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Anita Baker on Tour
Anita Baker has brought grace and class to every performance since her teenage days honing her three-octave vocal range at Detroit nightclubs. After gaining more experience on the stage with the Detroit funk band Chapter 8, she set off on a solo career in the early 1980s.
She hit it big with such romantic classics as "Sweet Love" and took the world by storm, starting with her first headlining stint, The Rapture Tour, in 1986. Over the next decade, Baker kept conquering the charts as well as stages around the world, until 1994-95's Rhythm of Love tour.
After a long hiatus, she came back strong in 2004 after signing to Blue Note Records, and she became a regular on the road once again. In January 2018, she announced her retirement, but not before saying goodbye with a bang with her hugely successful Farewell Concert Series tour.
Anita Baker Background
One of the great masters of quiet-storm slow jams, Anita Baker has long been a dependable voice for soft sophistication and everlasting romance. Born in 1958 in Toledo, Ohio, but raised in Detroit, Baker found her passion at a young age, performing in gospel choirs, then singing at local clubs and performing in various bands, including funk band Chapter 8.
It took some time — and persuasion from Beverly Glen Records label head Otis Smith — before she pursued a solo career. She recorded her debut album, The Songstress, in 1983. Three years later, she hit her stride with her sophomore album, Rapture. The release garnered a number of hits, including Grammy-winning songs "Caught Up in the Rapture" and "Sweet Love."
The following year, she earned one more Grammy, this time on track "Ain't Got No Need to Worry," a collaboration with brother quartet The Winans. The hits kept coming with Baker's 1988 album, Giving You the Best That I Got, which landed on the top of the Billboard charts and earned her more Grammys for Best Female R&B Vocal and Best R&B Song.
Baker would continue to dominate R&B into the next decade, starting with 1990's Compositions, followed by Rhythm of Love in 1994. From that point on, Baker took a break to focus on family, and it wasn't until a decade later that she returned with her next album, 2004's My Everything and then a holiday release, Christmas Fantasy.
The next decade saw another Grammy nomination, this time for Best Traditional R&B Performance with 2012's Tyrese cover "Lately." In 2018, she was honored with the BET Lifetime Achievement Award. That same year, Baker announced her retirement — but not before selling out shows around the country for her farewell tour.
i enjoyed the show, but wish she would have come out on time. the ticket stated "show starts promptly at 8p.m." that way she could have sung more than a few songs, about 8 songs if i´m not mistaken. she came out around 8:30 and was off stage at 9:30. this was my first time seeing her live, she looked and sounded great. hope to see her again and here the many songs she did´nt sing that night.
i am a long time fan,and have all of her music. i have waited a long time to see her in concert again. she was her very classic sexy self. thank you anita
Rain, rain go away! Or at least until the concert is over! What started out as a great evening, quickly turned into a mediocre one at best. Due to technical difficulties ( I think), and Anita's late stage appearance, this concert was ok. After waiting in the pouring rain, I was somewhat agitated, once the concert actually began. Overall, good performance from a legend. FYI- Always go to Chastain prepared for rain- umbrella, towel, etc.- no matter what it looks like outside!
The concert was to short. The traffic around there was just crazy. Why did they schedule a concert and the fair on the same day. Cosa Mesa is not the greatest place for a concert. By the time we arrived inside the Amphitheatre after fighting all that traffic. Anita B. stated I have twenty-five more minutes to go. I said this is a JOKE right! We heard two songs and the introductions of the band members and some guy in the striped shirt. In the future never hold a concert in Costa Mesa again.
As a whole Anita was in fine form. There were a few moment of sound issues, but they finally got it in order. She did most of her hits. The real complaint is that she was forced to end the show at 9:30 pm on the nose for some reason. For the last 20 minutes she was counting down that she was being told to end at 9:30. Finally on her last song "Fairy tales" she only sang half of it and said she had to go. She said goodbye to the crowd and walked off the stage as the band played on for a moment. The curtain closed immediately and lights came on. The crowd was in shock as we were. It felt like a rip off for such a short concert from a big name entertainer. But for Anita herself, well done. One other item for this location of OC fair. Nice theater, but a BIG issue with parking. If you go there for a concert leave plenty early to find parking. I mean plenty early.
