Enrique Iglesias made use of the fog effect Tuesday night. Lots and lots of fog. (Joshua C. Cruey/Orlando Sentinel)
Here’s Matt Palm’s review of the final night of the XL-ent Christmas concerts at House of Blues by radio station WXXL-FM (106.7).
By Matthew J. Palm, Orlando Sentinel critic
It was a hit parade and a hunk parade Tuesday night at WXXL-106.7’s final XL-ent Christmas concert.
See images from the concert in our gallery.
The three nights of radio-friendly music at Downtown Disney’s House of Blues ended with a sold-out show featuring four well-scrubbed young men: Jay Sean, B.o.B., Bruno Mars and headliner Enrique Iglesias — though curiously, Iglesias did not perform last in the lineup.
Iglesias has become a bad boy, it seems, as evidenced by his throbbing ode to infidelity, “I Like It,” a crowd favorite.
He didn’t overstrain his singing voice, urging the audience to do the heavy vocal lifting on hits such as “Tonight (I’m Loving You)” and “Escape.”
But he was busy downing a shot, striking rock-star poses and throwing a water bottle into the crowd.
Iglesias made a dramatic entrance, a silhouette on a fog-filled stage. And that fog only grew thicker — I think there was a backing band but at times it was hard to tell through that mist.
A better view of Iglesias, stick thin as ever, was had when he jumped off the stage to get up close and personal with the audience.
A big chunk of his 30-minute set was given over to power ballad “Hero,” complete with a long, slow dance with a woman plucked from the crowd and rather awkwardly hoisted onto the stage.
Iglesias knew she was married but still planted kisses on her, stroked her hair and dragged her hands down to his rear.
Oh Enrique, you naughty boy.
As for the others, Jay Sean was all energetic charm, flashing a big grin and fist-pumping the air as he led the crowd through hits like “Do You Remember” and “Down.”
He called a “beautiful lady” up on stage for the obligatory love song, but was chagrined to learn she was 16 years old — something that also happened to Iglesias.
Ah, such are the risks when performing at a teen-pop concert.
Bruno Mars provided a more melodic, guitar-driven set but with the same sort of cheeky charm. He wasn’t afraid to mess around, adding some surf-guitar sound to “Billionaire,” a hit song for Travie McCoy that Mars wrote.
And his high, clear voice cut through the acoustic clutter in a sweet take on radio-friendly “Just the Way You Are.”
B.o.B. followed Iglesias with some straight-up rap. The jarring change in tone might explain why he took the stage after the headliner, as a stream of lighter-pop fans headed for the door.
But when the rapper launched his bouncy single “Magic,” he got the crowd’s attention. And he was feeling the love when Mars returned to the stage for their hit duet “Nothin’ On You.”
Wearing his shades — and a fur pelt of some sort dangling from his belt — B.o.B. finished strong with the crowd roaring along to his smash “Airplanes.”
