Denise Rivera, from Leeuwarden but actually from Bolivia, takes on the role of Gloria Estefan for The Tribute – Battle Of The Bands. “She really is a role model. Music saved me too!”
Sometimes she thinks she is too old to do fun things. But then her husband says again: “Denise, every year since I knew you, you have experienced something so special.” And so it is. “Or I sing for the Queen, or I sing for Mark Rutte, or I perform with Candy Dulfer, or the Royal Air Force Orchestra, or I am in a television program with Gordon. It’s always something!”
Her father is Dutch, but she is actually from Bolivia. Denise Rivera (54) grew up in Spain, studied in the United States and built a career back in her second homeland. She presented for television, sang in Enrique Iglesias’ choir and toured the country. Until she ended up in the Netherlands for love. In Leeuwarden.
She was also in the Soundmix show , where jury member Patricia Paay stated that the Netherlands needs more such women. Paay meant that Latin warm-bloodedness, with which Denise also played Gloria Estefan back then. And soon again, but then in the SBS program The Tribute – Battle Of The Bands. And with a complete live band.
On the stage of the Ziggo Dome
That’s what that show is about. Tribute bands competing against each other for one of the four spots at the concert in April 2024 in the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam. In February last year, Denise Rivera saw a Robbie Williams performance in the same venue. “I’m a bit spiritual,” she says, “and suddenly I saw myself there on that stage. Instead of Robbie Williams.” And a few weeks later Talpa Studios, the producer of the program, called.
But she still had to put together a band, a Latin band. Because it had to be not only about Gloria Estefan, the singer who fled Cuba at a young age, but also about her band: Miami Sound Machine.
There was no money for a professional band, so what now? Denise knew that there was a cumbia band at D’Drive, Firda’s vocational art training course, which is housed in the Leeuwarden pop venue Neushoorn, Los Treboles, and she had performed with them before. That became the basis for her own ‘Miami Sound Machine’, although there were some changes and extensions.
All young people in the band
For example, Talpa Studios liked to see a brass section and a backing choir, “they missed that Sound Machine vibe a bit.” With the exception of band leader and experienced Latin pianist Harvery Mercera, who is actually from Curaçao but now lives in Marum, most come from Friesland. “And all young people! Sometimes the same age as my children!” In the choir: Melissa Pander, winner of the last edition of the Frisian-language song festival Liet, and her sister Carinda.
For the audition, the production company, camera crew and all, came to Neushoorn, where the entire company, roughly eighteen, put their best foot forward. “Me in my glitter suit. We were really going to perform, really give a show.”
After which it took a few more months before all the lights were green, so Denise had to start calling again to arrange her band. Ultimately, she will soon have fifteen people behind her. Which doesn’t make rehearsing easy. “There is always someone who can’t do it. We had about five rehearsals, and only one with the whole band!”
Never before the public
And they’ve never played in front of an audience, anything like that. They were there playing for the jury: Angela Groothuizen, Spike (from DiRect) and Cesar Zuiderwijk. “The tension was great! I lost my voice for four weeks.”
And, therefore, that Ziggo Dome. There have already been recordings, and Denise already knows whether she will make it to that venue – it is a elimination competition, so of the twelve selected acts, four will go to that music temple. But shhh, shut your mouth, she can’t say anything about it. Only that the competition is fierce: Guns ‘n Roses, Kool And The Gang, Frank Sinatra, Toto, Elton John, Spice Girls, Bee Gees: or at least, bands and acts that imitate those artists. “It’s brilliant to participate.”
And she, Denise Rivera from Leeuwarden, plays Gloria Estefan. And not just now, actually throughout her career as a professional singer. “They are beautiful songs! But what I love about her: she is an exemplary person, with a very warm heart. And she is the musical godmother of greats like Shakira and Jennifer Lopez.”
Latina, role model
Gloria Estefan is called the Latin queen of pop named. Her Cuban origins make her a role model. “Music was her salvation when she had to flee Cuba. She cried, she sang, with her guitar. That’s how she kept it going.”
Not that Denise wants to compare herself to such a great person, but still. So she came to Friesland from Spain for love, “but I didn’t know anyone here. I didn’t speak the language. I was a little lost. Even though I didn’t have to flee, for me music was also my salvation. That kept me whole. And that has opened doors for me. With music I was able to share my passion in my language, and then I was welcomed with open arms by the Frisian public.”
And so Denise Rivera embarks on a “super cool” adventure at the age of 54. “My message to women is: it is never too late! Follow your feeling, your intuition, your dream. You can always come up with an excuse not to do it, but I say: young man, do the normal.”
Yoga, zumba, voice actress
It is the same in her other work: yoga and Zumba instructor, voice actress. Age is also a thing in that world, “but I thought: wait a minute, it’s not going to happen to me that they stop calling me because I’m over 50.”
So she had a studio installed at home and registered with all kinds of agencies abroad. “I now work in more than fifty countries worldwide. English, European Spanish, Latin American Spanish, sometimes some Dutch. Commercials, books, children’s books, museums, airplanes, you name it. Customers hear my voice, they like it, and it doesn’t matter how old you are.”
And what will this bring her? “There will soon be a million people on prime time to watch! It could explode completely, and who knows, maybe they’ll want us everywhere soon.” Yet another new adventure.
The Tribute – Battle of the Bands : from Saturday January 6 at 8 p.m. on SBS6