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Expert's Experts:
Liza Minnelli, entertainer

30 March 2002 The Financial Times (UK) newspaper

Winner of three Tonys, an Oscar, two Golden Globes and an Emmy, Minnelli is a consummate entertainer. Just married, she performs at the Royal Albert Hall on April 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7. Interview by Colin Brennan.

Charles Aznavour: I wasn't around to see Piaf, but Charles showed me that every song was like a little movie. It wasn't just opening your mouth and singing away like Sinatra. It was acting. Before I saw him do it, I had never, ever, wanted to sing in concerts or night clubs, but he changed all that and I am still learning from him.

John Kander and Fred Ebb: When they did a song for me - John playing and Fred singing it - I thought these are the songs I want to sing, these are songs I understand. I knew I had to work with them and I won my first Tony in their show - Flora, The Red Menace - on Broadway when I was 19.

Mikhail Baryshnikov: Baryshnikov's originality floored me. Everything he danced was different and more wonderful than it had ever been danced before. He was small and muscular for a ballet star but on stage he was the tallest man in the world.

The Beatles: As a teenager, I was so influenced by rock'n'roll, and, at a time when everything was changing, their songs were mysterious, marvellous and breaking new ground. I saw them on TV, I bought their albums and I really listened to every word.

Robert DeNiro and Vicente Minnelli: Between them, they really taught me to act. Bobby, by his dedication and being so true to the characters he played, and my father, by the way he told me what acting was when I was eight. "Acting is hearing something for the first time, and saying something for that first time," he said. A simple answer but also profound. For years I forgot it and then it came back to me.

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