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Amazon.co.uk Review
Shirley Bassey is show business royalty and Divas Are Forever is an inspired attempt to create a documentary around a concert given during the Diamond Awards Festival in Belgium. The setting is perfect, with the Dame rising supremely above the innate vulgarity of the event. You can cut straight to the songs if you want, and you won't be disappointed: all her hits are here, from "Goldfinger" to "Big Spender". The voice is clearly one of the great instruments of popular music. She seems to regret being pigeonholed as "Bassey the belter", but her vocal chords weren't built for small rooms or smoky nightclubs. Each number is a high-octane emotional set piece in which she always stops just short of travestying her own inimitable style. The real interest, though, lies in the glimpses of the star's life on the road. There are some splendidly sticky moments that leave her flunkies dodging the barbs. The tantrum she throws during the video shoot with the Propellerheads for "History Repeating" is a gem. And the negotiations for her to be presented with a jewel as the "surprise" climax to her concert leave you with no doubt that this diva knows her own worth. --Piers Ford
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
A better title for this DVD should have been Shirley Bassey - Living Legend. Why it had to be Divas Are Forever I don't know. What you are witnessing in this film is one of the most stunning and exciting performers of all time. Her ability to express the emotions of a lyric are incredible and powerful, she sings how you feel and the result is spellbinding. I can't think of another person living on this planet that can do this as well, and I've been around for a while! As for this DVD in particular, it's a pity the camera shots were not closer to her on the stage. The dinner party scene was nonsense and should have been cut, but apart from this small slip up it is a fantastic DVD to get if you are a great fan or just an admirer. It sounds superb on DVD, and I only wish there were more songs to hear. The start menu is great as you can select the songs and go straight to your favourite. I recommend anyone to purchase this and witness the incomparable Shirley Bassey, I love her!!
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Before I go into my opinion: the title of this dvd and the pictures on the front and back sleeve have NOTHING to do with the performance on the disc which was recorded at the Diamonds Awards Concert in Antwerp in 1997. It is NOT the ITV show "An Audience With Shirley Bassey", whence the cover picture was taken from.
She has horrible short red hair and a white gown, a fitted top and loose see-through bits made to look like a long skirt, and for the last two bumbers she wears a cheap-looking white fur coat with a silver interior.
After seeing many many live videos on utube by our Dame, this is one of the less intriguing of them all. I found her interpretations to be not the best at all. It's like she was putting the oomph on the last or second-to-last letters/syllables of the sentences, which is personally, annoying, especially when the songs as they are meant to be sung and usually performed by her are exectuted differently. It can be a breath of fresh air if she does it to one or two songs, but she's doing it too often here. She does smile and kids around a lot which is very nice, and totally professional considering the bigger part of the front audience are puppets with no expressions and clap with a bpm of 5. Kudos to her for that.
However, it failed to entertain me as the websurfing has until now, this being my first full-length concert watched on a tv screen and with hifi sound. Hopefully some better performances have been or will be released.
I was happy to see that she closed the show with I AM WHAT I AM which is not listed on the setlist on the box (but then again pretty much all of the sleeve info is wrong).
The concert itself is about an hour long and is broken into bits with some sort of making of in between a couple of songs, and interviews which are nice.
She has horrible short red hair and a white gown, a fitted top and loose see-through bits made to look like a long skirt, and for the last two bumbers she wears a cheap-looking white fur coat with a silver interior.
After seeing many many live videos on utube by our Dame, this is one of the less intriguing of them all. I found her interpretations to be not the best at all. It's like she was putting the oomph on the last or second-to-last letters/syllables of the sentences, which is personally, annoying, especially when the songs as they are meant to be sung and usually performed by her are exectuted differently. It can be a breath of fresh air if she does it to one or two songs, but she's doing it too often here. She does smile and kids around a lot which is very nice, and totally professional considering the bigger part of the front audience are puppets with no expressions and clap with a bpm of 5. Kudos to her for that.
However, it failed to entertain me as the websurfing has until now, this being my first full-length concert watched on a tv screen and with hifi sound. Hopefully some better performances have been or will be released.
I was happy to see that she closed the show with I AM WHAT I AM which is not listed on the setlist on the box (but then again pretty much all of the sleeve info is wrong).
The concert itself is about an hour long and is broken into bits with some sort of making of in between a couple of songs, and interviews which are nice.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
A great DVD, clear pictures and sound. Shirley Bassey is amazing. Her presentation, showmanship and singing are exactly what you would expect from someone called 'Diva' to produce. This is what she did. Charlies Mum.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
"There is nothing like a Dame" especially if it is Shirley Bassey
Dame Shirley has been nothing less than utterly fantastic. I can never tire of hearing her voice (with that very special Welsh accent which she in no way tries to hide) Unlike... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Sandy the Bootneck (RM)
Shirley Bassey - Divas are Forever [DVD] [2008]
A DVD of some of Shirley Bassey's greatest hits that proved yet again just how brilliant she is. Unfortunately, after every couple of songs the viewer is taken behind the scenes,... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Alan Lewis
A diamond herself
Love Shirley Bassey & could listen to her all night-obviously the songs are all we've heard her sing before but you can't take it away from the lass, she's a star!
Published 7 months ago by Mooestone
poor
this would have been a good dvd but the quality was very poor.
sound is very poor has is the play back. never again!
sound is very poor has is the play back. never again!
Published 16 months ago by dave
BASSEY DVD
SHE LOVED THE DVD ALL THE CLASSICS AND MORE
GETTING FED AS IT'S ALWAYS ON
'MY LIFE'
PROMPT DELIVERY MANY THANKS. I THINK!
GETTING FED AS IT'S ALWAYS ON
'MY LIFE'
PROMPT DELIVERY MANY THANKS. I THINK!
Published on 19 Jan 2010 by K. Ranson
Dame Shirley On Tour
A great DVD for Bassey fans, I liked the behind the scenes but the concert could have been without interuptions. Read more
Published on 13 Oct 2009 by Pauline Wootton
Our Shirley
This is a good DVD of our Shirley's Music, she certainly can still balst out those tunes and hit those notes. Read more
Published on 7 Mar 2008 by G. Mccourt
gets better with age
just like a good wine our shirl gets better with age. her live dvds are much better than her c.ds as a live audience seems to bring out the best of her. Read more
Published on 21 Sep 2007 by C. N. Windsor
THE MOST EXCITING VIDEO MUSIC I HAVE EVER SEEN
REALLY A DIVA. YOU CAN SEE PROPELLERHEADS AND MANY STARS IN THIS VIDEO. IT IS AN INCREDIBE PERFORMANCE OF SHIRLEY WHO TEACHS EVERYONE THE MENANING OF THE WORD -DIVA-
Published on 13 Jan 2001 by MACELLARI, Anibal Carlos
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