Bette Midler Releases New Album: Announces First Tour In Over A Decade
Bette Midler fans will finally be able to see the legendary songstress in concert again – The Divine Miss M announced Monday that she will be launching her first tour in more than 10 years next summer.
According to Billboard, the tour consists of 22 concerts and kicks off May 8 in Hollywood, Florida. Midler will be performing coast to coast and wrapping up in New York City on June 25.
Yahoo News reports that her promoters said Midler will also be performing in Great Britain, with dates to be announced later.
The announcement came the day before the release Bette’s 25th album – her first since 2006 – It’s The Girls! The album is an eclectic mix of songs covering girl groups from the Andrews Sisters to TLC. Midler’s stripped down version of TLC’s “Waterfalls,” hit number 5 on the Billboard Trending 140 recently.
“It’s like finding a beautiful piece of jewelry or clothing that you’ve totally forgotten about and it’s a little down-at-the-heel. You polish it up or you put some starch in it. Suddenly, it looks new again,” she said of her cover of “Waterfalls.”
The 68-year old Midler, who is best known for her ballads “The Rose” and “Wind Beneath My Wings,” says the new album is a salute to the girl group music she grew up listening to. The stage legend found it difficult to pick just a few songs from the 50 she had initially chosen. But she finally narrowed it down 17 tracks, including classics such as The Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love,” The Chordettes’ “Mr. Sandman,” and The Ronnettes’ “Be My Baby.”
“I picked the songs that had the most meaning to me,” she said. “This is the music of my generation.”
Although, according to this Inquisitr article, Midler feels that some modern pop singers such as Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga push the envelope of creativity a little too far, she says that the girl groups of the 50s and 60s put their stamp on pop music and left a lasting influence with the harmonies provide by the backup singers.
“They say behind every great man, there’s a great woman. Well, I think that behind every great woman, there should be at least two other women singing and dancing in perfect unison,” Bette wrote on her website.
On her last tour, “Kiss My Brass,” Bette sang a combination of her hits and Broadway hits. She also performed in Las Vegas from 2008 – 2010.
According to AP, Midler says she plans to take a cue from Bruno Mars on her latest tour and go simple and greener this time by minimizing the show’s ‘bells and whistles.’
“I don’t want to travel with 40 trucks. I don’t want to travel with 90 people,” said the singer. “Bruno Mars is my hero. Bruno Mars has eight trucks. If I tour, that’s how I want to tour. I don’t want the confetti cannons.”
Tickets for her North American tour go on sale November 17.
[Image via ShalomeLife]
