Katie Melua's performance of 'Diamonds are Forever'
Shady Tree
London, UKPosts: 2,966MI6 Agent
Katie Melua's mesmerising performance of 'Diamonds are Forever' for The Don Black Songbook concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London on 03.10.2013, subsequently broadcast for TV, was the highlight of the evening. Melua's simple, plaintive acoustic guitar accompaniment helped put the emphasis on the lyrics - an appropriate emphasis, since the evening was a tribute to Don Black rather than to John Barry. Following on from a full-throttle orchestral accompaniment to Eliza Doolittle's performance of 'The Man With The Golden Gun', Melua's one-girl-with-her-guitar rendition of 'DAF' was a surprising, wonderful choice. Her performance suggests the pain of a woman turning her back on love in favour of the cold, pure beauty of diamonds (and whatever they may represent) - this pain and sense of loss being elements of the song always implicit but never before foregrounded with such impact. The occasional smuttiness of the lyrics is transcended by the fine emotion. From my Bond fan's perspective, I'd thought that Marc Almond's performance of 'Thunderball' would be the most enjoyable of the concert (Almond's weird Soft Cell persona having fun with the latent homoeroticism of a song in which one guy belts out how great another guy is? - it's a shame Almond wimps out of that notorious final note which caused Tom Jones to faint at the end of the original recording!), but that was before Melua took to the stage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOG3lUM2ZtY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1qHy1G3_EI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOG3lUM2ZtY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1qHy1G3_EI
Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
Comments
lovely mellow version.
Never heard of her before, but what a beautiful voice! I'd like to see what she would do with a theme to a new Bond film.
with her pop 'n' roll music.
Get off my porch, you meddlin' kids!