First Lady: Obama Will 'Shake His Groove Thing'

(AP) First lady: Obama will ‘shake his groove thing’
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
Michelle Obama says the beats and melodies in Latin music are so irresistible that even President Barack Obama “will shake his groove thing” Monday night.

Gloria Estefan, Romeo Santos, Lila Downs, Marco Antonio Solis and other top Latin musicians are joining the Obamas for a taping of the latest installment in the PBS series “In Performance at the White House.” Coming at the start of the monthlong celebration of Hispanic heritage, the concert will showcase the various styles of Latin music.

The first lady described Latin music as having “some of the most fun, dynamic, rhythmic melodies” anyone will ever hear.



He’s scheduled to open the taping in the White House East Room with brief remarks. The event, which the White House announced just last week, was proceeding as scheduled despite a shooting Monday at the Washington Navy Yard that killed at least a dozen people.

Other artists scheduled to perform during the hourlong program are Ricky Martin, Price Royce, Arturo Sandoval, Raul Malo, Alejandro Sanz and Natalie Cole.

Natalie Cole’s late father, Nat King Cole, pioneered singing in Spanish and Portuguese by an American. He recorded three albums in Spanish at the peak of his career in the late 1950s and early 1960s and became a hit among Latinos, especially in Cuba, where he had performed in some of Havana’s famous nightclubs.

Cole’s daughter recently followed her father by releasing a Spanish-language album of her own, “Natalie Cole en Espanol,” in June. As a little girl, she traveled to Mexico with him and never forgot how well received he was, she said. She decided to record an album in Spanish to broaden her international audience.



Since Obama took office in 2009, the program has celebrated the music of Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Carol King, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Hispanic music, music from the civil-rights era, Motown, the blues, Memphis soul, Broadway music and country ballads.

Monday’s taping will be shown on the White House website, http://www.whitehouse.gov/live, and broadcast nationally by PBS stations on Oct. 8.

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Associated Press writer Luis Alonso Lugo contributed to this report.

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Online:

In Performance at the White House: http://www.pbs.org/inperformanceatthewhitehouse/home/

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