Last night I had the pleasure of seeing the legendary Dionne Warwick live in concert for the first time.
She performed in Harpa, Reykjavik to a sold out crowd. The lady flew in from Dubai (where she did a private concert) on Sunday. She decided to arrive earlier then originally decided so she could rest well for the concert. Little did she know that she would be unable to sleep because of the bright summer nights in Iceland - she mentioned to reporters that the first night she only managed to sleep for one hour.
I must admit that I was slightly worried that the Miss Warwick might not deliver vocally. She is after all 72 years old now and we all know what usually happens to voices as people get older. Despite my worries, I decided that just seeing her and hear some of her back catalog live would be worth it.
We had fabulous seats (with the former prime minister and her wife sitting behind us). The completely sold out concert started at 20:00, and Miss Warwick did not make her guests wait. She stepped onto the stage, talked a bit to the audience and then launched into a medley of some of her most famous early hits. What followed was 90 minutes that flew by! Early on she performed the night's biggest crowd pleaser, "Heartbreaker" (and boy was I pleased!). Then there was a wonderful, laid back jazz version of "Alfie", a section dedicated to Brazil which included "Do You Know The Way To San Jose", more classics like "I Say A Little Prayer", "I Know I'll Never Love This Way Again" (hurrah!) and "What The World Needs Now". She finished with "That's What Friends Are For".
The whole show was quite fantastic - but for me, "Heartbreaker", "Alfie", "I Know I'll Never Love This Way Again" and the whole Brazil section were the highlights for me. A real highlight was also when she did two new tracks from her Now album (released last year). I had not gotten around to buy it but it is now at the top of my list - great songs which sounded fabulous live!
So, how was the lady? Her voice is of course lower then it used to be and she can't hit all the notes she once could. But I thought she was great! She performed very well, clearly loved to perform some of the older songs in new arrangements, had a blast during the Brazil section and put everything into the newer recordings. Very classy, humorous, gracious and looking quite fine for a lady in her 80s, she brought a sense of some "old school" showmanship you don't see that often. So, despite both of us having a touch of flu we had a great time and I think the same can be said for the rest of her audience last night. She performed pretty much everything the general audience could have wanted (although I personally would have loved to hear "Deja Vu" and "All The Love In The World" as well).
The only downpoint of the show was when she brought out her granddaughter. She travels with Dionne and has for years and sings at her concerts. Now, she seemed like a nice and talented girl and she sounded great on a couple of duets with her grandmother. But her solo song completely put me to sleep. Waaaay too Idol/X-Factor/Voice/whatever for my taste, and to add insult to injury the song she did was godawful (I'm told it's a bloody Rihanna song, so no wonder!). But that's a small complaint, considering that the rest was really quite fabulous!
Now, the Galaxy always enjoys a good retrospective ;) So here is a look back at the albums and some of the key singles Miss Warwick has released during her 50 (!) years in show business. I look forward to her new album, out later this year, which she has been doing with Earth, Wind & Fire.
ALBUMS
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SINGLES
