Tu Amor Me Hace Bien

On May 29, 2026, inside Allendale United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg, the Gay Men's Chorus of Tampa Bay turned over the third number of "Love in Technicolor" to soloist Julian Cruz, who took up Marc Anthony's "Tu Amor Me Hace Bien." Written by the Colombian songwriter-producer Estefano and made famous on Anthony's 2004 album Amar Sin Mentiras, the song arrived in the evening's "Love & Heartbreak" act as a declaration of devotion sung in the warm, unguarded register of someone who has finally found the love that heals.

The song lives a double life in Anthony's catalog, swinging between a tender ballad and a brassy salsa, and Cruz drew on both. He opened in confiding rubato, letting the Spanish vowels ring open and round, then leaned into the dance pulse as the chorus arrived, the clave implied even where no horns played.

Cruz sang it as a love letter rather than a showpiece. His tenor stayed honeyed in the verses and gained a bright, ringing edge at the climaxes, and his diction carried the lyric's gratitude without ever pushing the line. The phrasing breathed; small ritards at cadences let key words land.

Allendale's high wooden ceiling gave his voice a generous halo, sustaining the held notes long enough to bloom without ever swallowing consonants, so the text stayed legible from the back pews. The room leaned in during the quiet opening, and a wave of warm applause and a few delighted cheers met the final, soaring phrase.

Placed in the heart of "Love & Heartbreak," Cruz's reading tipped the act toward love's restorative side, a reminder that devotion can mend as much as it can wound. Sung in Spanish on a chorus stage built around visibility and chosen family, it offered the audience a moment of tenderness, pride, and unforced joy.