Venus Nights – a musical extravaganza celebrating women in music and raising money for charities.

Outstanding female musicians are donating their time to create a one-night event at the Hippodrome Casino, one of London’s few remaining Victorian music halls and the jewel-box of London’s Leicester Square.

The aim of Venus Nights is to increase awareness and recognition of women working in music by hosting musical performances and collaborations – and to raise funds for women’s and music charities.

This year’s event, on 30 March, takes place in the Hippodrome’s luscious Matcham Room, which has a history of stellar performances – including Judy Garland’s first and last.

And in 2014 the musicians are Scarlett Rae (aka Andee Price); Maiuko; Emma Divine; Suzanne Turner; Shola Dayo; Diana De Cabarrus;  Katy Windsor; Fiona McElroy; Vicky Cowes; Francesca Shaw and Natalie Verhaegen.

They will honour Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Eartha Kitt and Peggy Lee.

Sister RosettaTharpe, ‘The Godmother of Rock and Roll’, was raised performing gospel music at the Baptist church where her mother was an evangelist preacher.

She was a powerful story-telling, evangelistic blues shouter with a stout command of her guitar and performance delivery.

Her 1944 hit song ‘Strange Things Happening Every Day‘ has been cited as being the “first rock and roll record” (Wald).

Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and many others have named Sister Rosetta Tharpe as a strong influence on their work, yet she lay in an unmarked grave for many years after her early death until her 2008 induction into the Blues Hall of Fame inspired fundraising efforts for a Philadelphia grave marker for this extraordinarily influential artist.

Singer and actress Earth Mae Keith – Eartha Kitt – was of mixed-race (African, Cherokee, and Caucasian) parentage in South Carolina, USA.

After working in a factory but taking dance lessons, she joined a dance troupe which toured the world, and landed her in Paris.

Eartha had left her dancing gig and was singing in nightclubs when Orson Welles saw and cast her. She went on to perform on Broadway, land a recording contract, and appear in a long list of films – most famously as the Extravagantly ‘purr-fect’ Catwoman in the 1967 Batman.

Eartha’s political anti-war outspokenness was the cause of her being blacklisted in the USA for a decade. She formed the Kittsville Youth Foundation in Watts and continued to speak openly and bravely for civil rights despite government surveillance. She has had her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame since 1960.

Norma Deloris Egstrom sang on local radio stations to a modest degree of success before changing her name to Peggy Lee, and performed in clubs while still a teenager.

She performed around the USA, developing her subtle, sophisticated delivery as a means of competing with noisy crowds, before impressing and then joining with Benny Goodman’s Orchestra.

An active lyricist and musical collaborator, she enjoyed a 60-year career in music, radio, film, and television, a number of successful albums, three Grammys, an induction into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame – and inspired the self-assured Muppet character Miss Piggy.

Among many other awards, Peggy Lee received recognition in the form of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Peggy Lee painted and wrote poetry in her later years and performed into the 1990s, even from her wheelchair. She died in 2002.

Venus Nights erupted in 2013. Hard work, commitment, and volunteer efforts of the musicians, organisers, and venue resulted in a fabulous show and raised £1100 for charities.

Venus Nights was the conception of Big Mamma’s Door frontwoman Fiona McElroy, the actress and singer who brought her passion and experience from VDAY Ireland, producing the sell out ‘Vagina Monologues’ in four Irish cities for charity, to the London stage.

Her vision was initially to create a performance for International Women’s Day and raise funds for charity.

However, Venus Nights reaches beyond International Women’s Day.

And the aim is to organise further events and provide more performance opportunities and exposure for professional women musicians while raising awareness and funds for women’s and music charities … and, of course, to provide stellar entertainment!

Proceeds from the evening will go to Eaves, Nordoff Robins and Smart Works.

For tickets, click here.