By Sunday night I drove down to Macon Georgia to see Taylor Dayne perform at the Grand Opera House. Taylor (Can I call her the OG Taylor?) has an amazing voice. She performed for a full two hours, belting out all her hits and really engaging with the audience. The concert was fun and of course I love visiting with my brother and his wife (and their two nutty dogs).
I’m not a groupie, so I had to do some digging on Taylor prior to the show…and let me tell you I am impressed. Her first hit was her debut in 1987 ‘Tell it to my heart’. My brother remembers seeing her perform at the Limelight in Atlanta. She talked about opening for Michael Jackson in Europe and meeting Prince for the first time. She is 60+ years young…and can definitely out sing, out dance, out perform people half her age. I personally am impressed with her outfit choice and her thigh high silver platform boots. If you have a chance to see her perform, do it!
Just some surprising life lessons from the concert:
- I need her fan! She had two little red fans (you can see them in a couple of pictures below) that blew her hair all over the place. I thought to myself ‘I need one of those’. Besides keeping her cool, it made her look really cool (like part of a music video) – and don’t we all need that in life? Wouldn’t conference calls be more fun?
- Be grateful – Multiple times in the concert she talked about how grateful she is for the life she’s had and continues to have. She talked about singing as a gift and always wanting to share that with others.
- Watch your health/take care of yourself – I read an article online about her recent battle with colon cancer. Doctors were able to find and treat successfully because she had regular colonoscopies, which are nasty (well they aren’t nasty – it’s the prep work that is dreadful). As icky as the preparation is, she likely saved her life.
- Connect – she really CONNECTED with the crowd! She took the effort to read up on Macon and the musicians from Middle Georgia (even called out Greg Allman as one of her favorites). I thought that was super nice. She pulled up some folks onto the stage and then at one point she came down from the stage and danced around with everyone in the aisles. Think about how much more enjoyable life is when you connect with others.
- Have fun – she clearly was having fun on stage and wanted to make sure we were having fun too – singing along with her and dancing.
- Thank the band – toward the end of the concert she stopped the music and introduced each band member and acknowledged how long she knew each one (10+ years for all of them) and how much she appreciated them. It is so important to recognize and call out those who help you.
- Stay busy – if you look at her bio, she has lots of projects kicking off now when many folks are slowing down. I LOVE that!
- Family is important – but…if you also look at her bio, you’ll see a gap where she stopped performing and focused on raising her family. Kudos to all who put family first.
- Give back – This concert benefitted Rescue Mission. You can learn more about this caring organization here.
