Linda Ronstadt held a concert in South Africa in 1983!!!

Yes but she only sang songs white people hated, so it's OK.

At first I thought Dawn French gained back the weight she lost.

How many South Africans did she sexually harass?

So what? South Africa was wrongly demonized, and she was just an artist playing a concert anyway.

Love your pic, OP lolol

[quote] South Africa was wrongly demonized

And so was the Nazi Germany, right?!

what a hog!

Posting that photo was punishment enough. I didn't recognize her, if that's even her.

R6 = ignorant moron

There were others, too. I think Queen. Forget the others.

And how many popular entertainers perform and holiday in homo-murdering Dubai?

And yet Paul Simon invited her to sing on Graceland...

She's no Dusty Springfield.

So did Queen and Elton John.

When Ronstadt found out that she was on the United Nations list of performers who had ignored a cultural boycott of South Africa, her response was:

'The last place for a boycott is in the arts,' Linda Ronstadt has said of the controversy over her lucrative South Africa tour. 'I don't like being told I can't go somewhere.'

R14 And Liza with a Z! But I guess Ronstadt's case is more shocking since she's always been so socially conscious. But I forgive her - a check for half a million dollars would make anyone go a bit crazy.

As Nancy Reagan once said (about being paid $2 Million for a one day appearance in Japan)

Well that was the amount offered. What should of I said, I'd do it for less?

Linda Ronstadr and her family are among the most generous with their money. Her home city of Tucson and the surrounding areas are the recipients, and they are better off for them.

My question back when all this happened was why was Linda the main target? Sure seems like good old woman-hating.

Queen, Elton John, Frank Sinatra, Julio Iglesias, Black Sabbath, Boney M, Rod Stewart, Dionne Warwick and Tina Turner – who played the Sun City casino resort during South Africa’s apartheid era.

[quote]And how many popular entertainers perform and holiday in homo-murdering Dubai?

Not only that but they also receive GLAAD awards, like Mariah Carey and Demi Lovato

Wow. I am so pointlessly outraged by this I am going to completely change my musical and political tastes and make countless posts to this thread.

Linda Ronstadt one spoke out against George W. Bush during a concert and the right has never forgiven her; she's on their enemies list forever. Thus the motivation for this irrelevant thread.

You think that's bad? She threw a fishbone at me!

I, I, I, ain't gonna play sun city.

This was a big deal at the time.

The story is here. She filled in for Sinatra at the last minute as a big boxing match was falling apart.

I remember this time well. It was strangely slow for people to get that South Africa was among the worst of the worst in many ways. By 1985 things had pretty much solidified in the industry. Yes, Ronstadt was grabbing the bread and no doubt realized it quickly.

But as for her looks, her Parkinson's is bad enough so that she can't sing and the drugs have long been fucking her up physically, as those drugs do. Her last album was wonderful.

AIN'T GONNA PLAY SUN CITY!!!!!!!!

I read that was 500.00 and still thought she was overpaid for the gig.

yet she so famously called out Robin Quivers on The Tonight Show.

She is white adjacent so, of course, she is a racist

Sally Snowflake

Trust fund victim, trans, post modern, gender, feminist and islamic studies major. Preferred pronouns: zit, zits

Quincy Jones "joked" that this was reason she was excluded from We Are The World.

The Paul Simon Graceland gig was to help restore her image.

That was a long time ago - 35 years ago. Let it go.

Don't let a terrible anger chain you to the past.

Linda was very pretty back in the day.

Linda called Rolling Stone's outrage "The height of hypocrisy" because many of the ads they ran were from companies who had businesses in South Africa at the time. It effectively ended the relationship they had (Linda was a favorite of Rolling Stone at one point)

I understood the outrage over Sun City, but the staunch moral superiority the rock press put on was a bit ridiculous considering the blatant racism that was still going on in the US at the time, some of what Linda mentions here . Of course, Springsteen was behind it, and the rock critics were always slobbering his cock back then.

R34 Well she's a fat Cunt now!

