While the last drops of a storm fall on Milan, finally making the summer temperatures more bearable, a long queue accompanies the public's entry into the arena. An authentic icon of disco music is about to arrive on stage: GLORIA GAYNOR, an artist who has inextricably linked her name to a handful of songs that have entered the history of music.
GLORIA-GAYNOR-Concert-review-and-live-setlist-Milan
Accompanying the American singer, now eighty-two years old, is an extraordinary band, elegantly dressed in black, flanked by a large dance troupe but used only in some moments of the show.
It is the band itself that opens the evening with an instrumental piece that represents the real key to understanding the entire concert. More than a celebration of disco music in its glossier guise, what is proposed is a return to its origins: the meeting point between soul, funk, R&B and black music, enriched by the first electronic contaminations which, between the mid and late seventies, gave birth to a genre destined to conquer the world.
Musical reference material
After the introduction comes the protagonist's moment. Presented with emphasis by the musicians, Gloria Gaynor makes her entrance to applause and immediately starts singing. Despite the inevitable support of technology, his voice still retains personality and authority, even though it no longer reaches the power and range of his best years. But that's okay!!!
But one is still struck by the vitality of the performance, by the ability to perform the songs tightly. Only on a few occasions does Gaynor leave the stage, leaving room for the singers or sitting aside while they become the protagonists.
The atmosphere warms up immediately. Many spectators are unable to remain seated and approach the stage to dance, also giving rise to some discussions with those who would prefer to follow the concert from the comfort of their own seat. In the end order prevails, but the desire to transform the arena into a dance floor speaks well of the evocative power of this repertoire.
From a musical point of view, the concert convinces above all thanks to the quality of the band. Funk guitars, pulsating bass and a brilliant horn section build a warm and groove-rich sound, in which the typical electronic component of disco deliberately remains in the background. The result is a show that looks above all to the roots of black American music.
The lineup alternates the inevitable classics with numerous reinterpretations. The anthem to freedom “I Am What I Am” is not missing, accompanied by covers ranging from Barry White to the recent “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” by Olivia Dean. There is also room for Adele, played by one of the backing singers, for Sia and for an always exciting “Killing Me Softly”, the famous song brought to success by Roberta Flack in 1973 and relaunched in 1996 by the Fugees, or by the “rival” Donna Summer (whose “Last Dance” she reinterprets) or the rockers Creedence Clearwater Revival (with the classic “Proud Mary”)
There is also a look at the present, with a song taken from the most recent repertoire of the singer, born Gloria Fowles. But it is inevitably when the great classics arrive that the public explodes. The conclusion entrusted to “I Will Survive”, an authentic manifesto of disco music published in 1978, transforms the arena into a huge collective dancefloor. In the encores there is space for the very long “Can't Take My Eyes Off You”, (known more as “I Love You Babe”) in the famous version made popular by Gloria Gaynor in the early nineties, a reinterpretation of the classic recorded by Frank Valli in 1967.
Gloria Gaynor brings above all herself to the stage: her history, her roots and musical passions and that black culture from which everything originated. He does this by crossing his repertoire but also by rereading contemporary songs with a profoundly soul and funk language, demonstrating curiosity and a desire to dialogue with the new generations without distorting his own identity.
He is an icon for whom the public inevitably forgives some personal limitations. At eighty-two, he retains a surprising vitality and continues to perform with enthusiasm, without transforming the concert into a simple nostalgic operation. On the contrary, his show appears alive, authentic and still capable of conveying the meaning of a music that, at the time of its birth, was revolutionary and often misunderstood.
Among the audience there are many spectators who lived through the golden years of disco music, but also children dragged by their parents, as well as several young people who arrived spontaneously to see a legend live.
After all, more than just attending a concert, in Milan we saw an authentic piece of music history take the stage.
Review by Luca Trambusti for musicadalpalco.com (Click to read the entire article)
THE LADDER
Overture (Instrumental by the band with dance troupe)
Going Out Of My Head
Never Can Say Goodbye
You're The First, The Last, My Everything (Barry White cover)
I Am What I Am
Happy Tears (with dance troupe)
Beautiful
Rolling In The Deep (Adele cover) (backing vocalist)
Unstoppable (Sia cover)
Killing Me Softly (Roberta Flack cover)
Like I'm Gonna Lose You (cover by Meghan Trainor)
When I See You
Talkin' 'bout Jesus
So Easy (to Fall In Love) (Olivia Dean cover)
Proudymary (cover Creedence Clearwater Revival) (with backing vocalist Melinda)
Last Dance (Donna Summer cover)
I Will Survive (with dance troupe)
Encore
Can't Take My Eyes Off You (cover by Frank Valli)
THE FESTIVAL
MUSIC PARK MILAN
JUNE 30 – MAC DEMARCO
JULY 8 – FIVE
9 JULY – BOY GEORGE & CULTURE CLUB
JULY 12 – BELLE AND SEBASTIAN
JULY 13 – VULFPECK
JULY 14 – PIXIES
15 JULY – CAPAREZZA
JULY 21 – DOGS
JULY 23 – GROSS
25 AUGUST – DJO
SEPTEMBER 1 – HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES
7 SEPTEMBER – GEMITAIZ
8 SEPTEMBER – NEGRAMARO
9 SEPTEMBER – LEVANTE
11 SEPTEMBER – MANNARINO
