Sheena Easton performs at the Downey Theatre last Saturday night. (Photo by John Sherrard).

DOWNEY – The sweet vocals of 80’s star Sheena Easton and the powerful voice of Taylor Dayne rocked the Downey Theater Saturday night (Jan. 14) on the event billed as “Ladies Night.”

With plenty of guys in the house too, the audience found themselves on their feet for both artists, who renewed their biggest hits of the decade of big hair.

Opening the show was Dayne, as she came on the stage saying, “Hello Downey” with her 1988 hit “Prove Your Love,” and yelled out, “Turn it up baby, we want to hear you.”

Dayne, who had a four-piece band behind her, then went right into her second song, “With Every Beat of My Heart,” (1989) saying, “These hits will take you back to 1991.”

“When is the last time you heard that song,” she said to a fan dancing in the front row.

Her powerful voice, which she kept up throughout the 1 ½ hour set, hasn’t lost a beat in her many years of performing.

Dayne, 60, who had 18 distinct hit songs which all specialized in pop and freestyle music, all made it into Billboard Magazine’s top ten. She sang nine of them without slowing down in her high-energy set.

Dayne, who burst on the scene in 1987 with her mega-hit “Tell It to My Heart,” had a Greatest Hits Platinum and Gold Collection that was released in 1995 and released a single titled “Please” in 2020. Many fans were excited to hear of her new music.

Her third song of the night, “Heart of Stone” was off her second studio album, “Can’t Fight Fate” (1989) and was released in 1990. She yelled out, “I think you know this song.” And the crowd reacted.

Her energy for each song never waned throughout the set and leading in to her fourth song, “I’ll Always Love You,” (1988) she explained “…when this song came out, it changed the landscape of everything.”

In 1988 she was nominated for the “Best R&B Vocal Performance of the Year” at The Grammy’s for that song, along with such heavyweights as Anita Baker (winner) and Vanessa Williams. She also received a nomination that year for “Best Pop Vocal Performance” for “Tell It to My Heart.”

With a resounding rock and roll start by lead guitarist Carlyle Barritoe to her 1989 release, “I’ll Be Your Shelter,” Taylor, who was adorned in a short tight green dress with black high-top boots, found her way into the audience strutting through the middle row of the orchestra seats.

It was her most resounding song of the night which had everyone on their feet.

Just like that, Dayne toned down the mood on the next song, “Love Will Lead You Back” (1989), as the crowd reacted with the first three notes by the keyboard player.

It seemed to be a very emotional song for Dayne, as the audience gave her a standing ovation when it was over.

Without hesitation, she went right into her highly successful “Soul Dancing” album (1993) with a couple of high energy House, Dance-Pop songs, which had the audience in a frenzy. She concluded the two songs with “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love” and danced her way across the stage back and forth a couple of times before exiting.

From backstage Dayne yells out, “You want some more?”

With everyone standing, she concluded with “Tell It to My Heart,” and was heard saying, “We love you Downey.”

From there, Dayne left the stage and a few minutes later she was in the lobby signing autographs and taking selfies.

Dayne’s longtime drummer Jeffrey Suttles talked about her energy and voice that hasn’t missed a beat all these years.

“(The crowd) is like that because of the voice that she has,” said Suttles, of the crowd’s enthusiasm. “She has an amazing, powerful voice. She sings in the original keys. Most of the time when (singers) get up in age, they drop the keys. She sings in the original key. She’s opera-trained, so she knows how to take care of her voice.

“I love her and she’s like a sister to me and I have been with her for 34 years.”

Suttles has also played in Sheena Easton’s band at times through the years.

Just a few minutes after Dayne’s opening set ended, the sweet sounds of two-time Grammy award winner Sheena Easton took the stage with a more low-key show at times.

Easton, who is from Scotland and has sold over 20 million records worldwide, opened her set with “Strut,” an upbeat, dance-oriented song from her 1984 album titled, “A Private Heaven.”

Backed by a four-piece band, Easton, who likes to cover songs in her performances, sang a popular hit made famous by Dionne Warwick in the 60’s – “(There’s) Always something there to Remind Me” (1967).

She then took a few minutes to talk about her career, after taking a sip of the traditional cup of tea, saying “……I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’ll be 64 in April. I bring it up because 45 years I’ve been doing this. It’s the collaborations that I’ve done. The most famous collaboration is with Prince. I love a Prince ballad.”

Easton, who talked highly of Prince and her collaborations, then sang two ballads that Prince wrote. The second song, “Nothing Compares 2 U”, written for Sinead O’Connor that became a big hit, was one of the highlights of the night.

The duet, performed with singer Brandon Nix, was an energized rendition of the song with a sax solo that was one of the highlights of the song.

Nix and Easton, who have performed together for the last eight years, were a great team performing these duets.

Before their next two duets, Easton talked more of her changes in song styles.

“I was doing lady-like songs and in the crowd, people started yelling out, “Do some sexy stuff.”

And before you know it, Easton appeared in Prince’s concert film, “Sign o’ the Times” and she sang duet vocals with Prince on his hit “U Got the Look.” It led to a No. 2 hit in the US and garnered a Grammy nomination.

Easton and Nix went right into the Prince hit, which was followed by the Kenny Rogers 1984 hit “We’ve Got Tonight,” which was a cover of the Bob Seger song.

Nix, along with Easton’s beautiful smooth vocals performed a very emotional rendition of the hit that reached No. 6 on the Billboard Top 100.

Nearing the end of the show, Easton finished with a flare with her 1983’s “Telefone,” followed with her two biggest hits, “Morning Train (Nine to Five)” and the James Bond theme song, “For Your Eyes Only” (1981) to close the show.

“We had a blast up here tonight Downey,” Easton said.

Easton’s band was Brian Treola, keyboard/vocals, Jake Langley, guitar/vocals, George Bryant, drums/musical director, Tony Quintilliani, Sax and Nix, vocals.

What they said:

Downey sisters Cathy Sanchez and Patty Estrada:

Cathy Sanchez: “It’s wonderful. It’s like bringing a little bit of your past coming down memory lane and just reliving that. (Taylor Dayne) looks fantastic. It was really nice and local and feel like it’s more personal here at the theater. It was awesome when (Dayne) walked through the crowd.”

Patty Estrada: “I went to high school here in Downey to Pius X. I was a senior when a lot of (Taylor Dayne) music was out. (Saturday) was like a walk down memory lane. It was like my anthem to all of our events and parties in my early college years.

I loved the fact that it is here in a small venue. This is an awesome venue. I have all of her music.”

Jennifer Gould, Huntington Beach: “(Taylor) is definitely still the sex pot that she was way back in the 80’s. Still the same strong voice with a lot of power in her voice.

Sheena knew how to work the crowd and entertain the audience. I was really surprised. I think she’s very seasoned. She touched on more ballads, which is fine, I loved it.

I think a lot of people do expect Sheena to do more ballads. When you think about what she ended on, that’s like her biggest song, “For Your Eyes Only” for the Bond movie.”

James Gould, Huntington Beach: “(Taylor Dayne) had a lot of energy and people enjoyed it. Sheena, who I’ve listened to in the past, has four or five songs that are good and she did a lot of covers, which I thought was smart.”

Dave Miner, Tustin: “(Taylor Dayne) did an incredible show. To perform like that, it was an amazing show.”

Ken Humenski, Downey: “They (Easton and Dayne) were fantastic. (Dayne) is high energy and was very exciting.”

Ladies Night concert brings the 80's back to Downey Theatre