Anita Baker just sold out her return Vegas residency

BITCH!

Anita is still a hugely influential artist despite being out of the spotlight for some time, and being hard to work with.

Most R&B artists that came after her in the 80s, 90s and beyond were usually mega-fans of Anita. And her fans are mostly middle-aged or old now so 1k is not breaking the bank for them

I'm sure Miss Warwick is seething right now. Isn't she doing a Vegas residency as well? I'm sure it will flop just like all her other ventures!

She’s an amazing talent. Good for her.

Stunning singer.

^ Was trying to link this clip of "No One in the World".

^^ Double Oops, I guess.

Oprah & Gayle will be in the front row- with a backstage invitation.

What does Retired from the Plantation in her bio mean?

She was a monster diva in her day. Everybody hated her.

I just love how her Twitter handle looks like she's shouting at everyone:

"I AM ANITA BAKER!!!"

R5 and R6... my favorite song of hers...

Now, i'm wondering, when oh when will SADE return!...

Where is she playing in Vegas, the bus station? Her “sell out” crowd is just a bunch of Chinese tourists getting off their bus for a bathroom break.

This would explain those rumors I heard about her covering MY hit- Walk on By, during her “concert”.

They sure are, Anita. Right on by to the bathrooms on the left, you crazy bitch.

I love a lot of her early stuff.

My favorite single of hers was the last hit she had....Body and Soul. That note at 3:25.......SANG IT, BITCH!

She did a few dates at the Wynn before the pandemic and was so difficult to work with that they never invited her back and they've had Diana Ross there.

Sadly, she's just not that well known anymore. The fact that many of the tickets are in the hands of resellers is not a good sign.

These youngins have taste, honey!

I thought she had officially retired.

I thought her voice was gone and that's why she retired a couple years ago. Somebody here put a clip up of her making the audience sing because she couldn't do it. Am I imagining that?

[quote]Sadly, she's just not that well known anymore.

I would imagine that most people under 40 don't really know who she is. She stopped recording new music quite a long time ago. Without looking it up, I think her last studio album was in the early/mid 90s.

Debby Boone has a sold-out residency coming up at the Ticonderoga.

I’d go see Baker. Everyone says she incredible live

I remember seeing her on Mo'Nique's short-lived talk show and she sounded like shit.

She always came across as a bitch and her reputation seems to support that.

Didn't she and Jill Scott get into it once?

R9

For you!

Massive cunt

Anita Baker cancelled out on being on Oprah's show 3 times in a row at the last minute and Oprah was so pissed that she said on air that she would never invite or have Anita on her show again.

R15 "Sadly, she's just not that well known anymore"

Incorrect

R15 Any links to that Wynn problem - never heard that

Prove it R26. She will always have some cache for her soft muzak-y sound but she hasn't had a hit in years and even though Rapture is one of my favorite records, the singles are no longer on regular rotation on oldies stations.

[quote] Didn't she and Jill Scott get into it once?

YES! We rehearsed "Sweet Love" as a duet at one of those VH1 concert benefit thingies. But the bitch kept singing in the wrong key and got offended when I tried to school her. I ended up canceling the whole thing and took the next flight back to Michigan. Fucking linebacker! It's why I REFUSE to do duets with other singers--they don't act right!

R25 "Oprah was so pissed that she said on air that she would never invite or have Anita on her show again."

Any link to Oprah saying that on air?

Anita and Luther Vandross toured together in the late 80s and they fucking hated each other.

R28 Over a million monthly listeners on spotify seems fairly well known

She was smart to announce it just when people started getting their tax returns. Sweet Love = Sweet Money in the Bank

Maybe those who were planning to see Adele will now see Anita.

Diana Ross has over 7 million on Spot. Sade has 5 million. Chaka Khan 4 million. Hell, even Jill Scott has over 1 million and more than Baker.

R35 Cool - all very well known people, it seems

I thought that Regina Belle would become the new Anita Baker once Anita stepped away from music, but her career never took off, even with the big Disney hit "A Whole New World."

I'm probably the only person who still remembers Regina Belle.

Regina Belle has more than Baker as well and Regina isn't that well known either. Actually Jill Scott isn't well known either.

R38 You seem obsessed. Cool, we get it, she's not as well known as other people. Awesome.

