivo". El Informador (in Spanish). 17 September 2000. p. 11-D.
^Chang, Daniel (6 February 2000). "Review: The singer delivers an entertaining mix of good music and spectacle". The Orange County Register. Digital First Media.
^"Luis Miguel más Vivo que nunca". La Opinión (in Spanish). ImpreMedia. 28 September 2000. El sencillo ya se escucha en las estaciones de Estados Unidos, México y Latinoamérica y su lanzamiento pareció intentar un tono patriótico al realizarse el 15 de septiembre para celebrar la Independencia de México.
