The Concert for the Americas was a music festival held on August 20, 1982 in the Dominican Republic. It was held at the Altos de Chavón Amphitheater, a 5000-seat open-air Greek-style amphitheater located about two hours east of Santo Domingo,[1] that was inaugurated by the festival.
Performers included Frank Sinatra with Buddy Rich, Heart and Santana. Santana's set was cut short due to inclement weather.
Tickets for Sinatra's performance were RD$50.00 (Dominican pesos, worth at the time about two US dollars each) and the New York Times mistakenly reported 50 U.S. dollars.[1]
Charles Bluhdorn, whose Gulf+Western owned both the Altos de Chavón and Paramount Pictures, had Paramount record the concert so it could be shown all over the world. The concert was broadcast on Showtime and featured a Grucci Fireworks grand finale.[2] The video recordings of the Frank Sinatra / Buddy Rich set, and of Heart's performance, were later released commercially and are generally available in the United States from online and other retailers. Sinatra's infamous comment about his hit "Strangers In The Night", "That's the worst fucking song I ever heard," can be heard faintly after Sinatra bows following his performance of the tune he so hated.
The now-disappeared Dominican band "Túcaro and The Band" opened the show for Heart, who played one of their most memorable live performances ever, rocking the audience to a frenzy. When Santana came out to play, the audience was totally surrendered to the music.
Santana played their first couple of songs, but by the third song the rain begin to pour down heavily. The concert was stopped and the roadies tackled the lights to fix a plastic cover on top, to serve as a canopy so Santana would take cover under it and resume playing.
The rain stopped briefly, so Santana again came out to play, only to be stopped by the rain again. This interrupted set is what is listed as the "Instrumental Jam" of his from that night. The roadies again got to work on the plastic covers, the rain intensified and the concert was put on hold. Nobody from the audience had moved and by that time everybody was soaking wet but still waiting to hear their demi-god, Santana, play.
A long wait was endured and when the rain finally showed signs of stopping, Santana came out to play again, but as soon as they started so did the rain. Only this time Santana did not stop until he finished "Black Magic Woman", which ended in a superb "descarga" or major jam. Rain water was bouncing off congas and Santana's guitar picks strummed water off of his guitar.
By that moment pure pandemonium was unleashed among the audience, who couldn't believe what the musicians were doing for them. Shouts of "Que Viva Changó!" (Long Live Chango, the ancient rain god) where heard and the show came to an epic end, having to be stopped by fears of Santana being electrocuted by a water induced electrical shortcut from his guitar.
Urban Legend has it that Santana cried backstage when he was informed the show was to be stopped and rumor spread that he had sent out word that he promised he would be back and finish his performance.
That show is of legendary status among Dominican rock fans.
Santana's promised was finally fulfilled after a 27 year wait when last 03.07.09 he again played at Altos de Chavón. His first words to the audience where "Chango was a little harsh to us last time we was here, but tonight is payback time and we have our fingers crossed Chango will allow us to finish our performance".
He then proceeded to play for almost three hours, revisiting his most notable songs from his extended and amazing career and performing like the guitar god he really is.
Since 1982, other concert performances have been titled "Concert for the Americas." Such performances include:
Other performances billed as "Concert for the Americas" have been small performances, sometimes in academic settings, and generally not of pop music. Such other performances include: