ANDY COMER: Paulina Rubio, you had me at 'hola'

About five or six years ago when I still lived in Ohio, I was watching MTV Cribs when some Latin singer named Paulina Rubio was being featured, showing off her house located in Spain.

“Heyyyy. I’m Paulina Rrrrubio, thanks for coming to Barcelona …” she purred in her thick accent.

I knew nothing about Latin music — I barely even knew the genre existed. But that day I became a Paulina Rubio fan. I’d like to say it was purely because of her infectious music or her talent as an artist, but it wasn’t — I just thought she was hot. Before I discovered my future wife, pop star Katy Perry, Paulina Rubio was my celebrity crush.

Just a few years later, I found myself standing in the McAllen Convention Center Wednesday night waiting for Rubio to take the stage. I’m not a big fan of waiting for anything, so I wasn’t too happy when Rubio took the stage more than an hour and a half late. I wasn’t the only one getting impatient.

“We’ve been waiting for so long,” Brenda, 30, of Palmhurst, said as she sat on the floor in the back of the convention center with the rest of us who had general admission tickets. “These tickets were a gift; we just want to hear one song.”

Rubio finally came out at 10:30 p.m. or so, and the antsy crowd instantly forgave her for making them all wait by going bananas. Thankfully, she wasted no time once she grabbed the microphone, darting from one song to the next, including my favorite, “Ni Una Sola Palabra.”

As the tempo of the concert picked up, so did Rubio. She started the show mostly standing still but seemed to warm up to the audience quickly by shaking her bon-bon all over the stage a la Shakira, minus the belly dancing.

“So Paulina Rubio is kind of like a poor man’s Shakira, right?” I asked the woman next to me.

“No, she’s smaller than that,” said Evelin, 28, from Brownsville. “She’s (Rubio) — not super famous.”

Ouch.

Evelin did have a point, though. I was a bit disappointed by how amateur her stage setup looked. I know the McAllen Convention Center isn’t exactly the biggest venue, but certainly Rubio could do better than merely hanging strung-together blank CDs all over her stage and calling it decoration.

Super famous or not, Rubio was the most popular woman in the Valley on Wednesday night, as she had the capacity crowd in the palm of her hand. After an outfit change, Rubio stopped the music to share a toast of pink champagne with some fans not far from where I was standing. I’m pretty sure Rubio and I even made eye contact.

“Make a heart (with your hands) if you love Paulina!” she instructed the crowd in Spanish, and many in the audience quickly obliged. “Make a big heart (with your arms) if you REALLY love me!” she pleaded. Of course, most everyone around me did so.

I’m not a huge fan of concerts in general, but I enjoyed seeing Paulina Rubio live, especially after drooling over her for so long. Hopefully the next time she visits, we won’t have to wait nearly two hours for her to perform.

And yes, she’s just as hot in person.

Andy Comer is the slot editor and a columnist for The Monitor. Contact him at acomer@themonitor.com.