Anita Baker was an answer in today's WSJ crossword. She is having a moment!

R39, it's a simple fact that some fans can't get over. She had her day and it's over. You posted facts and I challenged them and you can't take it. This is DL.

Jill Scott has a loyal fan base and she is also an actress, which probably helps her numbers.

R41 You're funny

Bitch could sang....but I'd rather pop in her Greatest Hits CD at this point.

I saw her in concert at Staples Center in Dec 2019 and she was fucking unbelievable! She worked the crowd over and then she worked us over 10 more time that same evening! One of the best shows I saw that year. Fyi, I went to 48 concerts that year.

Agree r45, that show was awesome... and it was supposed to be one of her last shows... but she's back... hope to see her again... so fun.

Anita has something most artist can't buy and that is AUHENTICITY. Even though whitney was the more poppy singer and had a more beautiful voice, Anita never sold out. Black audiences still adorned Anita even when that sound of music played out. And she was popular enough that the coastal white upper echelon bought her records as well making her legacy survived. I'm happy for her. If Canadian Celine can sell out Vegas continously, so should Anita.

I think people forget that when Rapture came out, it was HUGE. It's still a great album. Rapture is truly one of the best-sounding albums of the '80s. Anita was able to stand out with that voice and that smooth, lush sound. She was able to stand out from the competition like Whitney, Janet, and Madonna and she's had a loyal fan base for years. She's also active on social media, which helps her profile.

This bitch? Her??! OMG, I've had more hits than this Anita Bryant/Baker/whatever person! LMAO!

Look, Anita Baker was the sound of the 90s. That whole album was amazing. I love her.

To compare her to Sade is ridiculous. Sade has a voice and a style not many can top. I can listen to her albums for days. They are compelling.

Anita who?

I'd rather see Anita POINTER.

I saw her "final" farewell tour in 2018. She was excellent. I'd see her again. But not sure how much I'd pay.

I wonder what her voice sounds like now.

I don’t know this person but I think Vegas has a talent drought at the moment and anyone can swoop in and sell tickets at the moment.

Love her. I know that she did not get along with Luther, but to be fair, Luther locked horns with En Vogue, Dionne and Aretha. Anita is known to be a perfectionist, but the end result is something that her fans will remember.

I loved “The Wrong Man” from her uneven “Rythym of Love” CD.

I think she was THE soundtrack to Saturday morning house cleaning for a lot of black kids now in their 20s and 30s.

I met her once at a charity event (she was there to sing "Sweet Love") and she was an absolute nightmare. Was rude to the volunteers, kept making demands, and in the end she only sang about 45 seconds of the song. There were also much bigger celebrities at this event who were more generous and less obnoxious.

I still love her records, but probably wouldn't pay to see her after that experience. I enjoyed the version of 'Blue Skies' she did on the Jools Holland show.

Something tells me Luther Vandross was the biggest diva of them all.

She bummed a cigarette from me at the Detroit airport in 1990.

Anita smoked? Didn't know that.

The album version of "Fairy Tales" (not the criminally truncated radio edit) will transport you to the magical world of the Brothers Grimm then, without warning, unexpectedly drop you into the harsh reality of the present world. Absolute genius!

Looks like The Venetian

Like Stephanie Mills, Anita has a short neck. This has an effect on the way she sounds. They both have deep, throaty voices.

Anita is like true artiste, not just a singer.

[quote] Like Stephanie Mills, Anita has a short neck. This has an effect on the way she sounds. They both have deep, throaty voices.

except that Mills doesn't have a deep, throaty voice...

Stephanie Mills has a squeaky mouse voice.

Anita has a short neck. Stub neck. No deep throat.

They better serve coffee to all the concert goers because the fall asleep if they don’t

Anita was/is such a Sade wannabe.

^ They're nothing alike, r70. Their music is like night and day, not even the same genre. It's always funny how white people always think blacks are a monolith.

^ Also, Anita's first album was two years before Sade's.

R71, eat it.

I'm white and I can tell you Anita and Sade are nothing alike

R50, Rapture was released in 1986 not the ‘90s.

And the production sounds dated today.

My only complaint is that I can’t always understand her (lyrics).

Plenty of Room

Rapture still sounds great today. It's also an album that was well-recorded and well-mastered. Anita's songs still have a lush sound that sounds great today.

