THE BOSS AS DIVA LIVE

DIANA ROSS - LIVE IN CONCERT at the RiverRock *** 1/2
Friday, May 23, 2008

Ms. Diana Ross was most certainly the boss on her first of two evenings in Vancouver. The gracdfully aging diva, 64, still looking great after all of these years, may have lost some of her vocal chops but has managed to retain her fierce ability to control her enthralled audiences every step of the way. The RiverRock was her venue on Friday and she clearly owned both her fans and the night. Captivating from start to finish, Ross carefully whisked her way through a succession of hits from her early Supremes chart toppers through her numerous memorable solo hits. It made no difference if she could hit every note or not. After all she gave it her all.

During the proceedings Ms. Ross went through five costume changes in a tight, barely ninety-minute show that, at least seemed to have had an impromptu finale in which Ms. Ross engaged in conversation with her fans. Each tightly fitting regal costume draped with a boa or some other accessory seemed to introduce yet another segment of songs from her long-standing career. The last costume – in gold, no less, covered her now bustier body if for only one song. In these costumes, by virtue, Ms. Ross has proven that J-Lo has nothing on her derriere.

She soon begun her concert by covering five Supremes numbers including STOP IN THE NAME OF LOVE, WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO and LOVE CHILD. Later, her bigger numbers included LOVE HANGOVER, TOUCH ME IN THE MORNING, AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH & WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE.

Yet, proportionally she did mostly concentrate on THE BOSS album, giving funky new arrangements to the likes of the title song as well as IT’S MY HOUSE, audience favourite UPSIDE DOWN and her opening number I’M COMING OUT, which all but declared her sense of humour and fan base. Of course it made sense since these songs naturally lend themselves to sing-along, dancing crowds and thunderous applause. Considering how they were not necessarily highlights in her career, it is interesting that Ross, regardless, chose to concentrate on these late-disco era numbers. Perhaps she knows her crowd – a mix of gay men, yuppies and baby boomers – all too well.

And for that she deserves credit. After all she has been around for forty-five years and her extensive song catalogue makes it difficult to please all people all of the time. Hence, Ross chose the formula that works best for a live crowd that cheers her on enthusiastically, and that they did in full force. Nary an empty seat, the crowd was responsive.

Ms. Ross best carried her tunes when singing the blues in her two-number tribute to Lady Day and the movie LADY SINGS THE BLUES that jump-started Ross’ own short but legendry film career. Another highlight was the theme song from Mahagony, DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING TO? She even threw in an unnecessarily proud rendition of EASE ON DOWN THE ROAD from her flop musical THE WIZ but mostly for a costume change transition.

By the end of the affair, Ms. Ross ended with her upbeat version of Gloria Gaynor’s I WILL SURVIVE, reminding us of why she still sells out her venues. And while not her song, she did cover it in one of her last albums, suggesting that along with her very large set of natural black curls, which she kept trying to control throughout the show, Ms. Ross herself will stand the test of time through a career retrospective worthy of few legends in our lifetime.