(#34) — Conchita WURST — ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ duet with Shirley Bassey during ORF’s ‘Great Moments’ show’ — November 2015
It’s almost four years since Conchita sang a virtual duet with Shirley Bassey for an ORF TV show called ‘Great Moments‘.
I loved it on the day she performed it. I loved it two years later when I wrote about it for a series of articles called ‘100 best things Conchita has done from 2014 to 2017‘, and I still love it today.
Because here’s the thing about Conchita singing ‘Diamonds Are Forever‘ with Shirley Bassey — it’s ballsy.
But not only ballsy, it’s also a bloody brilliant idea, very cleverly pulled off and a vocal performance that has definitely stood up to the test of time.
Because, sure, while it was obviously done in an attempt to get Shirley Bassey’s attention (Conchita had already written to the British diva after she won Eurovision — read a funny interview with Conchita about that at the Metro newspaper here), it was also done as an homage to Bassey.
And, I believe, a sort of ‘Thank you’ for what the iconic singer meant to Conchita’s creator, Tom Neuwirth, while he was growing up in a very conservative town in Austria.
Particularly as Bassey’s ‘Goldfinger‘ was the song that got him interested in a career in music in the first place.
But why I still think Conchita’s ‘Diamonds Are Forever‘ duet with Shirley Bassey deserves a place on my Conchita WURST’s Top 40 Best Live Performances in the #34 spot is because I wrote an article the day after she performed it.
And almost four years later, everything I said in that article about Conchita is not only what I still believe, she (ie: her creator Tom Neuwirth) has surpassed where even I thought she would be by now. With both voice and artistic genius.
To such an extent that, while this live performance is still one of the best she has pulled off I think, if she were to repeat it today, she would be even better.