NEW YORK, NY, July 19, 2000 – Ricky, Christina, Enrique… They’re just the beginning of a new Latin
music revolution that’s rocking America. In celebration of this musical and cultural phenomenon that is taking the States by storm, Metro will introduce a new weekly television show featuring the sounds, movement and beauty of Latin club culture.
On Friday July 28 @ 10 PM, Metro will premiere Club La Bomba, a sizzling hour-long dance party that showcases every shade of electrifying Latin music under the rainbow – from meringue and salsa to hip hop and rock en espanol. This exciting English language Metro original production is hosted by one of Spanish television’s sexiest and most talked about personalities, Sofia Vergara. Produced in association with New York-based National Entertainment, the show is sure to be a highlight of Metro’s new schedule, which unfolds July 24.
Since she was discovered strolling on the beach in her native Colombia, Sofia’s career has been in overdrive – in Latin America and now the U.S. The host of Univision’s popular travelogue Fuera de Serie (Out of this World) has recently graced the covers of dozens of international magazines, several record-selling calendars and one of the most heavily trafficked sites of the net – www.sofiavergara.com. A staple of gossip columns like The New York Post’s “Page Six” and touted as “Miami’s hottest property” in a electric photo feature in Gear Magazine, Sofia is the perfect catalyst to entice viewers to lose their inhibitions and live la vida loca.
“I’m happy to be here in New York, bringing some of the passion, style and energy of the Latin culture to television,” states Sofia, who is known as La Bomba throughout Latin America, for both her electric personality and bombshell looks. “It’s been one of my most rewarding work experiences, and I think the audience will love the show as much as we loved doing it.”
Each episode of Metro’s Club La Bomba features at least two live bands performing two live songs each from the show’s studio home National Video Center, located on the world famous 42nd Street near Times Square, and remote crews shooting at Miami, LA and New York’s trendiest Latin dance venues. The premiere episode will feature one of the hottest new Latin crossover acts, Sony Recording artists SON BY 4. This all-male quartet in the tradition of BOYZ II MEN and BACKSTREET BOYS performs both “Purest of Pain,” their first England-language release which is Top Ten at leading NYC radio stations like Z-100, and “Sofia,” a new tune written in honor of the show’s host. Hot new female vocalist REINA also performs.
Club La Bomba complements these exciting performances and videos with high-energy fashion shows, dance competitions, and interviews with the hottest stars in Latin music who drop by to drink in the kinetic atmosphere. And in the midst of it all is the charming Sofia, chatting with the stars and rallying the crowd to dance a little fiercer with each new tune. To keep viewers in the loop on the latest steps, there’s the La Bomba Dancers, an energetic troupe of 13 style-conscious steppers led by the buff Bronx-born choreographer, Israel Martinez.
“We want Club La Bomba to bring Latin dance, the flavor and the fever of it, into viewers homes,” says the charismatic choreographer who runs his own successful dance studio, Dance Martinez, in Bayside, Queens. “We want to teach the dance steps, but we also want to let everyone know about the excitement and elegance of the entire Latin culture.”
More than 250 dancers auditioned to be a part of the Club La Bomba dance troupe. The eclectic pack of elegant movers and atomic gyrators that made the final cut hail from as far off as Venezuela and Russia to as close as Hoboken and Queens.
“I was looking for a group that had natural drive and fire, but was also for technical dancers who could pick up the steps quickly,” continues Martinez. “This group is so unique – one learned Flamenco in Spain, one trained in folk dance in Russia and another learned the steps straight from the New York clubs