She is back but she has never really been away.
In a rare performance for the southern city, Suzanne Prentice and Carl Doy will be singing at the Ascot Park Hotel in Invercargill for a special Mother’s Day weekend dinner and show.
For Prentice, the performance is especially significant as it is her first time headlining a show in Invercargill for nearly three decades.
Still an active performer, most of her work had been outside of Invercargill and when performing here, it was as part of a bigger cast, she said.
"It’s going to be nice to come back and do something in Invercargill. I think a lot of people remember me for the little girl that used to sing the country songs ...
"While there’s going to be some country songs in there, there’s going to be some new songs that people will have never heard me sing."
Prentice said her music covered new genres, as well as her country roots.
"It’s not all country any more — travelling internationally, you do have to broaden your repertoire, so I think that’s great for me."
Prentice has sung alongside international greats such as Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers and The Beach Boys, and in 1994 she was awarded an OBE for her services to music.
Instrumentalist and producer Doy, a close friend of Prentice, who has performed alongside her several times throughout the years, will also be joining her on stage for a rare appearance in the southern city.
Doy, who was awarded an ONZM in 2009, has mostly made his career outside of New Zealand, performing alongside the likes of Ronan Keating,
B.B. King and Shirley Bassey. He even made an appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s Christmas Special.
"It’s going to be lovely to have Carl here because I didn’t think Invercargill would get the opportunity to see him again, so that’s great in itself," she said.
The show at Ascot Park Hotel on May 13 will be the first in a series of shows around the country to raise funds for Hospice Southland.
