New Year's Eve With Belinda Carlisle

Our Lips Are Sealed, We Got the Beat, and a countdown at the end of it.

Belinda Carlisle has been relevant for nearly four decades, which in pop is close to unheard of. She co-founded the Go-Go's and sang lead on a debut album, Beauty and the Beat, that went multi platinum and effectively set the tone of 1980s pop. Our Lips Are Sealed and We Got the Beat became anthems, and the band's self written catalogue quietly demolished what a girl group was allowed to be.

When the Go-Go's went their separate ways in 1985 after three albums that also gave the world Vacation and Head Over Heels, Carlisle went solo immediately. Working with producer Michael Lloyd she released Belinda in 1986 and had a gold certified hit straight out of the gate with Mad About You, which went to number three and lived on MTV. Worldwide sales across her career run past 15 million albums and singles.

What has kept her going is the voice: gutsy, emotionally charged, and edgy in a way that made the pop records land harder than they had any right to.

It's New Year's Eve. An 8pm start, which leaves you the rest of the night.

Where to go. The Playhouse is at 80 East Ridge Road in Ridgefield, behind the town hall, and it is an easy run in from anywhere in lower Fairfield County.