Salsa star Brenda K. Starr to headline ArtsQuest’s 9th ¡Sabor! Latin festival
A singer who in the 1980s had a Latin freestyle hit that crossed over to Billboard’s overall Top 15 singles and more recently had a string of salsa hits will headline ArtsQuest’s ninth annual ¡Sabor! Latin festival at the SteelStacks campus in South Bethlehem, it was announced.
Brenda K. Starr, who in 1988 had the crossover hit “I Still Believe” and the Top 25 hit “What You See Is What You Get,” then in the 1990s and 2000s switched to salsa music and had nine more Top 20 Tropical Chart hits, will perform with her band Optima at 7 p.m. June 22 in Musikfest Cafe at ArtsQuest Center.
The concert will headline the June 21-23 festival.
Tickets for the show, at $10, are on sale at www.steelstacks.org and 610332-3378.
Previously announced headliners are Pablo Batista & the Mambo Syndicate and Los Hermanos Moreno. Also performing will be Herencia Jibara, Lehigh Valley Urban Latin Orchestra, Los Pleneros and Pancho Bongo Y Su Orquesta.
The festival, a celebration of the region’s Latino culture, also will have cultural programming by community organizations such as the Hispanic American League of Artists, Hispanic Center Lehigh Valley, Borinqueneers and Latin American Motorcycle Association.
The weekend also will feature arts and crafts, children’s activities, Latin dance presentations, a traditional Latin Mass and World Cup matches airing on SteelStacks’ outdoor television screens.
There also will be food for purchase, a Puerto Rican Flag Raising Ceremony at 3:30 p.m. June 22 and a Mariachi Mass by Holy Infancy Catholic Church in Musikfest Cafe at 10 a.m. June 23.
Starr first had success with R&B, dance and pop music, breaking into the charts with her Top 10 Dance chart hit “Pickin’ Up Pieces” in 1985.
But it was with her self-titled 1987 sophomore album that she had her biggest success. The disc charted in Billboard’s Top 60 and included “I Still Believe,” which went Top 10 on the Latin chart; the Top 25 hit “What You See Is What You Get”; and the Top 10 Latin hit “Breakfast in Bed”/”Desayuno De Amor.”
She had a minor hit with 1990’s “No Matter What” with George Lamond, but didn’t have broad success again until her 1997 album “Te Sigo Esperando,” with its hit “Herida,” which hit No. 1 on the Tropical/Salsa chart.
She later had eight more Top 20 Salsa hits, including the 1998 Top 10 Tropical chart hit “Si Me Preguntan Por Ti” and the 2002 No. 1 hit “Por Ese Hombre” with Tito Nieves and Victor Manuelle. Her 2002 album “Temptation” hit No. 3 on the Tropical chart.
In 2002 she was nominated for two Latin Grammy Awards: Best Salsa Album for “Temptation” and Best Salsa Single for “Por Ese Hombre.”
Her last charting hit was 2006’s “Atrevete a Olvidarme.”
¡Sabor! will kick off with a free concert at Levitt Pavilion by Batista’s Latin Jazz Ensemble with guest Nestor Torres.
A master percussionist, Batista has performed, toured and recorded internationally for 30 years with some of the biggest stars in R&B, jazz, Latin, pop and gospel, including Alicia Keys and Patti Labelle. He has performed on Grammy-winning recordings of jazz, gospel and R&B.
The following evening Los Hermanos Moreno will take the stage for a free Levitt concert. The Tropical group was formed by brothers William and Nelson, whose music topped Latin charts in the ’90s with singles “Sopa de Pichón” and “Quimbombo.”
The festival is an outreach program of the ¡Sabor! Cultural Committee, which includes representatives from the region’s Latino community including Hispanic American League of Artists and Panorama.