Minnelli's first film appearance was at the age of three in the final scene of the 1949 musical In the Good Old Summertime, starring her mother and Van Johnson. Minnelli started performing at age 16, in 1963, in an Off-Broadway revival of the musical Best Foot Forward, for which she received good notices. The next year, her mother invited Minnelli to perform with her at the London Palladium. The audience loved her, launching her musical career. She returned to Broadway at 19, and won a 1965 Tony Award for Flora the Red Menace. Minnelli would also receive Tony Awards for The Act in 1978 and a special Tony in 1974. She was nominated in 1984 for The Rink but lost to her costar, Chita Rivera.
The film The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), in which Minnelli starred as a love-seeking teenage misfit, garnered the young actress her first Academy Award nomination. In 1972, Minnelli won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Sally Bowles in the movie version of Cabaret, along with Joel Grey who won an Oscar reprising his role from the original Broadway production (that of the Emcee).
Minnelli has the distinction of being one of the few Academy Award winners whose parents are both Academy Award nominees. She has also won an Emmy Award for the 1972 TV special Liza with a Z. Minnelli received a 1990 Grammy Legend Award. She received Golden Globe Awards for Cabaret and for the TV movie A Time to Live.
Minnelli, like her mother, is known for her powerful vocal style, as in her trademark songs "Cabaret" and "Theme from New York, New York". Minnelli's original version of the latter, for the film in which she was a co-star with Robert DeNiro, preceded Frank Sinatra's successful cover version (for his Trilogy album), by two years.
After her performance as leading lady to Dudley Moore in 1981's Arthur, Minnelli made fewer, and fewer successful, film appearances.
She returned to Broadway in 1997, taking over the title role in the musical Victor/Victoria, replacing Julie Andrews. In his review, New York Times critic Ben Brantley commented, "her every stage appearance is perceived as a victory of show-business stamina over psychic frailty... She asks for love so nakedly and earnestly, it seems downright vicious not to respond."
Following her 2002 wedding to David Gest, Minnelli and Gest signed with the American cable network VH1 to star in their own reality series, but production of the series was cancelled at the last minute.
In 2004 and 2005 she appeared as a recurring guest star on the critically acclaimed TV sitcom Arrested Development as the lover of sexually and socially awkward Buster Bluth.
On January 1, 2006, she sang "New York, New York" at the second inauguration of New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Other famous performances were at the 1978 Studio 54 party honoring New York City's revival, at which a guest was Mayor Ed Koch; the reopening of the Statue of Liberty on July 4, 1986; and at a 2001 New York Mets baseball game that was the metro area's first major sporting event after the September 11 attacks.
In 2013, she guest-starred on the NBC musical drama Smash, where she performed the number A Love Letter From the Times. She also reprised her role in the fourth season of Arrested Development.
Love for Sale
Liza Minnelli Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Appetizing young love for sale
Love that's fresh and still unspoiled
Love that's only slightly soiled
Love for sale
Who will buy? Come on now
Who would like to sample my supply?
For a trip to paradise?
Love for sale
Let the poets pipe off love
In their childish way
You know, I know every type of love
Better far than they
If you want the thrill of love
I've been through the mill of love
Old love, new love, every love but true love
Love for sale
Appetizing young, young love for sale
If you want to buy my wares
Follow me, climb the stairs
Love for sale
Love, love, love for sale
Love, love, love for sale
Love, love, love for sale
Love, love, love for sale
The song "Love For Sale" by Liza Minnelli is a melancholic number that speaks about the commodification of love. The lyrics of the song describe love as a product that is being sold, with different types of love being available for purchase. The chorus of the song repeatedly asks "Who will buy?" and "Who's prepared to pay the price for a trip to paradise?" It portrays love as a transactional experience in which someone can pay for it to achieve a momentary pleasure that feels like paradise, but ultimately leads to emptiness.
The second stanza of the song criticizes poets, who are often seen as being experts on love. The lyrics claim that the singer knows every type of love better than they do, indicating that the commodification of love has been happening for a long time. The final stanza of the song lists the different types of love the singer has experienced, such as old love and new love, but not true love. This implies that even though love can be bought and sold, it is not genuine.
Line by Line Meaning
Love for sale
The singer is offering love in exchange for money
Appetizing young love for sale
The singer is offering young, attractive love that is desirable
Love that's fresh and still unspoiled
The singer promises that the love being offered is new and pure
Love that's only slightly soiled
The artist admits that some of the love being offered has been tarnished
Who will buy? Come on now
The artist is calling out to potential buyers of the love being offered
Who would like to sample my supply?
The singer is enticing potential buyers to try out the love being offered
Who's prepared to pay the price?
The singer is asking who is willing to pay the cost of the love being offered
For a trip to paradise?
The artist is suggesting that the love being offered can provide a euphoric experience
Let the poets pipe off love
The artist is suggesting that poets write about love, but they cannot match the artist's firsthand experience
In their childish way
The artist is dismissing the simplistic nature of love as portrayed by poets
You know, I know every type of love
The singer is confident in their knowledge about different types of love
Better far than they
The artist believes that they know more about love than poets
If you want the thrill of love
The singer is suggesting that love can be an exciting experience
I've been through the mill of love
The singer has experienced love in all its various forms
Old love, new love, every love but true love
The singer has experienced many different types of love, but not necessarily genuine, true love
If you want to buy my wares
The artist is calling out to potential buyers once more
Follow me, climb the stairs
The artist is leading the way to where the love is being sold
Love, love, love for sale
The singer is repeating the message that love is for sale
Love, love, love for sale
The singer is repeating the message once more for emphasis
Love, love, love for sale
The artist is concluding the message that love is available for purchase
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Capitol CMG Publishing, Spirit Music Group, Unison Rights S.L., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Cole Porter
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
V
on Ring them bells
Handsome señor