Grammy Award Winning Jon Secada is Giving Away a Waterfront Estate

Two time grammy award winner Jon Secada is lending his support to the Mission of Saint Francis, a non-profit charitable organization that has been helping individuals and other organizations for over 40 years. Together they are holding a charity house raffle. The grand prize is a waterfront estate located in South Florida.

Fort Lauderdale, FL (Vocus) August 24, 2010

Jon Secada Charities and the Mission of Saint Francis are raffling off a $3 million waterfront estate in Ft. Lauderdale, FL for $30. The home features 6 bedrooms, 6 ½ bathrooms, theater room with 120” screen, game room, office, large swimming pool, 4 car garage, 100 feet on the water, and much more. Information the raffle and the other amenities can be found at jonsecadacharities.com

Secada wants to help keep the Mission of Saint Francis and the charities they support open for those in need. The Mission is the oldest treatment and social services center in Florida, and all operations have been funded solely by private donations. According to Secada, “The Mission of Saint Francis is a wonderful organization that has been helping the community and individuals by providing support and assistance in a number of different ways”.

This house raffle is fairly simple and straight forward. You can buy tickets online through Jon Secada’s website jonsecadacharities.com or by using the toll free number listed on the website. The drawing is set for October 10, 2010. Only 300,000 tickets will be sold for the $3 Million home and the tickets are just $30 each. There is also a $1.5 million cash substitute for those of you who would rather have the cash.

Jon Secada (born Juan Secada on October 4, 1962) is a Cuban-American singer and songwriter. Secada was born in Havana, Cuba, and raised in Hialeah, Florida. He has won two Grammy Awards and sold 20 million albums since his English-language debut album in 1992. His music fuses funk, soul, pop and Latin percussion. Secada also has worked as a songwriter for Gloria Estefan, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Mandy Moore and other performers.

In the late 1980s, Gloria Estefan hired Secada as a background singer. He also started composing music for Estefan, including some of her best-known ballads. Among other songs, Secada co-wrote and sang background on Coming Out of the Dark Gloria's number one hit from her 1991 album Into the Light. During Estefan's Coming Out of the Dark tour, Secada was given the life-changing opportunity of taking over the stage and performing solo. The song was Always Something which would be featured later on his debut album. It launched his career as a solo performer.

Secada scored a No. 5 Pop hit (and a No. 5 UK hit) with his Gold single Just Another Day, and three more top 30 hits, Angel (No. 18 Pop, No. 23 UK), I'm Free (No. 27 Pop, No. 50 UK), Do You Believe in Us? (No. 13 Pop, No. 30 UK), and Do You Really Want Me (No. 30 UK) received national radio play. The Spanish-language version of Secada's solo album, Otro Día Más Sin Verte (EMI-Latin), became the Number One Latin album of 1992 and earned Secada his first Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album.

For additional information visit www.jonsecadacharities.com

Link to original Press Release: PRWeb

In a live interview, which aired on Univision’s highly-rated entertainment news program, El Gordo y La Flaca, singer-songwriter-actor Jon Secada confirmed the speculations that he will be a cast member on the network’s first season of its dance competition show, “Mira Quien Baila” (Look Who’s Dancing). In the wake of that interview, the three time GRAMMY Award winner has confirmed that he will also be officiating at an intimate new music venue this year, Secada’s at Magic City Casino, slated to open November 2010.

“Rhythm is in my blood,” says Secada. “I’m excited about this competition, since dance is just part of my Cuban heritage.”

“Mira Quien Baila,” which is the Spanish equivalent of “Dancing with The Stars” steps out on Sunday, September 12, 2010 and will air for 12 weeks on  Sunday’s at 8 p.m. (EST) on Univision.  The internationally recognized singer-songwriter will be among ten of Latin entertainment’s biggest stars showing off their dance moves when they’re paired with a professional dancer teaching them tango, salsa, merengue, and the cha-cha-cha, among others.

Every week, a panel of judges will select the best contestants, while audiences nationwide choose who should be eliminated. At the end of the season, the winner will have the opportunity to donate their grand prize to a charity of their choice.

Besides preparing for his dancing debut, Secada will soon unveil an intimate new open-air bar and lounge, Secada’s at Magic City Casino. The space, enhanced with Secada’s personal music memorabilia, will be located on the Mezzanine level of Magic City Casino, formerly the historic Flagler Dog Track.

The opening of Secada’s at Magic City Casino will bring back the intimacy of a live music venue to Miami.  The main attraction will be Secada’s performances, as well as his talented performer friends and emerging acts at the city’s newest state-of-the-art, live concert stage. The bar will offer guests great classic and creative cocktails; the bar menu, created by talented culinary consultant Heidi Ladell, will serve an array of gourmet Latin finger foods.

Secada’s at Magic City Casino, slated to open November 2010, will be located at

450 NW 37th Avenue in Miami. Telephone: (305) 649-3000; www.magiccitycasino.com.

Images and interviews available.

Media Contact:

Paulina Naranjo/Susan Brustman

Brustman Carrino Public Relations

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

How would you like to spend $30 to get a $3 million mansion? Sounds like a deal right? And now you could be the lucky winner...again.

