Family bid farewell to merengue singer, killed in Dominican nightclub disaster
Family members bade a tearful farewell Thursday to merengue singer Rubby Perez, who died this week when the roof of a Dominican Republic nightclub crashed down on him as he did what he loved best: perform for an adoring crowd.
Born Roberto Antonio Perez, the 69-year-old was given a private wake at the National Theater in the capital Santo Domingo, where the death toll from Tuesday's disaster has surged past 200.
"My soul is on the verge of exploding with love," Perez's daughter Zulinka sang at the ceremony attended by President Luis Abinader and other performers like Juan Luis Guerra as the Dominican Republic observed three days of national mourning for the many victims.
"In love with love," she continued, performing excerpts from tunes her father used to sing to her as a child.
Born on March 8, 1956, in Bajos de Haina, near Santo Domingo, Rubby Perez began his musical career in the late 1970s after studying at the National Conservatory of Music.
He had dreamed of becoming a baseball player as a child, but a traffic accident led him to change course and become one of merengue music's most recognizable voices.
The singer, known for hits such as "Volvere" (I'll be back) and "Enamorado de Ella (In love with Her), had a vocal quality and pitch that led to him being dubbed "The "highest voice of Merengue" -- a Caribbean genre characterized by fast, danceable beats.
Family members wept inconsolably as Abinader offered his condolences near the coffin surrounded by wreaths and topped with the artist's signature hat and glasses.
"My brother was a working man, a person who loved to work," Neifi Perez told reporters at the wake before breaking down in tears.
The theater is expected to open to the public later Thursday for a religious service.
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'A pain that doesn't subside' at funerals for Dominican nightclub disaster victims
A basketball court in the Dominican town of Haina became a makeshift chapel Thursday, hosting funeral ceremonies for two dozen residents whose lives were abruptly cut short when a nightclub's roof collapsed with hundreds of people inside. Two at a time, coffins were carried onto the court and placed on tables lined with white cloth. The caskets were topped with photos and personal belongings of the victims, and flanked by loved ones who listened attentively to successive, short ceremonies -- two victims at a time. Many of the bereaved broke down, inconsolable two days after the tragedy that claimed more than 200 lives. The unlucky ones did not manage to escape when the roof of the Jet Set club -- a 50-year-old institution in Santo Domingo -- collapsed while popular merengue singer Rubby Perez sang to an adoring crowd in the early hours of Tuesday. Perez, 69, and retired Major League Baseball player Tony Blanco -- both of whom hailed from Haina -- were among the dead. Blanco was among the victims memorialized at Thursday's ceremony in Haina, which was attended by hundreds. Perez was given a sendoff in a private ceremony at the National Theater in the capitol Santo Domingo earlier in the day that was attended by President Luis Abinader. - 'Immense pain' - At the entrance to the basketball court hung a large banner with the names and photographs of the deceased. A nearby placard with an image of a peace dove read: "With immense pain, Haina bids farewell to her beloved children." Rows of mourners filled plastic chairs to share in the community's grief. Among the mourners was Santo Jose German, who lost four relatives. "A pain that doesn't subside," is how he described his emotional state. "I didn't want to believe it was real, but it is. Life is lost in a second," he said. During the service, blessings were pronounced by priests waving incense, for two coffins at a time, accompanied by the trumpet sounds of music teacher Felix Silvestre. He had to stop playing several times to cry. "You have to find strength where there is none because people died there, people I grew up with since childhood, many people," he told AFP. With several interruptions, he performed the tune "Cuando un amigo se va" (When a friend leaves), in honor of his late friends. "It's hard, but it must be done." The director of the local school, 59-year-old Fernando Nina, attended the ceremony to bid farewell to acquaintances. "Describing it as a hard blow would be an understatement; this disaster really touched sensitive fibers of our municipality," he said. "It's incredible how three, four and even five members of a single family died. There is an atmosphere of sadness and a lot of sorrow" in the community, said Nina. str-ba/jt/mlr/sla/acb
Yahoo
10-04-2025
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Family bid farewell to merengue singer, killed in Dominican nightclub disaster