OP and R36 You're both jackasses for looking for the most unflattering photos of Linda Ronstadt to post. Linda was quite attractive until almost 60. The weight gain is mostly due to her immobility resulting from Parkinson disease.

I don't think we can expect celebrities to make good decisions. Kudos to the ones who were aware and adhered to the cultural boycott. The ones who didn't have, and should continue to, pay the price. Ronstadt's obituary may indicate that she played SA during apartheid. She is a remarkable talent and probably now a much more evolved person.

R35, Springsteen wasn't behind it. Steve Van Zandt wrote the song "Sun City".

It wasn't as simple as that. Some performers felt it was important to play because they were playing to integrated concerts which was a big deal at the time. There is more than one way to make changes. Sometimes engagement is a valid and effectice approach.

So without all the facts I still refuse to condemn the performers who chose something other than a boycott.

He was in Springsteen's band and Springsteen sung on it.

Whitney Houston would have dressed her down for doing that.

R42 Whitney was too busy doing drugs. The End.

Steve van Zandt put out some great music during that time. I had an album of his that I loved listening to.

[quote]It effectively ended the relationship they had (Linda was a favorite of Rolling Stone at one point)

I imagine this was made easier by the fact that Linda turned her back on rock music around this time. I know she says that she only found her voice when she started singing standards and canciones, but I still prefer her 70s albums. So many people have done more interesting versions of the songs on those Nelson Riddle albums.

Fuck off, r43.

Let's remember Linda at her best.

Again

More

.....

She donated all the money to the ANC.

R46 Bet you wish that you looked this good!

I'm gonna say it again...she's no good, she's no good,she's no good, baby, she's no good.

R53, You're wrong.

I love that version, R54. It's a little rawer than the arrangement on the album.

SHE ALSO DOESN'T BELIEVE DYLAN FARROW!!!!!!!!

R56, LOL!

When I was in high school all the straight guys had the hots for Linda. They bought her albums because they were attracted to her. She did a show at the Anaheim Stadium and man could her voice fill up a stadium then.

Linda Ronstadt was livid while there. She said, "I don't mind being mistaken for an elephant, rhino or even a buffalo but I am NOT a hippopotamus.

That's hilarious!

How many South Africans did she sexually harass, R3?

More like, how many South Africans did she eat??

R51 bet she took a fat tax write off too!

A lot of the entertainers who performed at Sun City (Sinatra, Liza, Sammy, Dolly, Tina, Elton, Dionne, Stephanie Mills, Ann Margret, etc) apologized and donated their paychecks to the ANC and other anti apartheid foundations

Linda Ronstadt however... she did nothing...

I watched R54 video and I can't now NOT see Linda as Sarah Sanders.

I bet it was this, r44.

r63 Linda was the only smart one.

Look at South Africa now.

R28, I remember when that song came out! I still love it.

Linda desperately needed the money. She's nearly broke now with Parkinson's.

She never wrote any songs, and that's where most of the royalties go long after you have stopped selling your own albums.

Many big artists now purposely add their name to the author lines specifically to get the royalties that older singers never got.

[Quote]Look at South Africa now.

Yes.

A functioning democracy.

A vibrant, free press.

An independent judiciary.

Gay rights enshrined in the constitution.

Major exporter of fruit, wine, minerals.

Home to Daimler-Benz's most productive, highest quality auto assembly plant.

Etc...

Linda cracks herself up. Her encore number for this concert was Desperado (arranged by Riddle) but it's not in this edit.

^ The part I'm talking about begins at 34:07.

I called her...

R69 Keep fucking that chicken, Mr Zuma.

Its a toilet

R73, speaking of Zuma, his own party has finally turned on his corrupt ass and is booting him out of office.

Yet Republicans double down on their support of Trump, whose corruption, treachery and incompetence puts Zuma in the shade.

So which is the real shithole country here, hmm???

Linda has one of the best catalogs ever. She is revered because she has one of the best voices in recording history and also for her fearlessness in taking on a range of genres (pop, Spanish, country, rock, standards). Simply one of the best singers in recording history.