007 Travelers report: Diandra & Bond

What: Diandra & Bond
Where: Turku Concert Hall, Turku, Finland
When: On Friday 8th of April 2016


007 Travelers had front row seats at Turku Concert Hall when Diandra performed Bond songs with The Turku Philharmonic Orchestra. The arrangements of the songs by Antti Rissanen and Tero Lindberg. 

The conductor Antti Rissanen welcomed the audience and talked about Bond and Bond songs. First we heard the instrumental versions of "Dr. No - James Bond Theme" (1963) and "The Man with the Golden Gun" (1974). 

Then the star of the evening entered the stage: Diandra! She started with "Goldfinger" (1964) and continued with "Thunderball" (1965), "You Only Live Twice" (1967) and "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971).

Diandra Danielle Flores better known by her stage name Diandra, is a Finnish pop singer who rose to fame as the winner of the sixth season of the Finnish singing competition Idols in 2012. She is the youngest winner of Finland's Idols. Her debut album "Outta My Head" was released in July, 2012.

On the right: Antti Rissanen is one of the most important characters
on the field of Finnish big band music. 

After that we heard "From Russia with Love" (1963) which the orchestra performed without Diandra, but with Tero Lindberg and his Golden Trumpet.

Tero Lindberg is a leading Finnish trumpeter. He has played on numerous records and tours by front-line Finnish artists and many TV programmes

Diandra came back with "Nobody Does It Better" from "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977) and "Moonraker" (1979).

Before the pause the first part of the concert culminated in "Live And Let Die" (1973).

VIDEO: Live and Let Die




After the pause was over, we heard the second part of the concert that consisted of the following Bond songs, all performed by Diandra:


"For Your Eyes Only" (1981)
"All Time High" from the movie "Octopussy" (1983)
"Licence to Kill" (1989)
"GoldenEye" (1995)

Then we heard a great instrumental version of "On Her Majesty Secret Service" (1969) without Diandra.

She came back with "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997) and the next song totally charmed the audience: "You Know My Name" from "Casino Royale" (2006). The cellos were spinning around time to time and the audience was standing and clapping for a long time.

"Skyfall" (2012) was an expected song for this evening also, and rarely heard song "Forever, I Am All Yours" ended the concert. The song was almost about to be a theme song for "Quantum of Solace" (2008). The audience could not stop clapping so Diandra came back once more with the most popular song of the evening "You Know My Name". 


007 Travelers enjoyed the concert!