A Very Special Latin Christmas: Noche de Paz

Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Label: Hip-O

Style: Christmas

A Very Special Latin Christmas: Noche de Paz

UPC: 602517135925

Release Date: 11/21/2006

Original Release Date: 11/21/2006

Number of Discs: 1

William Ruhlmann

This video entry into the A Very Special Christmas series presents on DVD a television special originally broadcast on the Telemundo network featuring a group of Latin stars at a holiday concert. Rub?n Blades and Jos? Feliciano (who of course sings "Feliz Navidad") are the graying veterans on the bill, which also includes pop singers Victor Manuelle, Don Omar, and Luis Fonsi. Conjunto Atardecer and Los Tucanes de Tijuana are Tex-Mex bands, while Los Hor?scopos de Durango are fronted by two young women who sing in unison and A.B. Quintanilla y los Kumbia Kings combine rap with boy band teen pop. Victor Manuelle gets the most enthusiastic early response in the show, but it is the final act, Enrique Iglesias, that really stirs the crowd. He wades out into the audience during a performance of his English-language hit "Bailamos," kissing children and posing for pictures, his in-ear monitor dangling from his right ear like a strange plastic earring. Apparently exhausted by his efforts, he skips the last number, "Noche de Paz" ("Silent Night"), which otherwise features all the performers. The songs are interspersed with documentary footage about Special Olympics athletes and other information about the charity for people with intellectual disabilities, including a short speech in English by California First Lady Maria Shriver, daughter of Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver. The DVD is pitched exclusively to a Spanish-speaking audience, boasting no option for English subtitling. But most of the Spanish is simple enough to be followed by anyone who studied the language in high school, and many of the selections, among them "The Little Drummer Boy" and "White Christmas," will be familiar to English speakers. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi