Track Listing

1. Abriendo Puertas [Opening Doors]
2. Tres Deseos [Three Wishes]
3. Mas Alla (Beyond)
4. Dulce Amor [Sweet Love Club Mix]
5. Farolito [Little Star]
6. Nuevo Dia [New Day]
7. Parranda [The Big Party]
8. Milagro [Miracle Extended Mix]
9. Lejos de Ti [Far from You]
10. Felicidad [Happiness]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #99141 in Music
• Released on: 1995-09-26
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
After re-establishing her Latin identity with Mi Tierra, her tribute to Afro-Cuban music, Cuban American singer Gloria Estefan made yet another surprising move, this time exploring the music of Latin America, mostly Colombia. What started as a modest, end-of-the-year holiday album became perhaps the most artistically satisfying album of her career. Aided by Colombian arranger and producer Kike Santander (who also wrote most of the material), Estefan explores vallenato (the title track and "Dulce Amor"), merengue ("Tres Deseos"), currulao, a Colombian rhythm ("Farolito," the highlight of the album) and, of course, salsa ("Nuevo Dia"). For fans of her ballad singing, Estefan also includes the elegant, "Mas Alla." A quirky Gloria Estefan album, yet one of her best. --Fernando Gonzalez

Customer Reviews

Perfect for any day when body and soul need refreshment
It's amazing what happens when artists (re-)connect with things that are really valuable and meaningful to them. With "Mi Tierra" Gloria got back to the Cuban side of her Hispanic heritage and produced a milestone album. With "Abriendo Puertas" she mines the huge wealth of Colombian music to produce a gem.

Open-minded Estefan fans are in for a treat. The songs are based on different local styles, as the liner notes usefully explain. There's an amazing variety of rhythms - all irresistible. The melodies are catchy and Gloria delivers them with her customary warmth and assurance.

You don't need to understand the words in Spanish to enjoy this joyful music, but it's a real bonus if you do. It's notionally a seasonal album but unlike so many this one goes beyond the cliched trappings (chestnuts roasting, jingle bells etc.) and really connects with what the festive season is really be about - reconciliation, new beginnings, generosity, shared memories and good times together.

"Abriendo Puertas" is perfect for any day of the year when body and soul need a little refreshment. GLORIOUS!!

Not to be missed
"Abriendo Puertas" just edges out "Mi Tierra" as Gloria's best album to date. (Both of those albums would be on my very short list of the best albums anybody released in the 1990s.) "Abriendo Puertas" ("Opening Doors") fuses a variety of Latin and Caribbean styles into something new, positive, and exciting. It is an outstanding concept album, greater as a whole than the sum of its parts. Gloria's singing is terrific here. Her greatest strength as a vocalist is her ability to effortlessly dance her voice through complicated rhythms that would stop other divas with greater range and purer voices cold. What also makes this album so special are the highly creative, challenging, energetic charts by Kike Santander, the just-right and seamless production of Emilio Estefan and Kike Santander and sound achieved by recording engineer Eric Schilling, and... wow... the searing performances by Gloria's band and backup singers. Everything is firing on all cylinders here. Don't shy away from this album just because you don't speak Spanish. (I don't.) You don't need to speak Spanish to understand and appreciate the vibrant energy and positive message of this CD.

If you need an upper, Abriendo Puertas is for you!
Abriendo Puertas is the second of Gloria's three Spanish CDs, but the last I became familiar with. At first I was disappointed as it seemed less "serious" and "cutting edge" than Mi Tierra or Alma Caribena, but increased familiarity has revealed its considerable charms.

This is a holiday (Christmas and New Years) related album, but not really a Christmas album as such. All the songs are based on Latin dance rhythms and represent the kind of high spirited festival music that is popular at that time of year. This is as much composer/arranger/instrumentalist Kike Santander's album as Gloria's-- he has written 10 relentlessly upbeat, wonderfully arranged songs, inventive and polished to perfection. The details of the songs are quite wonderful, and Gloria's singing is ideal for this idiom.

This is really a great album to put you in a good mood, as well as for appreciating top of the line musicanship. The Gold Star award for the songs must go to "Felicidad", which is just that, and the impossibly infectious "Tres Deseos", (try and play it just once!).

All together, Gloria Estefan's 3 Spanish CD's are a real achievement, and prove that her real talent is in her Latin heritage, and not in the rather ordinary English language albums she is more famous for.