The Puma is pleased with a rugged concert

Two hours and a couple of minutes late, finally, the singer José Luis Rodríguez “El Puma” and his band performed on stage to start the concert that was about to not celebrate after the Department of Health, in an unannounced inspection, discovered that three of the artist’s musicians did not have the two doses of the vaccine. Instead, the musicians presented a negative test of VOCID-19, which, in principle, was not accepted by the management of the Colosseum, so the situation was consulted with the Secretary of Health , Carlos Mellado, who, after some requests, allowed the concert to take place.

This happened around 5:00 pm, an hour before the schedule for the concert. Outside the Coliseum of Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot, meanwhile, hundreds of people were waiting in line.

The concert, designed for the smaller choir of the Colosseum, seemed to begin with the musicians entering the stage around 8:00 pm Minutes later the lights of the Colosseum and a few flashes of light was projected deep into the platform which enlivened the audience. “Grab your hands!” A man shouted from somewhere at the main level, giving a bit of humor to the latecomer.

Speakers Deddie Romero and Red Shadow then appeared to make the presentation. Ironically, Romero asked the audience, “How many of you are vaccinated?”.

A sequence of images from different moments in the performer’s trajectory finally introduced the Puma to the stage. It was then 8:13 pm, and he immediately apologized to his followers.

“Friends, good night. You don’t know the joy I have tonight. I know what happened to enter this place. When I came I saw an immense line of people stopped by the heat, really, welcome everyone “Thank you so much for your patience,” he said, urging him to follow what his philosophy of life has been after receiving a lung transplant in 2017: Living the here and now.

He went on to greet several of the personalities in the audience, beginning with Chucho Avellanet, whom he called “an impressive warrior,” and then named the “Knight of the Sauce,” Gilberto Santa Rosa, in the actor Joffre Pérez and the singer of El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Jerry Rivas. “How I danced with you!” He said.

After an apparent discomfort with the microphone and hearing aid, he sat down on a bench to give the start signal. “We’re leaving,” he said.

Dressed in elegant black, “El Puma” began the repertoire of 20 songs with “Grateful”, the title that gives its name to this tour, which locally had to have its stop before the start of the pandemic.

The distinctive tone of his voice remains intact, it is in place, and the passion that continues to awaken among his followers, too. As soon as the first notes of the hit “Guilty is Me” were heard, several women accompanied them singing standing with great fervor.

“When he was about to start a medley with the songs” Silence “and I’m going to lose my mind for your love,” he ordered the band to start again. He looked annoyed. “Listen to the trumpet, you must have a cue.” without being able to distinguish from the main level to whom it was specifically addressed. “We will do the pod well,” he continued.

At various times during the show, he alluded to the new life opportunity he enjoys after the transplant that allowed him to overcome an idiopathic lung fibrosis he suffered for 17 years. “God gave me more time,” he commented. “I’m figuring out why.”

After an hour of concert, El Puma called Gilbertito to the podium to sing him the “Happy Birthday” for the 69th anniversary he celebrated this Saturday. They toasted and in what, according to them, was an unheard of act, they performed as a duo and by far that time, “Amalia Rosa”.

From the tasty together, the repertoire of hits would continue with songs like “I love nothing”, “I have the right to be happy”, “the wig”, “Peacock”, “Peacock”, “Hold hands” . For the farewell the gallant of the soap opera phenomenon “Cristina Bazán” had separated “Dance my rumba” and “Diosito sant”.

initial controversy

This concert was promoted as an exclusive for vaccinated people, but upon learning that some of the artist’s musicians did not have full vaccination, the stage changed.

It was around 5:00 pm, when Department of Health personnel arrived at the Coliseum without warning and learned that three musicians had a single dose, plus a negative COVID-19 test. A difference then arose between the interpretation of producers Rolando Santa and Angie García and the management of the Coliseum, represented by Jorge Pérez, with respect to the current Executive Order.

The Coliseum’s stance is that unvaccinated people are not accepted, inclusive, the Department of Health initially aligned itself with this policy, but then reached an agreement with the parties so that the concert could take place.

It was therefore required that the event have a treatment with distancing, which forced at the last minute to make a new distribution of seats in the sand and on the main level. It was also ordered that the distance between the musicians on stage be established.

This caused the two-hour delay.