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Born Steven Bernard Hill, one must wonder whether Stevie B would have flourished in the modern music scene the way that he did in the 1980’s. Youth has always been a prized feature in pop music, but never in the way it’s been for the past five years, and Stevie B didn’t find any success at all until he was knocking on the door of thirty years old. All that aside, it’s a pretty inspiring tale. The man spent his late teens and the vast majority of his twenties working dead end jobs to support his music career, everything from washing cars to serving fast food. This was in the 80’s as well, when producer driven club music was barely in its infancy but in 1987, Stevie B was able to break out.
A track of his called “Party Your Body” became a small regional hit around the Fort Lauderdale dance clubs, but word about the track slowly began to spread. First around the state of Florida, then up the East coast, over to the West and suddenly, Stevie B had a national hit on his hands. The New York City based label LeFrak-Moelis Records came calling and in 1988, Stevie B’s debut album, also called “Party Your Body”, was released. The record wasn’t an immediate hit but thanks to consistent sales, it went Gold by the end of the 1980’s. By the time the 90’s came along, he was catapulted into stardom with the one-two punch of the singles “Love & Emotion”, which peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “Because I Love You (The Postman Song”, which was number one on the same chart for four weeks straight.
Stevie B peaked there commercially, but many, many more peaked at far less and few others have done better comparatively speaking. Stevie B’s real impact is in the influence he had on the club scene of today, with his big hits he put club music on the map like very few other artists and very few other producers had done before. To this day he’s an artist to swear by in the Latin Freestyle and Hi-NRG scenes around the world, and his sets still inspire absolute anarchy to this day. He’s still making records that could start a party in a morgue, and he’s a trailblazer to boot, signposting how producers would colonise the charts over two decades after his time in the sun. For that, Stevie B comes highly recommended.
Silky smooth Latin American singer Steven Bernard Hill AKA Stevie B was highly influential in the late eighties, helping form the “Latin Freestyle” and “Hi-NRG” dance scene in his hometown of Miami.
In 1987 “The King Of Freestyle” achieved international fame with his breakout hit “Party Your Body”, which was soon followed by top charting tracks such as “I Wanna Be The One” and “Love Me For Life.” Then in 1990, Stevie found true stardom with his single “Because I Love You”, which saw him at the top of the US Charts for four weeks. With the release of his 2014 album “The King of Hearts”, Stevie is currently on a massive comeback having seen his popularity in South America rise massively in recent times, and I had to check his show!
With his trademark mullet, Stevie B, strikes a recognizable figure on the stage, but despite his fame, he’s happy to mingle with the crowd, inviting a large number of the female of the audience to act as backing dancers as he performs “Spring Love 2013”, a remix featuring Pitbull of his classic track. Despite being a little older, he doesn’t hold back on the dance moves either as he shimmies around whilst delivering his sweet classic melodies, making it a night to remember.
Juan Oritz, aka. Johnny O is an artist I’ve been following for some time, after hearing a single from his self titled album on the radio some years ago. Since then, I’ve listened to all of his back catalogue of music, and have become a huge fan. I was super excited to see him in concert, and I’d heard some exciting things about the performances he gives. I must say, I was not at all disappointed, and if anything, he completely exceeded me expectations with the show he put on.
He opened with his famous track Fantasy Girl from the debut album, and got everyone singing and dancing along right from the start by shouting out ‘come on everybody, put your hands in the air’. Of course he’s got an incredible voice, but his dancing was off the scale, I had no idea that he could move the way that he did. He totally commanded the stage from start to finish, and did some incredible dance moves.
He played a great selection of his music, new and old, and even picked someone from the crowd to go up on stage with him when he played Highways of Love, which was an awesome touch to the show.
Cynthia has been on the scene now for upwards of twenty years. She is one of those very rare singers who most often sings freestyle and somehow it just sort of works. She is of Puerto Rican descent, and began her career at the age of sixteen singing in a group with someone who would later become her freestyle contemporary, an artist called Sa-Fire, who in fact gave Cynthia the opportunity to sing these songs in front of a huge record producer of the time, and two weeks after, she earned herself a contract for MicMac Records.
When she performs live she is utterly captivating with her fantastic chops and her wonderful charismatic stage presence. When she freestyles, it is something pretty special and original, of course sounding as though she has rehearsed this song for weeks before this performance. Some of the biggest moments of the set are when she performs “Change On Me” which she struts around the stage during, and even the song “Endless Night”.
Not to sound derogatory to either artist, but George Lamond is the Michael Jackson of Latino pop. He has taken the breakbeat pulses, dream house synth swashes and high pitched coos heard on classic albums like “Dangerous” and “Rhythm Nation 1814” and has milked it for all its worth. He is not at all a rip off artist, rather he has greatly expanded on this 90s tinged R&B pop style and has introduced new Latin flavors and other sonic variations into the mix.
His concerts are overtly stimulating, in both audio and visual contexts. Loud blasts of electronics blare from the speakers and flashes of light shoot on and off the stage. Lamond also adds elements of choreography to his concerts and is almost always accompanied by a group of back up dancers. The movement of the dancers is fierce and seemingly unwieldy; however they always prove to strictly match up with the spectacular light displays and rhythm of the music.
Lamond is still pumping up the volume and churning out pop gems. His current shows are met with just as much enthusiasm from the audience as they did when he first played the “Bad of the Heart” at the Apollo. These days it is even possible to catch him at much more personable venues. You might even see him performing Latin freestyle on a cruise to the Bahamas.