Family members bade a tearful farewell Thursday to merengue singer Rubby Perez, who died this week when the roof of a Dominican Republic nightclub crashed down on him as he did what he loved best: perform for an adoring crowd. Born Roberto Antonio Perez, the 69-year-old was given a private wake at the National Theater in the capital Santo Domingo, where the death toll from Tuesday's disaster has surged past 200. "My soul is on the verge of exploding with love," Perez's daughter Zulinka sang at the ceremony attended by President Luis Abinader and other performers like Juan Luis Guerra as the Dominican Republic observed three days of national mourning for the many victims. "In love with love," she continued, performing excerpts from tunes her father used to sing to her as a child. Born on March 8, 1956, in Bajos de Haina, near Santo Domingo, Rubby Perez began his musical career in the late 1970s after studying at the National Conservatory of Music. He had dreamed of becoming a baseball player as a child, but a traffic accident led him to change course and become one of merengue music's most recognizable voices. The singer, known for hits such as "Volvere" (I'll be back) and "Enamorado de Ella (In love with Her), had a vocal quality and pitch that led to him being dubbed "The "highest voice of Merengue" -- a Caribbean genre characterized by fast, danceable beats. Family members wept inconsolably as Abinader offered his condolences near the coffin surrounded by wreaths and topped with the artist's signature hat and glasses. "My brother was a working man, a person who loved to work," Neifi Perez told reporters at the wake before breaking down in tears. The theater is expected to open to the public later Thursday for a religious service. syr-ba/nn/mlr/dw
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Why did a Dominican nightclub roof cave in?
The government of the Dominican Republic has vowed an exhaustive investigation into why the roof of a nightclub caved in on revellers, killing more than 200. Experts, meanwhile, said the causes appear to be clear: insufficient support for too heavy a structure also weakened by a fire almost two years ago. Video footage of the last moments before the roof of the Jet Set club came crashing down in the wee hours of Tuesday showed people leaving the venue in a rain of dust from above. Survivor Iris Pena told local television she made for the door after dirt started falling into her drink and a stone fell and cracked the table she had been sitting at. Another video showed the stage with merengue performer Rubby Perez singing to an adoring crowd as someone comments that a piece of slab had fallen down. The videos end in darkness, crashing sounds and screams. - Overloaded? - The Jet Set nightclub was 52 years old, and operated in a building originally constructed to house a cinema. Standing two floors high, with walls painted black, it featured a large hall with a spacious dance floor adorned with disco balls, large, heavy speakers and light fixtures. It could host 700 people seated at tables, and 1,000 standing. An aerial view of the disaster site shows air conditioning machines and power generators weighing tons lying among the roof rubble. "Imagine you put two or three 42.5-kilogram (93.7-pound) cement bags on your head... your feet are not going to hold," explained Persio Diaz, a civil engineering professor at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, adding: "the supports were not sufficient to withstand the loads." He added: "If you overload a structure, it will not support you." Architect Garivalddy De Aza analyzed photos of the roof slab on Instagram, and observed "not a single column to relieve the load" of the structure. "The roof collapsed under its own weight," he concluded. - Fire damage? - In 2023, a fire broke out at the nightclub after lighting struck. Firefighters who put out the blaze said at the time the building's integrity had not been compromised. But Diaz said that "when a structure like that is affected by a severe fire, the durability of the concrete... deteriorates significantly" and it "turns into a kind of weak concrete." He also pointed out that steel corrodes with time, and the high humidity in the Caribbean country can affect the soundness of building materials over time. De Aza said there appeared to have been "a lack of planning in the building's growth." Juan Villar Gonzalez, a former president of the Dominican College of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors, said the building also lacked circulation and emergency doors. "There has been little supervision," noted Villar, adding the tragedy needed to be studied in detail and lessons learnt to prevent another in future. The Jet Set said Tuesday it was working "fully and transparently" with authorities investigating the calamity. str-jt/mbj/nn/mar/mlr/dw
