Kids in Renton were treated to a magical performance on a recent Thursday.

Marco Cortes, a youth singer and entertainer, held a free public concert on July 18 at Liberty Park, singing childhood classics while teaching important topics for young children.

“It’s entertainment, but it’s teaching too. Numbers, colors, everything is so special for little kids,” Cortes said. “I love singing special songs for little kids, folk songs, traditional songs and my own songs too. The kids learn from my music.”

Cortes was born in Santiago, Chile, graduated from the University of Chile in 1982 and moved to Washington in 2000. He has been a children’s entertainer at libraries, daycares and schools for decades now and incorporated his upbringing into the show.

Cortes talked about his home country and their native language of Spanish. At Liberty Park, he performed songs in Spanish to educate the children about another language, as he strongly believes in the importance of being bilingual.

“For the brain, being bilingual is Fantastic!” said Cortes. “I recommend for all people to speak their own language and another language.”

He dove deeper into why learning another language, especially at a young age, is incredibly important

“It’s a very good exercise for the brain,” said Cortes. “You need to speak two times; you need to think two times. You say one two three, and you are also thinking uno, dos, tres. You see one color and say red and then think rojo in Spanish.”

In addition to Spanish, Cortes also sang in Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Italian, and countless other languages, saying “hello” and “goodbye” allowing the kids to hear languages from all over the world.

This show continued Renton’s Family Fun Entertainment Series, which will be followed by Mikey the Red Scientist at Heritage Park on Aug. 2, Chikiri & the School of Taiko drumming at Kiwanis Park on Aug. 7 and Family Dance Party with Eli Rosenblatt at Tiffany Park on Aug. 8.

Photos by Max Burchi/Sound Publishing