Last December, former NBAer Dennis Rodman helped promote the "Rodman Raffle," a chance to win a 6-bedroom, waterfront home in Ft. Lauderdale valued at $3 million for just 30 bucks. But not enough tickets sold to pay off the house's mortgage, so half the cash from ticket sales ended up going to the raffle winner and the other half went to charity.

And now, take two, minus The Worm.

Replacing Rodman as the pitchman, is Grammy Award-winning singer Jon Secada. And the owner of the mansion, Miles Brannan, feels that Secada's selling-power, plus a more organized plan, will give the raffle the boost in ticket sales needed to give away the house.

"Jon Secada told me he believes he can do it," Brannan said. "I believe in Jon Secada and I hope a lot of people out there do."

At worst, Secada's raffle will raise more money for the charity, The Mission of St. Francis, a Ft. Lauderdale based organization that helps the homeless and others in need get back on their feet. At best, the new raffle will sell enough tickets to help the Brannan's avoid foreclosure and move out of a house they can no longer afford, while helping one lucky winner move in.

"The Mission (of St. Francis) is confident this time around," said Secada. "We think we'll sell more tickets and be able to raffle this house."

The winner will have the choice of taking $1.5 million in cash instead. But if you choose the house, it comes fully furnished. And that includes the movie theater, the game room, the bar, and even a knight in shining armor!

Tickets are for sale from now until September 30th at www.jonsecadacharities.com The drawing is October 10th and Secada will pull the winning ticket.

"Your chances are better than winning the lottery," Secada says.

The goal is to sell 300,000 tickets. That will also be the maximum number sold. So, your odds are at worst 1 in 300,000.

The previous raffle with Rodman sold less than $1 million worth of tickets, but with more time to spread the word and a new celebrity spokesman, organizers believe the house will get raffled off.

To see a video and the original article, visit: NBC MIAMI

Jon Secada to visit Performing Arts Center in support of his latest album

For all those who might have been wondering, after standout turns as Danny Zuko in “Grease,” Joseph in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” and the Emcee in “Cabaret,” Cuban-American singer/performer Jon Secada is once again hearing the call of the Great White Way.

“If the right Broadway show opportunity would be offered to me, I would love to go back to New York,” Mr. Secada wrote in an e-mail responding to questions sent to him on the road last weekend.

For now, Mr. Secada’s fans will have to “settle” for catching him live on stage in concert here and there, including his upcoming show on August 21 at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center. “At this point, I’m busy enough just doing selected dates; that works out with the other projects I have going,” Mr. Secada wrote.

It’s a pretty impressive roster of projects. In addition to his work writing songs and singing harmonies for everyone from fellow Cuban performer Gloria Estefan (who gave him his first big break by inviting him on stage to sing solo during one of her own shows) to Ricky Martin, Mr. Secada has just released a brand new album, simply titled “Classics,” that showcases his ability to translate classic songs. A Spanish version of the set, “Clasicos,” was also released in conjunction with the English language version.

“The inspiration for the ‘Classics/Clasicos’ project is based on songs that I grew up listening to that have had an impact in both English and Spanish,” Mr. Secada wrote, “or songs that I felt have set a mark in the history of pop Latin music in the U.S. That’s the reason I recorded the CD in both languages.”

Mr. Secada’s own history starts in Cuba, where he was born. He emigrated to America with his parents when he was 9, and was raised in Hialeah, Florida. He became interested in pop and R&B music through the recordings of Stevie Wonder, Elton John, and Billy Joel, among others. After he was exposed early on to the musical culture of nearby Miami, which introduced him to merengue and salsa, it was only a matter of time before he created his own fusion of Latin and pop sounds.

Since then, he’s won two Grammy Awards and has sold 20 million albums, and has seen songs that he’s written appear on albums by Ms. Estefan and Mr. Martin, as well as Jennifer Lopez (“Baila”) and Mandy Moore. And he also had a chance to work with Frank Sinatra and Luciano Pavarotti, singing duets with each.

For “Classics/Clasicos,” Mr. Secada kept to his Latin roots to translate the timeless track listing of songs, which includes “Spanish Harlem,” “Besame Mucho,” “Vaya Con Dios,” “My Way,” and “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” (“Each song that I chose means something to me for different reasons,” Mr. Secada explained in his e-mail), all recorded in Nashville with a live orchestra. Chart-topping producer James Stroud was behind the boards for the set.

“Working with James was tremendous,” Mr. Secada says, “as laid-back as the environment he created was, it was equally as efficient and productive.”

Another bonus of recording the album, for Mr. Secada, was the chance it afforded to add the new/old material to his live performances. “I love having the opportunity to add some of the songs of ‘Classics’ to my show,” he says, “it’s a blast being able to sing them every night.”

For Mr. Secada’s performance at the PAC, he’ll be bringing along his full band for a show that will take the listener on a musical tour through the many varied experiences of his career to date.

“The show that I’m bringing has a bit of everything that has been a part of my career up to now,” Mr. Secada wrote, “my pop hits, Broadway, my songwriting career, my jazz influence—I’m looking forward to a really fun evening in Westhampton full of music!”

Jon Secada will perform at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on August 21 at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $70, $85, or $100, available online at whbpac.org, in person at the Arts Center at 76 Main Street in Westhampton Beach, or by calling the box office at 631-288-1500 .

Link to original article : 27East.com