San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
R&B songstress’ first tour since 1995
“Looking forward to some crazy, lovely,
hang time with my fans . ... Gonna bring
some new music and some special guests.”
Anita Baker, in a statement
Anita Baker is set to embark on her first full tour in 28 years in 2023, playing 15 cities before closing out the limited run of shows at Oakland Arena next December.
It will mark her first concert in the city since she performed at the Paramount Theatre in 1995.
The Grammy-winning R&B singer’s “The Songstress” tour plans to hit Atlanta, New Orleans, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Houston, Dallas and Los Angeles, among other cities. Her Oakland show is scheduled for Dec. 23, 2023.
Tickets went on sale starting at 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, via Ticketmaster.
“Looking forward to some crazy, lovely, hang time with my fans, on tour in 2023,” Baker, who last played the Bay
Area during a 2012 appearance at the Stern Grove Festival in San Francisco, said in a statement. “Gonna bring some new music and some special guests, too.”
The tour marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Baker’s debut album, also called “The Songstress,” which was released in 1983. It marks the first time the 64-year-old has been on a full tour since 1995, and the first time she will
perform her classic hits, including the singles “Giving You the Best That I Got” and “Sweet Love” live since winning back the rights to her masters.
Baker, an eight-time Grammy winner who dominated the R&B charts from the early ’80s to the mid-’90s, earned a Lifetime Achievement Award at the BET Awards in 2018. She used her speech at the time to encourage the artists in the room to keep music alive.
“I would ask that the music be allowed to play, that singers are allowed to sing, and rappers are allowed to rap and poets are allowed to rhyme,” said Baker, who was honored by host Jamie Foxx and presenters Marsha Ambrosius and the Bay Area’s own Ledisi.