Soul Divas Tour-Dionne Warwick,Whitney & Natalie

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warbachavid
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Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:30 pm

Soul Divas Tour-Dionne Warwick,Whitney & Natalie

Post by warbachavid »

Whitney Houston, Dionne Warwick and Natalie Cole: the 'Soul Divas' are that! In Hamburg, the three for the first time stood jointly on a stage. For approximately three hours the singers performed in the sold out Color Line Arena and dazzeled with solo entrances, two duets, and finally as a trio. To the highpoints of the evening was 'I Will Always Love You' from Whitney Houston and Dionne Warwicks 'That's What Friends Are For'. Further already sold out concerts in Munich and other Arena stops in Germany.
warbachavid
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Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:30 pm

Post by warbachavid »

PeopleNews

Whitney Houston Returns in Own 'Divas' Show

Thursday Jul 08, 2004 8:00am EST
By Courtney Rubin and Stephen M. Silverman
Whitney Houston
CREDIT: FRANK MICELOTTA/GETTY

Officially, Wednesday night's concert in Hamburg, Germany, was billed as the "Soul Divas": Dionne Warwick, Natalie Cole and Whitney Houston. But by evening's end, reports PEOPLE, the show belonged to Houston.

The sellout crowd of 12,000 at the town's Colorline Arena cheered loudest when Houston, 40, appeared onscreen in video clips shown between sets by Warwick – who is Houston's aunt – and then Cole, 55, who followed the 62-year-old "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" singer on the program.

Two hours into the show, when Houston finally appeared onstage, the crowd rose to its feet.

"It's been such a long time since I performed in Germany – too long, thank you," the six-time Grammy winner told fans. "It's been such a long time since I performed, period," she added with a shrug.

The singer, who spent time in a substance-abuse facility in March and has not toured since 1999, was dressed in a figure-hugging silvery-gray corseted gown that she had to keep pulling up. At one point, Houston asked Warwick to entertain the audience while she scurried offstage to adjust her dress as several security guards blocked her from public view.

"No, the people didn't pay enough for that," Warwick hooted as she caught sight of what Houston was doing.

Joked Houston as she returned center stage: "We're not gonna do a Janet Jackson here in Germany."

The show was, as Warwick called it, "a trip down memory lane" for all three singers. Houston's husband, Bobby Brown, escorted her on and offstage and watched from a seat in stage left as his wife delivered her greatest hits, including "How Will I Know" and "Saving All My Love."

She also pulled Brown into the spotlight for a few steps during her rendition of "I Wanna Dance with Somebody." She closed her set by kneeling in the center of the stage, as if in prayer, before suddenly popping up and blowing kisses goodbye.

She returned 15 minutes later for a finale with Cole and Warwick – the only time all three "soul divas" appeared together. Their song: "That's What Friends Are For."

The German mini-tour will continue Friday in Munich, and on July 22 Houston will make her Chinese debut in Shanghai.
warbachavid
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Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:30 pm

Post by warbachavid »

Saturday, July 10, 2004 (Hamburg):


For years blighted by speculation of drug addiction, alcohol abuse and a fiery marriage to Bobby Brown, it is no surprise that some fans doubted whether Whitney Houston would even take part in the current "Soul Divas" tour of Germany.

But last night all those rumours were washed away as the 40-year-old star joined Dionne Warwick and Natalie Cole at the Color Line Arena in Hamburg for a triumphant return to the big time.

The star, who has sold over 150 million records, seemed trouble free as she performed some of her most popular hits, such as I Wanna Dance With Somebody and How Will I know.

But the biggest cheer of the night came after her performance of I Will Always Love You.

Houston's cousin Dionne Warwick also put on an impressive show. The 63-year-old delighted the audience with classic hits like Anyone Who Had A Heart and or I'll Never Fall in Love Again.

The most emotional act of the night was put on by 54-year-old Natalie Cole. The star sang Unforgettable in a duet with her late father Nat King Cole, aided by the use of digital technology.

The trio ended the three hour show with a performance of That's What Friends Are For - a heart-warming finale to a spectacular night.