Is she a drag Queen? Her name sounds like a joke, as in: I’m having a pastry crisis: Anita Baker!

Rapture is crap. Too much filler.

Big deal, so she sold out the VFW Meeting Room at a Golden Coral…….

This caviar tastes like cat shit- and the champagne is burnt.

There's a way she structures her songs that she often turns the bridges into vocal, lyrical and emotional climaxes that just gives me chills. A good example is "No One to Blame" from "Compositions".

I think that Compositions is her best work, actually.

[quote]I'm white and I can tell you Anita and Sade are nothing alike

r74, no need for the qualifier, anyone with ears knows they sound nothing alike.

Well, Stephanie sounds throaty when she hits her lower register. And she and Anita both have this unique vibrato to their voices.

If you want someone that sounds like Anita, the closest I think of would be Regina Belle, not Sade. Listening to this masterpiece just makes me sad at the state of black female singers today.

She real ghetto

Sade paved the way for Anita’s success back then

R87 She’s close or better than Anita

[quote]Sade paved the way for Anita’s success back then

Which is amazing because Anita was a thing before Sade.

Anita was unknown before Sade.

R91 Anita’s first album wasn’t a big success. Then along came Sade. It paved the way for Anita’s Rapture album

Bitch stole my song and I did it better.

For real Anita’s fan, who covered Sweet love on an album ?

Sweet Love is a classic.

Anita's "Rapture" was huge at the time. Huge!

I was 10. My parents, who grew up in Motown's heyday and loved '60s/'70s R&B and Aretha, et. al., played that album constantly for years.

I'm not sure MTV played Anita's videos, but VH-1 did incessantly. Anita was the new Aretha, in everyone's estimation.

Weirdly, my parents had no time for Aretha's comeback around the same time. Too poppy for them, I guess. I liked it.

Freeway of Love was a massive hit for Aretha in the 80s. But my family felt the same way about Who's Zoomin' Who. They considered it a sellout album, and she went too Pop. Many of the major black artists from the 60s saw Tina Turner's success with Private Dancer and used the same formula. It worked because it gave a lot of them (Aretha, Dionne, Patti, Gladys, .etc) their biggest success on the Hot 100.

Aretha was threatened by Anita Baker, according to that unauthorized biography.

[quote] Anita’s first album wasn’t a big success. Then along came Sade. It paved the way for Anita’s Rapture album.

She ain't paved shit for me! Angel was a top-five hit on the R&B charts. Alls I did on Rapture was lean more towards Jazz and Quiet Storm. I perfected the sound I established on The Songstress.

And the only woman who ever paved the way for me was The Divine One, Miss Sarah Lois Vaughan!

[quote]I was 10. My parents, who grew up in Motown's heyday and loved '60s/'70s R&B and Aretha, et. al., played that album constantly for years.

My father used to listen to Anita Baker.

I rediscovered her as an adult and it has always been a dream of mine to see her.

By the time I was old enough to and had a job of my own she retired. Glad to see she's back again. I just wish I had of kept tabs on this because I would have paid out the ass to go.

Miki Howard on Anita Baker’s attitude 5.44

^ Yikes! But that story is consistent with others about Anita from back then. She was not friendly with, and couldn't compliment, any black female singers at the time except Whitney. She hated everyone and famously clashed with Luther Vandross during their tour.

I slimmed down, sounding better than ever, and have a sold out Vegas residency.

De'Andre Warlock could NEVAH!

I like her music but she is a boring performer. she has been known to fall asleep while singing on stage - standing up!

WTF is she wearing in R103’s video? Also, people who sing at the top of their lungs at a concert should be sent to prison. This isn’t your bathroom after 4 glasses of cheap rosé, you inconsiderate cunts.

Saw her in concert in 1995 or 96 when she was on tour and I guess I was on the receiving end of some of her diva behavior. I think she was over 2hours late to open, sang about 30 minutes and then peaced out. No reason. Vowed to never give her another penny of my money! So there!

R106 = Bitter, hangry ass Oprah Winfrey. Still bitter that I canceled her show numerous times and refused to appear on it.

[quote]De'Andre Warlock could NEVAH!

Miss Warwick has sold 10x more records than Anita.

That schmattas she’s wearing @ r103 looks like ass. Same with the hairdo.