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MOVE OVER OLGA. Aruba has its own singing, dancing diva in the form of Landa Henriquez

MOVE OVER OLGA. Aruba has its own singing, dancing diva in the form of Landa Henriquez, a mother of three. The lesson we should all learn from her is that it is never too late to explore and develop talent. Many women in our community have the creative fires sizzling inside them, waiting for the right time, for the proper opportunity to explode. Yet, it never comes on its own. And if you don’t nurture and grow that fire, it will burn you up inside without any creative results; on the contrary, if you don’t let your creative juices flow, they plug you up and depression sets in. Landa, a respected business woman – trust me, Raoul keeps her busy in the office - crossed the threshold from  amateur to professional, following her heart and her passion.

She took a leap with Pepe Gonzalez, when he became her coach urging her to take her singing a notch further. Sure, she has the resources and the understanding husband, but ask her, it didn’t come easy. She had to fight for the chance to shine. She won. It must have felt good because Landa was radiant, sparkly, bubbly, a true cabaret entertainer, enchanting an audience of sixty to seventy friends and family members, at Access Gallery.

Jubi Naar was at the concert sitting right behind me. He took pictures and notes. I know he will be stealing my thunder, again. He knows music and he certainly can write. So let me tell you what Landa wore, something Jubi would perhaps overlook! First time out, Landa emerged encased in the finest of black leathers for the sensuous Voy Apagar La Luz and Sabor a Mi. Her hair, falling soft and straight, framed her lovely face; her eyes aglitter courtesy of Andrew Curiel. She took off her buttoned shirt to reveal perfect shoulders, a stylish, broad belt with a silver buckle and narrow, elegant slacks. Fernando Mansur and Maria Teresa Madariaga, her fashion stylists reveal they shopped in Landa’s closet. They didn’t buy a thing. It was all there waiting to be put together – just like your talent – it was all there waiting to be called forth and shown light.

For the second set Ferry wanted something fresh, spontaneous, and strong. The stylists assembled a skinny Spanish-looking shawl, a frilly leather skirt with bold stitching, an exposed bellybutton, flaired cuffs with silver studs and a felt fedora evocative of Argo-speaking, tango-dancing, roughish, faintly-androgynous stage characters we see in musicals unfolding in the backstreets of Place Pigalle or downtown Buenos Aire. The shoes. Ahhh. The shoes were short suede booties by Manolo Blahnik. Sarah Jessica Parker would have surely approved, and the hair was severely gelled back, falling into a flip.

Personal assistant Isella Israel and lighting technician Joseph Henriquez, Landa’s cute son, all performed their part to make the self-styled diva look great. Pepe Gonzalez and Johnny Schaarbaay contributed their share to musically enrich the program. Pepe picked a medley of Beatles songs on his unplugged guitar and Johnny gave a philharmonic recital of Latin love songs. It seemed to me that Milton Harms could have listened to Schaarbaay for hours. Me too.

It was bewitching. Landa’s program ended with Cariño, already a hit on the local radio stations. Adriana, a song dedicated to her daughter revealed true, deep emotion and was very well received by the audience. Sed De Ti is playing in my head this morning . . .


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