19 | March | 2010 | Dame Shirley Bassey Blog

Here is a short report of my visit to Viña Del Mar in Chile where Shirley performed at the Viña del Mar festival in 1989.
A part of it can be seen on the DVD Super estrellas del amor. Shirley performed at the festival to promote the Spanish album (La mujer) she made that year.

When I got there they were getting the stage ready because the Festival was just about to start and Tom Jones and Paul Anka were performing there.

I met somebody who knew a lot about the Festival and remembered Shirley’s performance there.
Shirley did two shows in two days.
The first show she went on last and it was not very succesful and the audience was booing her.
Shirley decided to do the second night anyway and to go on first because towards the end of the evening the audience went wild and it was not her type of audience.
Here also a short clip where Shirley speaks about this. CLICK HERE
The second night was a huge success and the audience was very enthusiastic. She even got an award that was given by the votes of the audience. (The silver seagull).

The actual wooden stage where Shirley performed is no longer there. A new, concrete stage was built at the same place in 2003.

The Viña del Mar festival is also very important for the presenters and everybody is very keen on presenting it. If the presentation is a success they are in business for the rest of their lives. If not you are out.

I have 8 clips of the concert and I will add one every other day to this post.

Shirley with the public’s award on the second night

The building of the stage (To see more CLICK HERE)

PREVIEW

The translation of the Spanish comment on this clip: (By Pablo Aharonian )
Shirley Bassey at the thirtieth song festival of VIÑA DEL MAR.
Since the announcement of Shirley Bassey’s arrival in VIÑA DEL MAR one after the other, we started hearing voices praising the decision of inviting her to sing in VIÑA DEL MAR. The festival would have on its stage one of the most extraordinary voices of all times .
Her arrival in Chile was preceded by the diffusion of her last disc. She was singing in Spanish for the first time.Since her arrival in Chile she was besieged by the media seeing in her a real quality contribution.
Her image in Chile was that of a great star and after a few days we could thoroughly confirm that.
The day of her first performance was awaited with expectation and enthusiasm. Just the idea of hearing her sing made everybody excited. Together with her vocal talent and virtuosity, she took the public through many unforgettable and succesful songs. She filled the stage with touching emotion that could be seen even in the last row of the “Quinta Vergata”.
(“The “Quinta Vergata” is the beautiful house where this picture was taken and all the surroundings, including the grounds where the festival took place. To see more CLICK HERE).
The public raised up on their feet to applaud each one of her songs.
Finally her well-known and acknowledged talent was awarded with the SILVER TORCH, one of the most appreciated awards in VIÑA DEL MAR because it is granted to the artists by the publics decision.

The speaker to the public:
And because you asked for it (The torch) and also the jury decided to do so, we give Shirley Bassey the Silver Torch. No one can say Shirley Bassey was discovered in VIÑA DEL MAR but undoubtedly her image will become stronger in the region also because of her disc in the Spanish language.