US singer-songwriter Paul Simon will give a live concert in Taipei for the first time ever next month.
The 71-year-old Simon will perform at the Taipei International Convention Center on March 20, concert promoter Very Aspect Culture Group said yesterday.
The group said it had been trying to get Simon to perform in Taipei for years.
Simon is best known for his collaboration with Art Garfunkel in the 1960s and then for a long solo career that peaked in 1975 with the album Still Crazy After All These Years and then in 1986 with the hit CD Graceland.
Simon began his musical career in high school and he and Garfunkel produced a single as seniors in 1957 called Hey, Schoolgirl that made the US Billboard chart’s top 100.
During their time as a duo, they had several No. 1 singles — including Bridge Over Troubled Water and The Sound of Silence — and saw their popularity hit an all-time high when their songs were featured on the soundtrack of box-office smash The Graduate in 1967.
The duo, famed for their vocal harmonies, split up in 1970 over personal differences and artistic disagreements, and Simon began a successful solo career.
Still Crazy After All These Years, released in October 1975, became Simon’s first No. 1 solo album, but his career fell somewhat flat after that until he found inspiration in new musical styles — an inspiration that gained expression when he went to South Africa in the mid-1980s.
The result was the groundbreaking Graceland, which generated three hit singles, a five-year-long tour, two Grammy awards and sold 14 million copies.
Simon has earned 12 Grammys during his career for his solo and collaborative work, as well as having been given a Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2001, he was inducted into the US’ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2006, he was featured on Time magazine’s list of the “100 People Who Shaped the World.”
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