News item: Three new Legends in Concert tribute artists will make their debut on Norwegian’s Epic on May 18…through November 5 and will represent some of the world’s most famous entertainers – Whitney Houston, Elton John and Shakira.
For us, this can only be good news. We have seen Elton John several times, and never been disappointed. We have seen Whitney Houston once, and “always” been disappointed.
So the good news is that the Whitney tribute act is probably better than the real Whitney…or at least the real Whitney from almost 20 years ago. To celebrate our pre-teen daughter’s birthday, the whole family was going to see the latest singing star. The best critique came from our daughter when she said: “Why didn’t she sing any of her songs?”
She did. They were just unrecognizable.
Enough about Whitney. More about Jazmine Hyytia. She’s the tribute Whitney (left), born in Long Island of Cuban heritage, a singer who launched her career in Europe by performing in hundreds of nightclubs and who became a hit in the Latino community after performing on a hit TV show called Suenos De Fama. She sings Whitney in English and Spanish. On the night we saw the star herself, Spanish would have been an improvement.
The tribute “Pinball Wizard” is Stephen Sorrentino (right), a Metropolitan Opera-trained singer and Second City comedian, which means he likely has John’s sense of humor and surely his British accent, even if he (Stephen) is from New York. Sir Elton, it should be noted, is from England.
The Epic’s Shakira is from Mexico. Her name is Ines Zak, and she has opened for some legendary Mexican acts we’ve never heard of, performed with Marvin Hamlisch and sung with Andrea Bocelli’s choir.
Cuba…England…Mexico.
Have you figured out yet that the Epic is in Europe this summer?