Everything about this show was great, except for the extremely strict time table the band had to work with. Anita was still going at 9:30, but suddenly stopped and said "Goodnight!" because she had to be off the stage right at 9:30, no exceptions, as far as she made it seem. I would have liked to hear a little more because she was fabulous.
Anita Baker is a fabulous performer. She sings and speaks to the audience. She gets everyone involved with her music. Most of the fans were dancing and singing along with her. She spoke to her band members and got them involved with everyone. The only disappointing moment is that she really wanted to sing longer. She kept asking how much time she had left. She was a little late coming on stage (after 8pm) but she was able to sing many songs. She was literally cut off from the last song when everyone was just getting into it. Overall she was fabulous.
The concert was excellent! Anita puts on a fantastic show. It started 25 minutes late and only lasted for 1 hour which really was not enough time for an artist of this caliber. At a minimum she should have been on stage for 2 hours. I most likely will not attend another event with her in this type of setting, however if she were to perform somewhere like the Nokia Theater in LA I would most definately be there.
the concert is is great but it would be more fun if it had been longer.
she was great, i really enjoyed myself . I look forward to seeing her again soon.
She started 15 minutes late when she knew she had a strict curfew of 1.5 hours (>15% lost time). Then she proceeded to talk way too much constantly saying they didn't have enough time. To compound this she kept insisting that they turn up the reverb (directing the sound guy on stage) when it was already so high that it was beyond annoying. Once you put all that aside, her voice was good (when you could hear it) and hearing all the great hits was a lot of fun. My recommendation is cut the gimmicks, tone down the band, and let this great lady show her stuff.
Anita has always been a good performer to me, very energetic. I was unfortunately, drained by the 58 minute ride from the fwy exit to the gate. i walked in at 8:40, got exicited by Anita's danicing trot across the stage, he went into a slow song ( i assumed tocool down as she mentioned that "we're not 12 yrs old anymore" after which she began to give us a count down "25 more minutes", "okay how much time we have now?", "15 more minutes yal!" a 3-4 minute introduction of someone who would prepare to join in her final song, through which she also counted minutes and as she performed gestured that they had to end. i left questioning if she would have been penalized for going over, or if she has gotten older and lacked the energy to do a long show.
Don't know what the scheduling mix up was, but Anita's people pulled her off at 9:30. It would have been ok (not great) if she'd started on time, however she didn't come out until 8:15 or so. She just got the crowd going and then had to leave. No real ovation or anything. Too bad. What she did perform was wonderful...just not enough!
The first 6 songs were so loud we had to leave the c oncert and we were sitting at the rear She talked alot and the overall showmanship was poor
She carried her show. She was excellent she didn't need anyone to open for her. She still has an incredible voice.
I been to here concert twice while in Atlanta and I love her shows. She sing for her fans. She gave us the best that she had.lol
I've waiting to finally see this funky goddess of love songs. Well the time had arrived as she stepped on stage at this weekend's OC Fair Ampitheater. She sounded just as great as she does on her albums...she was so energetic and her energy was contagious. You could tell she was there for us, it was our house as she put it. Only draw back was that at one point, she got the signal that she only had 25 minutes after an hour of being on stage...after an hour and a half the curtains closed on her and you could tell she fell rushed... If I get the priviledge of seeing her again, I won't do it at a Fair. She and her fans deserve much longer than an hour and half. Boooo!
Anita Baker was fabulous, there just wasn't enough of her. The set started late, at 8:20, then ended promptly at 9:30 due to noise abatement laws. The only saving point was that Ms. Baker played the song from our wedding since we were there celebrating our 20th anniversary. However, there were so many other songs we would loved to have heard. The concert was way too short.
Anita Bakers' music is timeless. And although the show started late, it was worth the wait. As she danced and sacheted acrossed the stage and brought an overwhelming energy and joy to the crowd. It reminded me of how much she deserves to be a multi-award grammy winner, so free and loving life in her own skin. And I enjoyed ever minute of it and I'm so glad that I was fortunate to be there in that time and space, sharing the passion of her music with others, because she is simply the best at what she does.
I enjoyed the show very much! What a great place to go and see your favorites perform! The only thing that put salt on the sweet time that I had was that every show ends at 9:30 p.m. on the dot! It seemed like Anita wanted to give us so much more but she was cut off due to the hopuse rules! What a bummer! But the show was still great and overall I had a great time!
