SOLD OUT – The Drop: Melissa Manchester

With her 20th album, You Gotta Love the Life, Melissa Manchester celebrates not only 40 years as a GRAMMY award-winning performer and songwriter, but also a renewed independence and vitality.  The melodically diverse collection, which includes guest appearances from Stevie Wonder, Al Jarreau, Keb’ Mo’, Dionne Warwick, Dave Koz, and Joe Sample (in one of his last recordings) is the gifted singer’s first new studio album since 2004’s When I Look Down That Road.  After years of recording for established labels, Manchester bravely took a D-I-Y approach to You Gotta Love the Life, turning to Indiegogo to crowd fund the album. She learned about the fan-funding trend from her students at the University of Southern California, where she teaches about songwriting, performance, and “the life.” Manchester’s career is remarkable not only for its longevity and accomplishments, but for its versatility. Following her stint as a founding member of Bette Midler’s Harlettes, Manchester’s tremendously successful solo career brought her critical and commercial acclaim. The “Midnight Blue” singer received her first GRAMMY nomination for Best Pop Female Vocal Performance in 1979 for the Peter Allen/Carole Bayer Sager-penned “Don’t Cry Out Loud,” winning the GRAMMY in that category four years later for “You Should Hear How She Talks About You.”  With You Gotta Love the Life, Manchester embraces the sum total of her multi-faceted career with verve and vibrancy.  Please welcome Melissa Manchester to the Clive Davis Theater for an interview about her new album, life and career moderated by Vice President of MusiCares and the GRAMMY Foundation Scott Goldman. A special performance will follow.