Torres Launches World Tour in His Native Puerto Rico

Tommy Torres is making music on the road…

The 41-year-old Puerto Rican singer-songwriter kicked off his 12 historias world tour this weekend, which will take him to several countries in Latin America, the United States and Spain.

Tommy Torres

Torres opened his tour with a concert at the Jose M. Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan, where he performed such songs as “El abrigo,” “Vinito pal’ corazon,” “Mar adentro” and “Un poquito.”

“How great to return home. How beautiful you look from here,” Torres told the crowd of 12,000 who came to his first show in Puerto Rico.

Torres then proceeded to sing “Por un beso tuyo,” “Un dia mas,” “11:11” and “Imparable,” and announced that the concert was being taped to be sold as a DVD.

He continued by performing a number of songs that other artists had written for him that he made into smash hits.

After launching the tour, Torres – who has won Grammys and Latin Grammys – will travel to Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Chile, several U.S. cities and then will perform in Spain in June.

Torres was named producer of the year by Billboard in 2007 and composer of the year by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, or ASCAP, in 2009.

Bardem to Appear in Spanish-Film “Alacran enamorado”

He received a Best Actor Oscar nod for his role in 2010’s Biutiful— the first entirely Spanish language performance to be nominated for that award… And, now Javier Bardem plans to return to Spanish cinema.

The 43-year-old Spanish actor will play a neo-Nazi ideologue in Alacran enamorado (Scorpion in Love), a film based on a novel by his brother Carlos.

Javier Bardem

Spanish director Santiago Zannou says Bardem, who won a best-supporting-actor Oscar for his turn in No Country for Old Men, will play a secondary character named Solis, a role distinct from the purely villainous one he has in the upcoming James Bond film.

“In my film (the character) is more realistic, not a wicked villain who wants to destroy the world, but an ordinary person. Those are the ones who truly frighten me, for having a type of ideology that separates people, that engenders violence,” Zannou told Efe.

Alacran enamorado tells the story of Alyssa, a seductive Latin American immigrant who had fallen victim to a prostitution ring and now makes a living cleaning houses, and Julian, alias “El alacran” (The Scorpion), a member of a neo-Nazi group.

Alex Gonzalez and Judith Diakhate have the starring roles, while Carlos Bardem plays a boxing trainer and former boxer Rudo Hovic plays the owner of the gym.

This will mark the first time Bardem has worked with a Spanish director since he won a Goya award for his performance in Alejandro Amenabar’s Mar adentro (The Sea Inside).