But the undoubted star of the evening was Whitney Houston who showed that despite her problems, her voice is as impressive as ever and she can still put on a class show. (AP)
warbachavid
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Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:30 pm

Post by warbachavid »

warbachavid
Posts: 268
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:30 pm

Post by warbachavid »

GehVorbei

Post by GehVorbei »

Dionne,Whitney and Ms Natalie Cole together in concert last night

It´s the morning after the concert in Oberhausen that ran about 4 hours last night and ended shortly before midnight with Dionne, Whitney and Natalie performing That´s What Friends Are For as an encore to an extremely, friendly and supportive sellout crowd of 15000 (mostly gay men, it seemed :-)) that also included Ms. Cissy Houston. I want to give you a quick report on what went on now and might return to give you some extra details later.

All in all it was musically a very mixed bag but emotionally and as human drama it certainly was a night to remember. Based on the reviews from the Hamburg and Munich shows earlier in the week the performances must have varied extremely from night to night. Dionne got glowing notices in Hamburg and Munich and was vocally painfully strained and hoarse last night, the worst I´ve ever seen her. While Whitney who had triumphed in Hamburg and was described as unable to really get through any song in Munich because of a constant shortness of breath, hitting the wrong notes, forgetting the words etc. gave a performance that was vocally solid and musically more interesting and more Houston/Drinkard in some parts than when I last saw her in concert 7 or 8 years ago.

Dionne opened the set with a decent Close To You and then went into an interestingly "deconstructed" version of Walk On By that had hints of Isaac Hayes´ take of the song and was sung in a higher key again than what we heard from Dionne recently. Maybe the changes in tempo and phrasing made it easier for Dionne to do it in a higher key again, I dont´t know. From Walk On By on what followed was stiched together in a medley that was ok for the occasion but totally lacked the spectacle of the past medleys .There was none of the "one second she is still doing one song and the next she´s already in the middle of the next" grandezza we know from the past. The medley also included AWHAH, This Girl...,ISALP that generated the biggest response from the audience (it very much seemed to me that in this country people consider it totally a DW song and not an Aretha song) and a terrible take on WTWNN where she actually tried to have the audience do some of the singing for her, but when that turned out lackluster she didn´t do much herself either, it sort of just died...After that came I Never Love This Way Again and it was a first time for me to see her struggle on that one and after that she closed with Heartbreaker on which she was greatly aided by a tumultous response from the audience that clapped and cheered and sang along so loud that Dionne just had to make it through to finish her set.

After her came Natalie Cole who looked and moved like she was a robot on remote control with a strange empty gaze that made my neighbor turn to me and say: "Oh god, Whitney got the other two ladies to do drugs with her". The set was ok, but I hadn´t really thought about how little of a catalogue of her own she really has and while she has a pleasant, jazzy instrument she is no patti who can make up for her limited own material by instantly making other people´s songs her own.

And then came a Whitney that looked pleasantly middle-aged with a little bid of extra weight, a very obvious wig, a slightly tacky sequinned gown and all in all the mannerisms of Dame Shirley Bassey. But also with totally the vocal power and the control of such a diva. Giving very safe but self-assured readings of You Give Good Love, The Greatest Love Of All, Saving All My Love etc...Material that was always a bit MOR, seemed now totally devoid of any soul but was performed with a still powerful voice.

And then, and at that point totally unexpected for me, two stunning and brilliant things happened, that I will never forget:

Dionne returned to the stage and Whitney suddenly unexpectably seemed very human and very real and very young again and full of obvious love and admiration for her first cousin when they then performed two duets together. As a real treat "Wishin´and Hopin´", a song Whitney said she had loved since she was a little girl and one Dionne claimed she hated, which they performed with wonderful humor making fun of the slightly naive lyrics and a Dionne that sounded, if you closed your eyes, like 63 - 1963. I don´t know what happened in that moment that made it so different from the rest of the evening, but she did.

And then came Alfie, where they battled it out, and you got a glimpse of how Whitney as a musician has somewhere deep down actually matured - not just aged - and how the difficulties of the last years have improved her ability to interpret brilliant music and brilliant lyrics...Just wonderful, with Dionne still coming out on top...I´m pretty sure we are going to hear this one on record pretty soon.

And the second brilliant thing that then happpened, after Dionne had left the stage again, was Whitney performing a bit of gospel music for a couple of minutes. But not in a I turn every song I sing into a Whitney Houston song regardless of where the material comes from sort of way, like it was on The Preacher´s Wife soundtrack or on the awful Christmas album, but very, very much as Cissy´s daughter. Genuine, mature, musically brilliant...as an obvious heir to Aretha, Mavis, Cissy, everybody...Just incredible...

And that was that. And I think I actually now told you everything you might want to know...and maybe more.

Greetings from Düsseldorf,
Andreas
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