Enrique to appear on Facebook game

The game avatar of the Spanish artist will reveal some of the activities that form part of Iglesias’ real lifestyle.

LOS ANGELES:

Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias will appear on CityVille, the popular game on the social networking site Facebook, as a way of publicising the artist’s current tour introducing his new album Euphoria!, confirmed technology company Zynga.

The game, which every month attracts 69 million players, will feature an avatar of the Spanish artist who will reveal some of the activities and hobbies that form part of Iglesias’ real lifestyle.

Players can also build a virtual Euphoria Arena of the Spaniard’s tour in their city, whose final reward is to unlock a preview of the artist’s new music video “I Like How It Feels”.

“I love finding new and cool ways to connect with my fans,” said Iglesias. “Bringing my Euphoria Tour to Zynga’s CityVille not only helps me celebrate my tour with a massive global audience, but also gives fans who can’t make it to see me live, a way to be part of the Euphoria experience,” added the singer.

“We’re committed to continuing to bring players new reasons to play the games they love,” Scott Koenigsberg, Zynga’s director of business strategy for CityVille said, adding “through this partnership with Enrique, we’re bringing his Euphoria Tour to CityVille and giving fans and players a fun and playful way to connect with the artist by celebrating his lifestyle and hobbies — think Miami, speedboats, and airplanes”. The game featuring the Spanish star’s avatar will be available up to Oct 10.

This is the first appearance of an artist on the game, though Zynga had a previous association with Lady Gaga for the FarmVille game, on which players could unlock songs of the album Born This Way. According to The New York Times, Zynga entered into a partnership with Gaga, giving fans early access to the singer’s music just by playing the Facebook games. “I want to celebrate and share Born This Way with my little monsters in a special way that’s never been done before,” Gaga had stated earlier. 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2011.