I couple of nights ago, I was dragged along to what I thought would be a school or college dance contest. I wasn’t too excited about the idea, but I had no electricity in my house (yet another power cut) so I went along anyway.
Much to my relief and joy, it turned out to be a televised stage of the Tú Eres la Estrella (You Are the Star) TV show, an American Idol rip-off produced locally. Now, I’ve seen this dance contest on TV and it’s normally quite entertaining. Not as entertaining as the singing version — in which most of the contestants sing like my karaoke-obsessed neighbour — but it’s quite good fun nonetheless.
There are three male judges, two of whom are reasonably polite and helpful while the third (sitting to the left) takes on the Simon Cowell role: mean, pouting, slightly camp. When I went, there was also a guy dressed as a giant chicken, but that’s fairly standard in Peru.
Anyway, four young couples went head to head in what turned out to be the merengue round. I’m not much of a merengue expert, but the couple pictured above quite rightly received the highest scores from the judges. Not only had they perfected the art of the fixed smile, the young lady was also the only competitor to take to the floor in high heels. That is impressive.
These talent shows always need a little bit of drama. Things almost got off to a flyer when one of the guys jumped in the air and narrowly missed landing on his partner’s head as she slid unceremoniously between his legs. It was all a bit of a mess, but she walked away with her head still attached so no great disaster.
The couple above, meanwhile, provided oodles — yes, oodles — of diva-like drama. They obviously didn’t know how to dance merengue, preferring instead to break out some raunchy reggaeton moves. Well, she did — he just walked around without doing much of anything, a fact that Simon Cowell savagely criticized after their performance. The girl walked off in a huff, refusing to talk to her poor partner, who stood around looking glum for the rest of the night (that’s not easy to do in shiny black trousers and a sparkly golden vest — believe me).
It was all good fun — I might even go watch it again sometime. If anyone is coming to Tarapoto and would like to join me, let me know in the comments section below and I’ll find out when the next live installment of Tú Eres la Estrella will take place.
Is Tu Eres Mi Estrella something that is regularly presented in Tarapoto? I’ll be back in Peru in late December and will see if I can make it to Tarapoto. If I do, it would be pretty cool to so the Peruvian version of American Idol there, and I guess it would be fun meeting you too!!!
Hi Vinny,
It seems to be fairly regular. There’s another show this coming Tuesday, and the contest still seems to be in the early stages. I’m not sure if it will still be going in December, but it’s possible. Either way, let me know if you’re coming to Tarapoto and we’ll find something to do. I guess the singing version of the show might have started by then…
Cheers.
Ditto for me! Going to Tarapoto for the holidays and would like to meet you too! Let me know if there are any shows scheduled for that time of the year.
Thanks and keep up the good work! It’s always interesting to read about my hometown 🙂
Hi Elsa,
I’ll try to find out the future schedule. I know one of the camera crew and kind of know one of the dancers, so I should be able to get more info. I’ll update this post when I know more. Let me know when you come to Tarapoto and maybe we can catch a show!
Cheers.
Hi Tony,
I’m going to Tarapoto for Xmas for about 2 weeks, would be nice meeting you… we can communicate via email as we don’t get notified when you reply to the posts 🙂
Look forward to meeting you.
Elsa
pls send me an email and we can start communicating… thx
Hi Elsa, I just sent you an email, check your spam folder if you don’t see it. Cheers.
Quick update: Apparently, Tu Eres la Estrella will be going on for about six more months. So plenty of time to see another show….