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The chilenism "fomingo" was created to describe the typical Sunday in Santiago, with most shops closed and the streets generally empty. The word combines the Chilean slang for boring, fome, with the Spanish word for Sunday, domingo. But this is not the case every Sunday in Santiago; on November 15th at the Teatro Caupolicán the masses gathered to watch their Puerto-Rican Reggaeton-heroes, J King & Maximan, performing for the first time ever in Chile.


Photo by Kendal Montgomery

Leaving the warm, sunlit street and entering the sizzling theatre was like stepping into another world. With songs like 'Bailoteo' from Wisin y Yandel, the DJs inflamed the 400 people to a boiling point.

Photo by Kendal Montgomery

Some party people were even dancing on the balcony’s parapet swirling their t-shirts around in the air as the beats of the Reggaeton Dembow-rhythm resonated through our bodies and the whole theater.

Warm-up groups Nico Mastre and Croni-K found themselves in an impossible situation trying to maintain control of an eager crowd waiting to see the main act. These artists found themselves dodging water bottles and the third group, Los Patriarcos, didn’t even appear on stage. Only the silver-tongued animator Zero could deal with the crowd, uniting them in La Ola (the wave) and shouting “Colo Colo.”

At last, Zero disappeared behind the stage, the lights went out and hundreds of cell phones illuminated the scene, upheld to get a picture of the two singers who now entered the stage. Accompanied by nine dancers, J King and Maximan performed 'Dejame tocarte' and then continued alone with 'Farandulera' sending out loud “Ra Ra Ra” shouts into the echoing audience, which moved to and fro like a frantic pendulum.

Photo by Kendal Montgomery

The electrified sound swept through the arena, pierced by the fast rap of J King and Maximan, battling with each other and then interweaving their voices.

As the first notes of 'Beso en la Boca' sounded, girls jumped up and down, stretched their hands out to the stage and made their love heard. Loud whistles almost drowned the beats of the drum machine. The carrete seemed endless.

Finally, as we left the theater blinking at the last rays of the setting sun, we found ourselves once again in the strange world of lonely streets in Santiago. But we knew now that on some fomingos, salvation is sometimes only a few steps away.

For more information on J King and Maximan see their website, their presentations on MySpace and Facebook

http://www.jkingymaximan.com/

Born in Germany, Susanne loved Spanish from her first lesson in school and enjoys traveling as well, having traveled to Spain several times. A writer as well, it was quite clear to Susanne that she wanted to do “something with media” after finishing school. Needing a new experience, she combined her favorites and started an internship at Revolver Santiago Magazine in Chile. Due to that, Susanne is taking a break in her cultural science studies in Germany. In Chile, she’s eager to get to know the people, culture and countryside as she likes dancing, climbing, hiking and horseback riding.