Estefan parties to the end

Gloria Estefan wows Houston crowd with a farewell night to remember

Estefan's class act is a party until the end

Gloria Estefan's Live and ReWrapped Tour could serve as a master class in live perform-ance for today's aspiring female singers.
From the moment Latin pop's premier crossover artist took the stage Sunday night at Toy-ota Center, she was ready to celebrate. Estefan commands a stage like few other performers, exuding grace, style, warmth and spontaneity all at the same time.
"The first rule of my show is there are no rules," Estefan told the enthusiastic crowd. "You can dance, you can shake your shoulders, you can sing, you can take pictures - security is going to kill me," she added with a laugh.
The tour caps one of Estefan's most productive periods, which has included a stint at Celine Dion's lush Las Vegas theater and the release of Unwrapped, her first album in five years. It's a stirring, mostly acoustic collection with intensely personal, heartfelt lyrics. And this is Este-fan's first major outing in eight years.
Unwrapped has yet to produce a hit single and has struggled to go gold, but it hardly seemed to matter Sunday night. Estefan kicked off the evening with a double shot of
extra-caffeinated pop hits, Get On Your Feet and Turn the Beat Around, a disco remake.
She was dressed in white, and three flickering video screens and 10 dancers surrounded her, but they almost seemed extraneous. Estefan took center stage on tender ballads Here We Are and In the Meantime, and she simmered on the salsa rhythms of Mi Tierra and Oye Mi Canto.
Tu Fotografía was the show's emotional center. The song, inspired by Estefan's father, is a remembrance of an old photo. It was accompanied by a video scrapbook of family snapshots.
Equally affecting was Con Los Años Que me Quedan, a love song written by Estefan and her husband that has the sound and sentiment of a standard.
Estefan delivered a slew of up-tempo numbers during the show's sweltering second half; they were pure party-time rhythms. She donned a glittering red pantsuit for the song 1-2-3 and had the crowd moving to the South American rhythms of Wrapped, a recent single.
Everlasting Love, Oye and Rhythm Is Gonna Get You fueled the fire and kept the crowd on its feed. For Estefan, it seems to come naturally.
Lucky for us she's decided to share it one last time.

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