"It's perfect for me. If I'm singing Billie Holiday then I am Billie Holliday. They call me a jazz singer but I do a lot of cabaret within that. When I do Tina Turner, I put on the wig and the whole bit. And when I do Josephine Baker I've got all the feathers and stuff, so that's the way I perform. It's theater, comedy, song and dance."
She also sees herself as an ambassador of African-Americans and tells the story about the time she went to a local dance studio. "A lot of the time people here think Americans are just white. I'm a black American and because I was black they said, `Could you do some hip hop for us?'
"I mean I'm 50 but that didn't stop me. And now I've got a rap thing and a techno thing coming out too called Superwoman 2004, a remake of an '80s hit and a hip hop song Bad Boys with DJ Jerry. "There's this line: `Taiwan's new flava, the Black Pearl of Asia.' That's me."
For her performance tomorrow the multi-talented singer will be covering old cabaret songs and "bringing a touch of Broadway and Las Vegas to town."
For your information :
Who: "The Black Pearl of Asia"
Where: The Living Room: 3F, 8 Nanjing E Rd, Sec 5, Taipei, (
Cost: NT$450, includes drink. A dinner set beginning at 7pm is NT$900.
When: Tomorrow (June 12) and June 26.
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