- Sheena Easton performed Saturday at Mount Airy Casino Resort's Event Center
- She played a mix of her 10 Top 30 hits from the 1980s, other songs from throughout her career, and covers of other songs
- In all, she played 15 songs in a 90-minute show
MOUNT POCONO, Pa. — In the 1980s, Sheena Easton was a tough-but-pixieish singer who produced 10 Top 30 hits in five years, had five gold or platinum albums and was nominated for six Grammy Awards — she won Best New Artist in 1982.
That wasn't the Sheena Easton who performed Saturday at Mount Airy Casino Resort Event Center.
This one was more mature (she has lived two-thirds of her life since then), frequently sang in a theater voice (she's starred on Broadway and London's West End) on a broader palette of songs (she's done albums of jazz and Grammy-winning Mexican-American songs).
And, it could be argued, was a much more complete performer.
"I'm very old now. It's good, now I get [senior citizen] discounts."Singer Sheena Easton, 64
Backed by a four-man band and a back-up singer, Easton performed 15 songs in precisely 90 minutes.
Wearing a sparkly blue dress with pink high heels, her once-short hair now long and red, she opened with The Doobie Brothers' "Listen to the Music" — not a great fit for her voice.
But for the second song, her Grammy-nominated Top 10 hit "Strut," Easton showed that, at 64, she still could affect the vocal squeal of her younger voice, as well as capture that attitude — literally strutting across the stage, swaying her posterior.
Addressing her age
Easton addressed her age early on, saying, "I'm very old now. It's good, now I get [senior citizen] discounts," though she said she didn't like when she automatically got them without being asked her age.
At another point, she talked about being hot up on stage and blamed it on hot flashes. "Who am I kidding?" she said. "Hot flashes — I'm over that years ago. My hormones left the building."
"Trust me, there's no new material. I haven't had a hit since the '80s."Singer Sheena Easton
But as if to prove she still had singing range, she performed her slower Top 5 hit "Almost Over You" standing at the mic and hitting its high notes. On a cover of the Roxette hit "It Must have Been Love," she sang in a "younger," chirpy voice from the 1980s. And she did a salsa dance across the stage on "Always Something There to Remind Me" — the last of what she called her "collection of songs about being dumped."
Late in the show, she also did The Emotions' "Best of My Love," which she recorded for a European dance album.
Those covers pointed out that, despite the heights Easton reached, her chart success was relatively short.
"Trust me, there's no new material," she said of her setlist. "I haven't had a hit since the '80s." (Technically, she had a Top 20 hit, "What Comes Naturally," in 1991.)
That was her introduction to a song from her 1993 "No Strings" album of jazz, which she said sold badly: "Who wants to hear Sheena Easton sing jazz and standards?" she said.
But the song, "The One I Love Belongs to Someone Else," actually fit her voice very well.
Her work with Prince
Easton spoke lovingly about her collaborations with Prince, and showed his influence on the title track from her 1988 gold album "The Lover in Me," on which she sounded more like her younger self.
The same was true on "The Arms of Orion," which she co-wrote with Prince, as her voice soared, which morphed into "Nothing Compares 2 U," the Prince-written hit for the late Sinéad O'Connor, of which Easton said she was jealous.
She said she sang it as "a nice little way to remember two gentle and talented souls who inspired us and kept us comforted at night."
"Maybe I should just put them away. Or can you all handle sexy stuff tonight?"Singer Sheena Easton
She also noted Prince "was sexy, wasn't he? And we did some sexy stuff together." She said she has gotten "some flak" for continuing to sing those songs.
"Maybe I should just put them away. Or can you all handle sexy stuff tonight?" she said, leading into a nine-minute medley of her hits "U Got the Look" and "Sugar Walls," which, indeed, are still great songs, and the Prince-written Sheila E. Song "The Glamourous Life." (She had joked that younger people in the audience might have thought she was Sheila E. — "and you will be disappointed.")
She also sang another of her duets, her second-highest-charting hit "We've Got Tonight" with Kenny Rogers, with her backing singer, Brandon Nix, and did it very well.
Hits are the best
But it clearly was Easton's 1980s hits the audience had come to hear, and that were her best. She seemed to save most for the end of her set — a good choice, her voice was warmed and powerful by then.
She started with "When He Shines," her Top 30 hit from 1981, slow and focused on her voice — it was the best performance with her "new" voice.
Then for her 1983 Top 10 hit "Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair)," she sang with intensity in her "younger" voice. (Though she jokingly said the words about phones no longer make sense.)
And she closed her main set with her biggest hit, the 1980 No. 1 "9 to 5 (Morning Train),' which she sang more theatrically, but it worked.
In a set that included covers, it was a disappointment that she skipped songs such as her first hit, 1980's "Modern Girl," and her last Top 15 hit "You Could Have Been With Me."
Easton closed the show with her 1982 hit "For Your Eyes Only," the James Bond-movie theme song that was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song.
When it was released, it was perhaps that song that showed Easton she could be more than a tough, pixieish singer. And on Saturday, it was the song that brought the younger Easton and her new self together.
