While she may not recognize every face in the crowd during her free, annual Christmas concert at Lansdowne Centre, Richmond’s well-known and much-loved children’s entertainer still experiences plenty of familiarity in return as the audience — often spanning multiple generations, from toddlers to their grandparents — sings along to her songs.
This year’s show on Nov. 19, billed as her Holiday Delight Family Concert, will be her 22nd, giving it plenty of history.
“Oh my, it must be that long,” said Diamond when the News contacted her on Monday morning. “I got this started back in the 1990s. Time certainly goes flying along and it’s been an annual event that I love looking forward to each and every year.”
Much of that has to do with the make up of the audience.
“It’s the perfect audience,” she said, “because the grandparents know the music, the parents do, as well. And then you’ve got the younger ones who are just learning my songs in daycares, preschools and elementary schools because my music is being widely taught.”
But one of the best outcomes of this melange of demographics is the interconnectedness it manifests.
“The look on the little kids’ faces is priceless when they see the grown ups beside them singing along in full voice,” Diamond said. “And the little ones say, ‘I know the same song, too.’
“That’s very gratifying.”
So is the opportunity to be able to play alongside her adult son, Matt, plus her bass player, Lee Oliphant.
“Having those two, it brings such a strong musical element to the concert that, along with the participation aspect with both kids and adults, makes it very special,” she said.
Helping it be an inclusive show is the venue — the kiosk court in the southwest section of Lansdowne Centre — the same spot she’s performed each year.
“It’s a great, wide open space,” Diamond said, adding the idea for the show got rolling when a friend of hers working in the mall’s events planning department back in the early 1990s asked her to come and perform.
“We had such a good crowd that first year that it’s been going annually ever since.”
Diamond’s career has also showed no signs of slowing down after being diagnosed with breast cancer roughly three years ago.
“I’ve been so busy,” she said. “I was in Los Angeles recently to do a large conference for early childhood educators from across the U.S. and around the world, including China, where there’s been interest for me to go there and do workshops for children in English.”
