Chayanne: Vivo

Album Review

Roughly 30 years after he began his professional singing career in the teen pop group Los Chicos, singer/actor Chayanne released his first-ever live album, Vivo, in a variety of CD/DVD formats. Recorded in 2008 at the mammoth River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the live performance finds Chayanne at his best as a performer, reeling off a torrent of smash hits while putting his dancing and sexiness to good use throughout the show. While the different editions of Vivo include varying quantities of music, the 14 songs common to all editions are comprised totally of major hit singles that, with only one exception, date back no further than ten years. Moreover, five of the 14 songs were number one hits on the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart, namely "Y Tú Te Vas" (2002), "Yo Te Amo" (2000), "Si Nos Quedara Poco Tiempo" (2007), "Dejaría Todo" (1998), and "Un Siglo Sin Tí" (2003). With the aforementioned exception of "Provócame," the show-closing finale from the 1992 album of the same name, the bulk of Vivo is culled from the latter-day albums Atado a Tu Amor (1998), Simplemente (2000), Sincero (2003), Cautivo (2005), and Mi Tiempo (2007). Fans of earlier albums such as Chayanne (1988), Tiempo de Vals (1990), Provocame (1992), and Volver a Nacer (1997), all of which spun off numerous hit singles, might be disappointed by the emphasis on more recent material. The performance of Chayanne on Vivo is impressive all the same, yet it's a shame he didn't make the show a more retrospective effort, performing his more recent hits along with older fan favorites.