Belinda Carlisle is revisiting the music that shaped her. On Once Upon a Time in California, her new covers album due later this month, the former Go-Go’s frontwoman pays tribute to the songs and artists that inspired her long before she became a global pop icon.
Speaking to Classic Pop magazine, the 66-year-old singer described the album as a “full-circle moment,” calling the project both personal and reflective. Among the artists she’s covered are The Carpenters and Harry Nilsson, whose songwriting left a lasting mark on her.
“Just to look out and to know that a lot of the songs that I’ve done in my career, Go-Go’s and solo, have had that same effect the music I listened to every single day had on me… And I know that feeling. It’s a magical feeling.”
Carlisle began working on the album back in 2017, slowly narrowing down a massive list of around 80 songs to those that genuinely suited her voice. It wasn’t a simple “sing what you love” exercise. She was selective.
“It wasn’t just as simple as saying, ‘Oh, I’ll sing that. I’ll sing that.’ I mean, because there’s a lot of songs on the list that I love, but it just didn’t suit my voice. And I wasn’t going to try to fit my vocal into a song that didn’t work for me.”
The album arrives after a busy year for Carlisle. She reunited with Go-Go’s bandmates Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock and Kathy Valentine for a mini-tour that included a stop at Coachella, where they shared the stage with Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong. The reunion was brief but meaningful.
“Everybody has their own lives going on but we put everything aside and for two months got to work together. And it was a lot of fun. It was a blast… The response was amazing.”
She was especially heartened to see a new generation of fans singing along.
“The demographic out there was all over the place. And I loved seeing teenagers singing the words to the songs, which is amazing to me.”
Carlisle will tour the UK in September, but beyond that, she’s planning to slow down.
“I’m going to take, I think, next year completely off and then decide what I want to do. I consider myself kind of in semi-retirement, because I don’t really want to tour that much anymore. But I love going into the studio; I think I’ll always do that.”
